Last Thursday, I was invited to present a tech talk to George Mason Law School students. Titled " Tech Tips every Law Student, Law Clerk, and Lawyer should know!" (although I now realize the better title could have been "Every 'Tech' thing I Need to Know, I Didn't Learn in Law School"), I shared with the audience everything from Keeping Your Social Media Private, Virtual Private Networks when working remotely, in public, or near prying eyes, Passwords, Snippets & Shortcuts, Using the Tools in Microsoft Word (from Find and Replace, Templates, Spellcheck [we all know how frustrating it is to get a law clerk or new associates rough draft that has not been spellchecked!], Table of Contents, Table of Authorities), Good Backup Habits, and more! But all of these great lessons that I had prepared to present (with slides) were nothing in comparison with the first three unplanned lessons that started my presentation!

I arrived early on my presentation day. I handed the school's tech person my jump drive that had my slides. (Note: I checked the drive before I left my office to make sure it was there - it was!). The tech person plugged in my drive and ... nothing. It was, for whatever reason, blank? Shi!

I won't bore you with describing in great detail the alternative ways we tried to upload my slide presentation. Dropbox password issues, the tech guru could not log into his e-mail, inter alia. Needless to say, it was a cluster fuc! So, what do we do!

My Office Mates - Teddi (in front) and Daisy (in back).

I started the presentation (close to the start time). The class knew there was an issue. And I started off the class by addressing the issue to the class by asking the class what can we learn from this? I told them we could take away three good lessons: 1. Get to the courtroom, hearing room, presentation room, at least a day in advance of your appearance to make sure your tech is playing nice with the room's computer systems. 2. As attorneys, we need to be prepared for the unexpected. Whether a surprise witness, an unexpected question from a judge, or courtroom tech issues, you need to be able to think quickly on your feet and take these surprises head on - the "attorney dance" as I like to call it. 3. And as I discussed with Jamie "Jamie" Holland, II in Podcast #35, know your case! Or in my situation, know my presentation. I knew my presentation frontward and backward.

I was able to discuss my presentation without the need for my slides to be on the big screen! I had a copy to read from on my iPad as a backup if necessary. But I could talk about each topic effectively enough such that the lack of slides did not ruin my presentation. (Granted they missed out on seeing my office buddies on the big screen [see photo]). There was audience participation, questions answered, and think everyone each learned at least one (or maybe three) new thing about using tech in the practice of law.

Thank you to Associate Dean Victoria M. Huber and GMU Law School for the invite! I had a great time! And I hope to be invited back in the future!

Happy Lawyering!!!