Category Archives: Admin

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A Great Day

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February 1 has always been a good day for me. First of all, it is the day I was born. That, of course, makes it a good day. Additionally, on February 1, 1999, I started one of the coolest jobs available in the legal profession, I was a law clerk for a state supreme court justice. It was a job that I really enjoyed and I always thought it was cool that I started it on my birthday.

Well this year, something even cooler has happened. Today, February 1, 2010, I opened the doors for my own law firm, Sims Law Firm, Ltd. This is both scary and exciting. I look forward to what the future brings. If nothing else, I figure this is a cool birthday present to myself.

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Happy Veterans Day!

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World War II MemorialTo anyone who is a veteran, today I salute you. Too often we go through life without ever thinking of those who protect us by serving in the armed forces. In addition to their sacrifice, there is also often a sacrifice by the family left at home while the veteran serves overseas. The remaining parent must function as essentially a single parent.

Serving in the armed forces is hard for all involved and I appreciate and salute those who sacrifice their lives, their time, and their family life in defense of their country.World War II Memorial Quote

Without question, technology has made it easy to remain in touch while away from home. Our soldiers today can take advantage of cell phones, email, video confrencing, blogs, flickr, myspace, facebook, to communicate in ways that prior generations never dreamed of. Hopefully, these communication improvements make their service just a little more comfortable.

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My Social Media Presence

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I am not sure why, but it feels strange to say that. However, I do have one a presence and I might as well make it easy to find.

My LinkedIn page can be found here.

I have also recently started using Twitter. My Twitter page is here. Cleverly, my Twitter name is Bryan_Sims. Please note the underscore. Although I suppose you can follow the other BryanSims (note, no underscore). His life is probably more interesting than mine, given that he is the CEO of brass Media.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, I urge you to check it out. Twitter allows you to broadcast what you are doing 140 characters at a time. I avoided Twitter for a long time, fearing that I might like it. That prophecy has proven true. The reality is that no one can really explain the Twitter experience to you. You must check it out for yourself to truly understand it.

If you want a good guide to getting started with Twitter, I recommend this blog post from Michael Hyatt. He gives a step by step introduction to getting started with Twitter. What are you waiting for? Start tweeting.

Once you get started, you will probably want to add some Twitter Tools to your arsenal. My favorite is probably Twitbin, which is an extension for Firefox. I have been having problems with Twitbin lately, however, and have switched to twhirl, which I like a lot.

If you use a Palm device, you can use MoTwit to tweet from the road.

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ISBA Under 37 Candidates for Board of Governors

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It is time once again for the the annual elections for the Illinois State Bar Association. This year I have the good fortune of knowing one of the two candidates running for the Under 37 seat in both Cook County and Downstate. If you have not yet voted, I support the Peter Olson (Cook) and April Troemper (Downstate) and urge you to do the same.Peter Olson

I first met Peter a couple of years again when we presented together at the ISBA Solo and Small Firm Conference. It was a real pleasure to work with him in putting the presentation together and to present with him as well. Before I met Peter in person, I knew him from his multiple blogs: Solo in Chicago, Closing Real Estate in Chicago, and The Illinois Family Lawyer.

During the time that I have known Peter, I have come to know him as an excellent attorney who understands the challenges that solo and sApril Troempermall firm attorneys face on a regular basis. I believe that he would be an excellent addition to the Board of Governors. I just wish that I was eligible to vote for him.

In the race that I can actually vote in (which is called Downstate, despite the fact that it includes all of Illinois except for Cook County–I for one have never considered Lake County Downstate) I am supporting April Troemper. I also met April through the ISBA and I remember being impressed by her from that first conversation. She is intelligent and engaging and I believe she will honestly and thoughtfully represent the interests of all attorneys in Illinois. I am quite pleased that this year I will be able to vote for April for the Downstate Under 37 position on the Board of Governors.

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It’s Been One Year

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It has been one year since I officially launched The Connected Lawyer. I thought I would take a second to detail some statistical information. In that time, I have made 182 posts. Of those posts, my most popular posts have been my series on formatting in Word. The categories that I posted in most frequently were Software, Tips and Tricks, and Internet.

The most interesting statistic to me, however, relates to the operating system used by the people viewing my website. According to StatPress (which was not operating all year) the page visits from the various operating systems are:

  • Windows XP 58.5%
  • Linux 15.1%
  • Windows Vista 5.6%
  • Mac OS 5.1%
  • Windows NT 5%

What I find most interesting about this is that three times as many page views came from people using Linux as did those from people using Vista. Also, almost as many visits came from people using Windows NT as from using Vista.

I know that I have been hesitant to jump on the Vista bandwagon. From the looks of these numbers, it appears that I am far from the only person who is avoiding Vista.