Saying Goodbye...

Its been kind of a sad day in our household, we have decided to give our bunny back to the bunny people who gave her to us. My daughter was pretty broken up about it. Sad, sad, sad....

Christmas Tree Decorated

Here is the tree decorated:

We went with silver and gold this year. We had a GREAT time decorating the tree and the house while watching Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and The Santa Clause! It was a fun and special night!

Jason

Christmas Tree

It's Christmas time again! My favorite time of the year. We picked out our tree at the Elgin Christmas Tree farm, a family tradition going on 7 years now, and brought it home. Here we are picking it out:

We begin putting on the lights tonight. Here is the tree before we dress it up:

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

From my family to yours:

We wish everyone a very safe and memorable Thanksgiving and Holiday season!


Jason

Football is over...

Well it was an exciting close to our 2011 football season in the Atchley household! Austin's 8th grade team finished strong with Aus having several passes broken up (PBUs) from his free safety position and catching a pass in the last game of the season against their biggest rival! He had an outstanding season!  Travis's 6th grade team made it to the CenTex championship and had a wonderful season! Travis caught two passes, intercepted two passes and ran the ball several times! He had an amazing season at corner and receiver! I was sad to see it end but happy that it happened! I am proud of my boys!!!

Google+ Adds Value to Corporate Legal Management

I thought this was a very insightful article on Google+ and its application to corporate law departments. Enjoy:

"If managing is hard, co-managing can at times seem to be nearly impossible. In-house lawyers are necessarily co-managers. In-house lawyers guide a company having matters, large and small, requiring legal input and permissions, but such matters are always part of a larger business project, the operational aspects of which are managed by business personnel, a group of nonlawyers.

As company lawyers co-manage, they are required to sift through large volumes of information. They view data on operational processes. They consider content concerning regulations covering the activity. They then must deliver either green-light decisions or concise, digestible explanations to their lay audience of some law-based obstacle to the effort.

Corporate counsel are also expected to keep up with their professional development. They engage in their own networking, their own associative activities, not to mention their communities.

Before 2011, company lawyers could, in addition to applying time-tested tools of the legal trade -- long hours and grim determination -- find some aid for their task in rudimentary office technology, a gamut of PC-based tools from email software to word processing and graphic presentation programs, to newish custom-built corporate knowledge wikis. This year has seen these old tricks joined by somewhat expensive new enterprise customer relationship management technologies.

But this year, the corporate legal department has something new, powerful, and ultimately inexpensive, a technology that might allow them to quiet the baying business types and vastly increase their effective participation in companywide projects. A new tool of information distribution, a tool for core management tasks.

The new wonder is Google+.

Google+, sometimes written Google Plus, is new online software connected to the search giant's Google.com website. Originally conceived as a platform for social networking and accepted by the press as a competitor to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, the software has been relabeled by diverse and sundry corporate managers as a business tool enabling daily management tasks.

What can in-house lawyers do with Google+, and while we're talking, how does the service even work?

Google+ is software that, once activated, lives in a bar at the top of the lawyer's browser atwww.google.com. Once the browser icon is double-clicked within Windows or MacOS, and the Google homepage displays, Google+ can be accessed in less than a second.

Google+ accounts are opened by individuals, so lawyer by lawyer, and business employee by business employee. The accounts are highly customizable, however, making it no great chore for a single company to direct its individual Google+ users to set up their accounts in a company-designed, standardized way.

A Google+ account presents a user with a white screen divided into three vertical columns. In the left column, the user defines what Google calls Circles, but which the lawyer may more profitably think of as channels, as in cable television or satellite radio channels. The user defines a new Circle, and places anywhere from one to many thousands of her counterparts into it.

The center column is divided into two parts, an interface for sending out content to any or all of the user's Circles, and a display where inbound content from whichever Circle the user selects -- changing Circles feels like changing channels on a television -- scrolls out, in the way that alerts on news sites do. Overall, the Google+ interface is clean and minimalistic, and while at first glance aspects of it seem awfully similar to Facebook, in business use it can have very little in common with the social networking phenomenon.

The content the Google+ user sends and receives is currently limited to text, photos, videos, and HTML links -- there is not yet provision for attaching files such as PDFs to outgoing units of content. Google+ is designed to integrate with Google's popular web-based productivity tools: Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar, and Google Docs. Google+ is also free.

The management magic of Google+ lies in the Circles, users' self-defined channels of two-way information delivery. The lawyer manages a small support staff? He now has a Circle they each subscribe to, and he spends the first 60 seconds of the work day advising them of a special meeting in their workspace he needs help with.

The lawyer is tasked with answering outside vendor questions on third-party claims? She maintains a Circle for the vendor contacts she liaises with and sends links to the company's model claim response letters, answers questions, and allows the contacts to post follow-up comments.

