Finis Price has charted a unique path by combining his two professional passions – law and computer technology – into the development of his personal injury and trial practice. He will teach a course about trial technology at Solo Practice University™.
Working as a System Administrator in college at the University of Southern Mississippi, Finis gained extensive experience and a varied background in programming, both in applications as well as most web languages, e.g. ASP, Perl, PHP, etc. He was a Computer Science major for three years before switching back to his first major, Pre-Law, and going on to Law School.
Finis received his J.D. from the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law in 2003. Upon passing the Kentucky Bar Examination, he assumed that all of the technical knowledge he had acquired was for naught unless he wanted to sacrifice his desire to be a trial lawyer.
All this changed in 2005 when the Kentucky Justice Association asked him to chair their Technology Section and develop CLE’s for Kentucky attorneys which would focus on technology in the courtroom. The goal was to help and encourage trial lawyers to embrace the use of technology in the courtroom and in their practices. While teaching others, Finis realized that he could now expand on his own legal background in the development of his own litigation and trial practice while at the same time explore new and better ways to practice law.
Finis has given numerous presentations concerning the use of technology in a legal practice for groups including: Kentucky Justice Association, Northern Kentucky Bar Association, Louisville Bar Association and the Greater Lexington Paralegal Association. Finis is also a co-host of Macs in Law Offices (MILO) Chat Weekly, a podcast dedicated to Mac hardware and software in a legal environment. He has also written numerous article for The Advocate, the Kentucky Justice Association’s bi-monthly publication.
In 2007, Finis decided to incorporate the technical aspect of his practice into TechnoEsq. TechnoEsq is a multi-faceted organization providing litigation presentations, virtual paralegal solutions and computer forensic services to the legal community.
Recently, TechnoEsq has begun offering free trial videos online in an effort to assist young and old attorneys alike to learn from their colleagues. Learning and mentoring do not occur in a vacuum, and Finis anticipates learning as much from the students as he teaches them as they bring their background and experiences with new technologies to the virtual class room.
Syllabus
General Course Description
This course will cover different technology available to attorneys throughout the entire litigation process. The most important aspect of maintaining any legal practice is efficiency, efficient use of your time, your staff’s time and your expert’s time and technology can help you achieve this.
Presentation of the material in this course will be through a variety of media, both document format (PDF and PowerPoint slides), online conferences and webinars. A large component of this course will be the discussion generated by the participants after the presentation of the session materials. Class discussion will be through email communication between classmates, comments posted on the course blog or real time discussion through online conferencing. The goal is to get students to share ideas regarding ways they could apply technology to their litigation practice.
The prerequisite to the course is a basic knowledge of current technology. No IT or actual law practice experience is necessary. I expect students to be self-motivated and to pace themselves. My goal is to publish one session a month at a minimum. As the library of sessions for the course grows, new students may add to the conversation and at the beginning of each session I will go back and review any added materials or comments that relate to the previous topic as well as add that new material to the original session.
Outline of Course Our class will focus on technology throughout all phases of litigation, not just through trial. This is because it is important to set the proper foundation you’re your case so that technology can be effectively leveraged at the actual trial of your case. (Some sessions may be further broken down depending on student participation)
1. Starting on the Right Foot…Proper Equipment
2. Technology in Depositions
3. Mediation
4. Pre-Mediation Presentations
5. Presentations
5.a Trial
5.b Hearings and Motions – Knowing your audience
6. Presentation Technology I
7. Presentation Technology II
8. The Art of Presentations
8.a Opening Statement vs. Closing Argument Presentations
8.b Examinations