Popular Articles from the CPM ICYMI Newsletter (January – March 2026)
Every week subscribers receive the ICYMI enewsletter from the NCBA Center for Practice Management. The newsletter highlights tips, tools, trends, and techniques to help your law practice. The following are a few popular links from the past issues of the newsletter.
This Hidden Microsoft Word Shortcut Handles Repetitive Edits Instantly
How-To Geek shines a light on the F4 key in Word, which repeats your last action instead of just redoing it. With a basic understanding of how Word defines a single action, F4 can speed through repetitive formatting, table edits, and layout changes. It’s a small shortcut with outsized payoff for document-heavy work.
Stop Wasting Time: These Microsoft 365 Automations Changed How I Work
groovyPost rounds up built-in Microsoft 365 automations that quietly remove daily friction, especially in Outlook and Excel. Examples include inbox rules, Quick Steps, Sweep, reusable email templates, and simple formulas to track task status. The theme is straightforward: meaningful time savings often come from features already sitting in plain sight. These are good tips, though be careful with Outlook Rules and consider using Focused and Other inboxes instead.
Agentic AI is All the Rage. But Be Wary.
Last year the buzz was all about Agentic AI. Now in production, the bot agents do your bidding like a good intern or administrator, with the ability to make decisions on your behalf. Companies and even law firms are anticipating reductions in force by replacing people with bots. However, this technology may have unintended consequences. Mitch Jackson writes about the dangers of OpenClaw , an open-source local AI assistant platform, which actually ends up going outside your closed environment to interface with other agents in a “digital town square”. Then there are stories where agents have deleted user’s hard drives and emails. Tread carefully.
I Thought Knew OneNote — Then I Discovered These Expert Features
This GroovyPost article highlights features that support better organization, faster retrieval, and more structured note-taking over time in MS OneNote. For anyone juggling research, meetings, and long-running matters, it’s a reminder that mastering existing tools can be more powerful than adopting new ones.
I Verified My LinkedIn Identity. Here’s What I Actually Handed Over.
Sure, people (and bots) can impersonate others on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is constantly nagging you to verify your identity . However, proving you are “real” to other LinkedIn users comes at the cost of further eroding your own privacy. The author of this article walks through LinkedIn’s identity verification process, what data it requires, what information is shared, with whom, and what tradeoffs are involved. If you have been wondering, no, you do not need to get a verified account on LinkedIn.
How to Use Timeboxing to Plan Your Day
Timeboxing is a time management technique that you can pair with other productivity approaches to help you plan your day. The technique involves a quick daily assessment to help you identify and prioritize tasks and when to accomplish them. This article describes how to use tools you already have to help plot your time and tasks more effectively.
Windows 11 Has A Clipboard History Most People Never Turn On
Windows 11 includes a clipboard history feature that often goes unnoticed, even though it can meaningfully streamline daily work. The article explains what the feature captures and why enabling it can reduce repetitive copying and pasting across applications. It highlights how a simple system setting can quietly improve efficiency without adding new software.
Public Speaking for Lawyers: 5 Tips to Land More Invites
Tea Hoffmann writing for Attorney at Work explores how professionals can receive more invitations to speak by being intentional about visibility and preparation. Rather than focusing on stage presence alone, the article emphasizes reputation building and audience relevance. It frames public speaking as an extension of professional credibility rather than a separate skill set.
Nonequity Partners: It’s Not Personal, It’s Just Business
Steve Embry, writing for Above the Law, offers a candid look at the realities of non-equity partner status. The article explores how title, compensation, and influence do not always align in modern organizations. It presents non-equity partnership as a business decision shaped by economics rather than sentiment.
Don’t Use Solid State Drives For Long-Term Storage; Do This Instead
If you are backing up files on an external hard drive, read this article. Turns out solid state drives are not ideal for long-term archival storage despite their speed and durability for everyday use. The piece walks through how SSDs store data and why data degradation can occur when drives sit unpowered for extended periods. For law firms that rely on offline backups, closed matter archives, or disaster recovery media, the article is a useful reminder that not all storage technologies are interchangeable and that long-term retention requires deliberate planning.
How Much Data Does Your Law Firm Really Have? A Reality Check for Document Migrations
In this piece, Craig Bayer challenges assumptions law firms often make about the volume and complexity of their data when planning document management migrations. The article explains how metadata, duplicates, legacy systems, and file sprawl can dramatically inflate migration scope and cost. It is particularly relevant for firms considering a new document management system or cloud platform, as it underscores the need for realistic assessments and data cleanup before migration begins.
120 AI-Powered Tips for Legal Professionals
This extensive resource, created by Colin Lachance, offers a wide-ranging collection of ideas for how lawyers can use general AI tools to save time and improve efficiency. The focus is practical rather than theoretical, with examples that span research, drafting, organization, and administrative work. While not every tip will apply to every practice, the breadth of the list makes it a useful reference for lawyers who want to move beyond basic experimentation and into more intentional use of AI in daily practice.
Important: Warning about TOAD Attacks against Trust Accounts
A recent alert from the North Carolina State Bar describes TOAD attacks (“Telephone Oriented Attack Delivery”) as a rapidly spreading threat that exploits trust and urgency to infiltrate law firm accounts. Scammers often pose convincingly as bank representatives, using spoofed numbers and alarming claims to coax lawyers or staff into surrendering login credentials. What makes these attacks particularly insidious is how quickly funds can disappear and how rarely banks can recover them once moved. The Bar’s guidance is clear: firms must train their teams to recognize manipulative phone-based social engineering and verify all unexpected contacts through known, independent channels.
The Unexpected Power of Your Out-of-Office Message
In her reflection on professional communications, Society54’s Heather McCullough recounts how her outlook on the humble out-of-office message shifted from formality to opportunity. She explains that even a brief auto-reply can convey warmth, share a touch of personality, or acknowledge the real constraints of modern life, all elements that deepen relationships rather than simply inform. It turns out that a small, thoughtful pause can have surprisingly long-lasting effects.
Client Empathy: Wearing Client Shoes Builds Better Practices
Attorney at Work contributor Sally J. Schmidt paints a vivid picture of how slow replies, misplaced documents, and last minute meeting requests can erode client confidence. She notes that clients approach legal matters with stress, uncertainty, and expectations, meaning that the “little things” often carry disproportionate weight. By encouraging lawyers to imagine the client’s experience from their side of the table, Schmidt reframes empathy as a practical management skill rather than an abstract ideal.
Writing Like a Lawyer Without Sounding Like a Lawyer
Writing for Above the Law, attorney Frank Ramos argues for clarity and reader-centric intent over “sounding lawyerly,” urging concrete habits like outlining themes, drafting fast, and rewriting with purpose. His core directive to stop writing to impress and start writing to be understood. “Your job is not to sound like a lawyer. Your job is to help a reader decide”.
The New-ish Billable Skill: Cybersecurity Competence
Wondering what a “reasonable care” standard for cybersecurity competence looks like today? Majo Castro, writing for the State Bar of Texas, explains in plain language some of the basic security protocols that all law firms and lawyers should have in place. Multi-factor authentication. Long, strong, and unique passwords. Least privilege access. Vendor due diligence. Training. If your firm hasn’t checked these boxes, it is time for a security update!
USPS Announces Changes to the Postmark Date System
If the postmark on your letter matters, be aware that the USPS has clarified that the date stamped on the envelope represents when the machine-applied postmark was added during the automated processing operation, rather than the date the mail was dropped off. So, if the postmark date is of significance, you will need to present the mail at the retail counter and request a manual postmark or postage validation imprint OR purchase a Certificate of Mailing or use Registered or Certified Mail with a receipt.