Does counsel feel that input from the company's industrial safety expert would aid an exchange? If she does, and the company has set him up with an account, she can include him in the conversation by including his name in her content and adding a plus symbol just ahead of it.

The lawyer needs to discuss a visual image, perhaps evidence of an accident or a security-camera film? Securely viewing and commenting on photo and video images is done with ease, between two people, or among an entire internal task force.

The lawyer sets aside blocks of time to proofread and comment on active litigation pleadings drafted by outside counsel? In yet another Google+ Circle peopled with the lawyers the lawyer manages, he will broadcast, in a matter of seconds, that this coming week he will be able to review work delivered to him between Monday morning and Tuesday at noon, but not thereafter.

Pick any of a hundred other tasks, projects or initiatives that the same in-house lawyer may participate in -- an Association of Corporate Counsel committee, the directorate of a local nonprofit, a school alumni group, a political organization -- and the lawyer as a user of Google+ will find a discrete interest group that may be Circled and thereafter managed with both efficiency and engagement.

To paint a vivid picture of the difference between managing with last year's office technology and managing with Google+, picture the in-house lawyer as the farmer husbanding a very large, diversely planted and terraced farm. Before, she was running here with a bucket, there with a hose, trying to get cultivating water distributed to each of the far-flung fields that make up her holdings before the sun could set. But now, it's as if she has installed an ultra-modern system of precision irrigation. With a tap and a few keystrokes to a single interface, she is now irrigating, distributing precise quantities of water to precisely defined areas at selected times of day and at optimal intervals.

Google+ as a service is the information management equivalent of the agricultural innovation of modern irrigation. The lawyer begins a workday facing a vast estate with endless needs for attention. Against many-numbered issues that need tending with a high throughput of units of lawyer-supplied or enabled information, the lawyer automates, regulates, measures, and times the delivery of what is needed. And does it all faster; in much less time than it previously took to do similar tasks with less automated methods. 

- Michael Cavendish"

Saturdays...

When I look at my life and the people in it who love me, I realize I am one lucky guy. I must have done something really right to have so many wonderful people in my life! Thank you GOD! Ok here is a look into a typical Saturday:


It was a WONDERFUL Saturday in the Atchley household! We kicked it off with cartoons and breakfast and then headed out to baseball practice for Avery with his select team. He worked on hitting and did a GREAT job! I had a wonderful time bonding with my son. He is a great player but an even better young man. We had a lot of fun! It was also great seeing all my friends who help coach the team (Mark, Q, Wade and Ben David)! We had fun catching up and I look forward to getting together with them soon. It was a beautiful morning on the ballfield: high 60s, blue skies, green grass, red dirt on the in field, dew still on the grass...AWWWWW what a great start to the day!


Followed that with spending time with my wife and kids including letting our new bunny, Midnight, run around the backyard doing fly jumpkicks! All the kids were outside playing and enjoying the wonderful weather and just being together!


We then loaded up and made a beautiful drive out into the hill county to Spring Branch Middle School where the mighty Big Red Varsity (6th graders) LT Cavs took on the Spring Branch Rangers. This was for Travis's team. He played great! He played awesome at receiver and made several plays at cornerback! Trav's team won 25 - 0. I am soooo proud of him!


We came back to our beautiful home in the Hill Country and had several neighborhood kids come over to play with our kids. They were playing tag on scooters! They were laughing and having a great time!


I watched the Longhorn football game with my family and enjoyed seeing the progression and improvement of both the offense and defense. It was nice to see the Horns be able to play the Ok State Cowboys straight up and almost pull it out! A few adjustments here and there and a bit more experience and we will be good to go. It was fun watching the game and talking about it with Austin and Travis!


We finished off the day with a movie for the little kids, took our Austin to his friends house for a sleepover and Bren and I went to the Galleria to walk, talk and hold hands! 


It was a great, great day! I LOVE my life!


Until the next time,


Jason

Jason Atchley Austin Texas

HOOOOOOOOK EM HORNS!

OU SUCKS!!!!

Let's go boys!

Meetings next week!

I have a bit more exciting news to share! Next week I have meetings planned in Dallas, New York and San Francisco! The meeting in Dallas is with a worldwide consulting firm that focuses on HR and compensation review. We have a fair amount of experience in both and will be meeting with the Dallas office to discuss running a few projects for them. I am excited about the prospect of our consulting firm working with such a leader in the industry! Next, the meeting in New York is with an eDiscovery company that would like our input and assistance in designing and implementing its solutions. Since we have a considerable amount of legal and trial consulting experience, I think it will be a perfect match! It should produce some big results! And finally, the meeting in San Fran is with a former colleague who needs us to run an eDiscovery project for their Firm. I am looking forward to taking the team to San Francisco and doing work.

Ok, I am off to Houston!

Until the next time,

Jason

Houston! We have a ... new client? ;-)

I am on my way to Houston to meet with another eDiscovery / forensics / legal consulting Firm. We are going to be working with them on a few things that we have some experience with.

