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Monday
Jul192010

Gear Review: Tom Bihn Empire Builder

I'm a bit of a bag geek.

I really like briefcases, luggage, messenger bags, backpacks, man purses, and all manner of vaguely embarrassing ways to cart my junk around. I even know where to find cool bags on Etsy, which I am pretty sure could get me kicked out of my fantasy football league.

I have lots of bags, and I admit it is kind of a problem. Particularly when I end up rocking a bag that makes me look like this:

 

 

One briefcase that I've been using for better than a year now, and which poses no such threats to my masculinity, is the Tom Bihn Empire Builder:

 

 

The Empire Builder is the standard bearer in the Tom Bihn briefcase line.

For those who don't geek out over bags, by the way, Tom Bihn is the eponomously-named, Seattle-based company that produces a line of very high quality luggage, briefcases, messenger bags, backpacks and the like. Tom Bihn does a lot right, from the high quality materials to the thoughtful designs to the way they engage their fans online (and a tribe of raving fans, it is).

The Empire Builder has a cavernous interior, which even when filled a laptop in a protective sleeve, leaves room for tons of paper, books, magazines, lunch, toddlers, breadboxes, and basketballs. That is perhaps a slight exaggeration, but the interior is wide, long and tall, and the bag is much more likely to become too heavy rather than too small. Paper-bound lawyers will be happy to know it can accommodate "red well" expandable file folders easily.

There is a slash pocket on the back for magazines and newspapers, as well as a zippered opening that permits it to slide onto the handle and rest above a piece of rolling luggage. The zipper is wide enough to accommodate the handle from almost any brand of luggage. I use Hartmann which features particularly wide handles, and the Empire Builder fits with no problem.

The front flap is a maze of zippered compartments, pen loops, and o-rings on which to clip any number of Tom Bihn zippered pouches, key fobs or what have you. To give you some idea of the capacity, I brought my Empire Builder on a week long trip to the Pacific Northwest and used it to carry my MacBook Pro, my wife's ThinkPad, my iPad, her Kindle, both our iPods, a Verizon Mifi, all of the associated chargers and cords, and still had plenty of room for magazines, and other junk. Why we vacation with all that crap is another matter entirely.

It also kept the contents dry despite repeated exposure to what our Seattle and Vancouver friends cheerfully reminded us was "real Northwest weather." Our next visit will hopefully feature more fake tourist weather.

Despite the weight of the bag fully loaded (which was considerable), my dainty little flower of a wife was able to carry the bag with ease, due mostly to the incredible Absolute shoulder strap. The strap - to borrow a turn of phrase from Steve Jobs - magically incorporates elasticity which creates flex in the bag as one walks with it and reduces the strain on the shoulder. Truly a fantastic strap and worth every penny.

I have only a few misgivings about the bag after having lived with it for all this time:

First and foremost, when the compartments in the front flap are loaded but there is correspondingly less in the cavernous main compartment, the bag falls over on its face. An annoyance that you either get used to or deal with by moving the contents strategically around the bag to balance weight.

Second, the Empire Builder is so tall that it can't fit standing up under the seatback in front of you on a plane, which means it must lay flat or on an angle. Laying it flat or on an angle under the seat it takes up a substantial amount of the room in the space under the seat (where in a more comfortable universe, is where your feet would go).

Last, a lot of the cargo room in the bag is vertical: even fairly fully packed, there is usually room along the top of the contents to lay water bottles, apples, and other non-rectilinear objects. However, I kind of hate placing stuff on top of the other contents that way. The objects placed atop the pile often slide down and between the contents in an ungainly way, making a mess of my OCD packing attempts.

That all said, the Empire Builder is the best briefcase I have ever owned and I recommend it and the rest of the Tom Bihn line enthusiastically to friends, airplane seatmates, people in line at the DMV, and, well you get the idea.

I've heard a lot of people say the Empire Builder is expensive at $170 not including the laptop sleeve or absolute strap, but for the level of build and design quality, craftsmanship, and made-right-here in the US goodness, the bag packs an enormous amount of value.

Since I don't have the patience to meticulously review every inch and feature of the Empire Builder, I'll include a few of the really excellent reviews out there in case you'd like to see more:

The Gadgeteer produced a thorough review of the Empire Builder with great pics.

My friend and fellow TECHSHOW Board Member Brett Burney penned a strong review a couple of years ago.

Tom Bihn has a fantastic Youtube channel with tons of videos which I have found to be, by far, the most illuminating way to check out a bag without actually going hands on.

One of the great videos is embedded below to give you an idea of what is on the channel:

In summary, the Empire Builder is a great bag for the lawyer who likes to carry a lot of tech gear and/or files. Definitely worth a look if you are in the market for a laptop bag or briefcase.

Wednesday
Jul142010

What Will Be Your Legacy?

I've been interested in the idea of legacy for a long time, probably since I first read Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

The topic became a lot more concrete and real to me a few months ago when my dad passed away. As I have dealt with my own grief over his loss and tried to help my mom do the same, I have also been afforded a different view of my father. I got to see the parts of his life that didn't belong to me, my brother, or my mother, but that he shared with the world through his work.

My dad was a teacher for 30 some years, most of which were spent teaching biology in the same community college that he first attended as a student years before. In the days leading up to his funeral and in the weeks and months that haved passed since, I've had the bittersweet experience of learning about all of the students whose lives my dad touched. It's been by turns moving, inspiring, and a bit melancholy, to be perfectly honest.

Most of all I've felt proud.

In our work - as lawyers, bar association executives or what have you - it is unfortunately easy to be consumed by the daily minutiae of our jobs, to the detriment of taking a longer, broader view of the impact our lives and careers make. We have to pay mortgages, answer client calls, and attend to the urgencies of the moment -- these things demand our attention. But they are not all that is worth our attention.

Thinking about one's legacy is like listening to a quiet voice from far away: when we are still we can hear it, but it is easily drowned out by ringing phones and chirping emails.

A legacy is not made in the thinking, however, it is made in the doing. It doesn't benefit from excess rumination, just as bread is not improved by baking it past done. Rather, we each forge our own legacy every day with every small, seemingly mundane thing we do. Our days are our legacies in the making, moment by moment.

The question is therefore not whether one should attend to leaving a legacy, but rather is one proud of the legacy being created already?

Two articles in the New York Times today gave two different looks at legacy: the first was about the death of George Steinbrenner, the volcanic owner of my beloved New York Yankees. He left behind a legacy as a ball club owner with an unyielding will to win, perhaps at the expense of being loved, or even liked by many of those around him.

The other was an article about how students are using Facebook to reconnect with influential teachers from their youth. 20, 30 or more years later students are finding their former teachers and sharing how important these teachers were in helping the students find their way.

Another interesting contrast: Steve Jobs is building a legacy as a genius CEO and Bill Gates is building a legacy as a philanthropist.

My point here is not that we ought to judge the relative merits of other peoples' legacies but instead make sure our own are in fine working order.

In the law we have a unique opportunity to forge enduring legacies. Whether you want to be remembered as a guardian of liberty and justice or as a caring counsellor-at-law who helped his clients during life's dark moments, the opportunity is there. Leave a legacy for razor insight, quick wit or memorable kindness -- it's up to you.

It's easy to think reductively about legacy and glibly wave it off as something that will happen after you are dead and gone and therefore unimportant. Legacy doesn't pay the bills.

From the longer, broader view, though, I'm not sure there is anything that is more important for us as lawyers and as people.

One of the great things about working in the law, is that we are not atomized cells apart (though sometimes it may feel like it). We are part of a broader community within the law, connected to our clients, to our colleagues at bar, and our institutions. We are also increasingly part of voluntary communities of like-minded souls brought together by the internet in ways never before possible.

One legal community I am connected to is my bar association, which happily means that occasionally I get to see or hear things that are truly inspiring about our profession and the people in it. My work puts me into contact with people I otherwise likely wouldn't, whether they are judges, big firm managing partners, or solo practitioners fresh out of law school. I have by turns been inspired by all three and many others.

Wherever and however you find your communities in the law, whether through bar associations or Twitter, through your law partners or your clients, through volunteer committee work or informal happy hours -- these communities are the places where your legacy will ultimately rest.

I hope that both you and I are building legacies that will make our communities and families proud.

Sunday
Jul042010

Happy Independence Day

Friday
Jul022010

Resources for Lawyers Using Macs

Over the past few years, I have been getting more and more questions from lawyers who want to run their practices on Macs. Often these questions are from new solo practitioners, but increasingly I hear similar things from managing partners in larger firms.

Small wonder, really. Between Windows Vista (RIP), software-as-a-service, and the Apple stock chart, it just makes sense for lawyers to at least consider whether they can run their practices on Macs.

There are lots of great resources for Mac-using lawyers on the web, so I thought I would take a few moments to collect some of them here. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just the resources that I am most familiar with. If you have some other great ideas for lawyers who use Macs, please leave them in the comments below.

 

Lawyers Using Macs

Some of the best ideas, insights and information a Mac-using lawyer can find will come from the burgeoning community of users. Ground zero for this information is this Google group:

Macs in Law Offices

There are a lot of great websites out there for lawyers who use Macs, but one of my favorites is:

The Mac Lawyer

 

Practice Management Software

The rise of software-as-a-service practice management software means that it is easier than ever to run your law practice on a Mac. There are several service providers in this space, but here are two that I am familiar with and have looked at fairly extensively:

Clio

RocketMatter

 

Accounting Software

Similarly, software-as-a-service accounting options have also multiplied. I haven't spent as much time with these programs as I would like, but I've encountered several lawyers using these two:

Freshbooks

Quickbooks Online

I haven't actually met any lawyers who are using this next solution, but I am very intrigued by their less-is-more approach, which squares up nicely with my thoughts on legal technology.

Less Accounting

 

iPhones and iPads

I absolutely love my iPad and I can't wait for the iPhone to come to Verizon. I've met a ton of lawyers over the years who love their iPhones and a growing number that loves their iPads. Here are a couple of places I go when I want answers or insights on these devices:

iPhone, J.D.

Just Another iPad Blog

 

Running Windows on a Mac

A lot of the Mac-wielding lawyers I speak with want to be able to run Windows on their Macs. Mac OSX includes the ability to do this without the need for any other software, but it has some limitations. Another way to skin that cat is to use a 3rd party software program to run Windows virtually on your Mac. Here are two of the programs that do this:

Parallels

VMware Fusion

If you are really interested in digging in and getting your geek on, here is a thorough review from MacTech comparing these two products.

 

Word Processing & Spreadsheets

There are a couple of ways to handle  word processing and spreadsheets on a Mac. I begin from the assumption that no lawyer buys a Mac because she is in love with Microsoft Office. So, while you can purchase Office for Mac (new update coming in 2011) or run the beta of Office on-line in the cloud, I'll offer a couple of non-Microsoft ways to get your basic office functions done.

Google Docs and Zoho both have nice options for cloud-based word processors. As with all things cloud-based, lawyers need to make sure to read the Terms of Service and are comfortable that the Terms comport with a lawyers ethical duties under the Rules of Professional Conduct.

The option that I use on my Mac most frequently is the free, open source office software called Open Office. I use it extensively to work on documents and regularly to work on spreadsheets and I've found it to be a great alternative to MS Word and Excel.

 

General Mac Information

Last, using a Mac puts a lawyer into a vibrant and enthusiastic community of users who really love their computers. Consequently, there are countless sites and blogs that produce top quality content about Macs. My current favorite is:

Minimal Mac

The site provides consistent, interesting information on Macs, without clobbering me with 100 new articles per week.

 

Enjoy your Mac!

Friday
Jun042010

4 Tips For Lawyers to Effectively Use Social Media

Thursday
Jun032010

Marketing Your Law Practice Using JD Supra

Wednesday
Jun022010

Are Your Browser Tabs Vulnerable to a Phishing Attack?

Tuesday
Jun012010

Free Online Digital Signing Service from Adobe

Friday
May282010

Get the Federal Rules on Your iPhone for Free

Thursday
May272010

On the Road to Paperless: Do You Really Need to Keep That Original?