I am looking forward to meeting with Robin and Sharon for dinner tonight!

Until the next time,

Jason

eDiscovery / legal consulting

It is amazing to me how much this industry has grown over the last 10 years. I remember running a discovery project 11 years ago that required my team to scan in more than a million documents. We had NO IDEA what we were doing or how to do it! My Firm purchased custom software that allowed us to make the documents OCR searchable. Once again, we had NO IDEA what we were doing! We were on the cutting edge at that time. No one else was doing it. Im not even sure we were doing it! We were eDiscovery pioneers and did not even realize it! Somehow, someway, we managed to figure it all out as we worked our way through it and as a result of our hard work and the things we were able to find during that eDiscovery project, the case was settled for over $300 million.

Over the years since, I have run or consulted on numerous voluminous discovery projects for small firms, large firms and huge corporations. When I think back to that first project, I am amazed at how rapid the industry has grown and the advancements made in software and hardware that actually make all of this possible. It is certainly a lot easier today than it was then. But maybe not as much fun!

I look forward to continued participation in this industry and helping it grow in any way I can.

Until the next time,

Jason

Football time in Texas!

It has been a fun football season so far in 2011! My oldest son is playing on his middle school football team. He plays safety, wide receiver and is the holder on kicks. He is really coming on as a player. He is fast, catches everything that comes near him and is an absolute whiz at reading offenses and covering receivers. He also loves to hit! I am very proud of him and how much effort and work he has put in this summer and season. He is a great player no doubt about it!

My second oldest is also playing ball this Fall and I am the secondary and receivers coach on his team. He plays corner and receiver and is really coming on too! He loves to hit, is fast, catches really well and has a natural feel for the game and playing defense. I am very proud of him and how hard he tries everytime he steps on the field. He is a fabulous player.

I am also enjoying following my Longhorns this year. They are showing a lot of improvement and are really talented. Their only downside is youth. They have an extremely young team but they are gamers and have plenty of talent. They are a fun team to watch!

My Cowboys played a great game last night against the Redskins. They won with 6 fieldgoals and no touchdowns. I dont know that I have ever seen that before. It was a great game by the QB and I hope they are able to make a run this year.

Im looking forward to following all of my teams throughout the season! Go Cavs! Go Knights! Go Horns! Go Cowboys!

Until the next time,

Jason

Rex

Rex
02-04-05 to 09-22-11

He was my best friend. He was my favorite dog I ever had. I love him. I miss him. He was a true friend and companion. I loved being around him. I took him on walks everyday and we wrestled all the time. I loved it when he would nestle his nose under my chin and keep it there snuggling with me. He was great with the kids and they loved him. He loved to steal bread off the kitchen counter and could eat a whole loaf in one bite. He would protect his family with his life and he proved that on more than one occasion. But mostly I just miss looking into those big trusting eyes and loving on him. I miss you Rex. I love you.

Jason

eDiscovery / forensics consulting

I had a FANTASTIC meeting with Sandy and Curtis from a leading eDiscovery and forensics consulting group! We had a tremendous energy and I really enjoyed the conversation.

It was fascinating to get such great insights from experts in the fields of computer forensics and eDiscovery! Sandy and Curtis are truly a credit to their industry and Firm. I did my best to just try to keep up with them! I look forward to working with them in the very near future.

Until the next time.

Jason

Legal Business Consulting

I am excited and honored to be working with a new law firm client.  Legal business consulting is very interesting and challenging to me.  As someone who has practiced law as a trial lawyer and a corporate attorney, I truly enjoy and understand how to work with lawyers and law firms.  I understand their needs and their points of view.  I understand the deficiencies and strengths of lawyers and law firms as business people and businesses.  I enjoy assisting with business strategy, HR, streamlining costs, finding ways to improve revenue, assisting with technology solutions for running the business, marketing campaigns, advertising, managing dockets, client and lead acquisition, setting up case management systems for large volume cases such as mass torts and conducting ediscovery.  I also am certified as a trial and jury consultant and as such, I enjoy assisting on litigation strategy and jury selection.  In most instances, my Firm is able to offer a comprehensive strategic solution to almost any need a law firm has.

I look forward to attacking the challenges placed before me and working with my client to find the correct solutions.

Until the next time,

Jason 

Spring Break!

We just returned from spending the week on the Beach for Spring Break!  It was a well-deserved break and was a great chance to reconnect with the family.  I spent the two weeks prior traveling and working with new clients.  It has been a productive and rewarding last few weeks.  Here are some pics of our trip:

The Whole Crew:

The Boys:

Kung Fu Fighting!

Me and the kids:

Football:

Softball:

Digging:

Campfires and Scary Stories!

Muscle Beach:

Campfires! 

We had an amazing time together!  I absolutely adore my family.

Until the next time,

Jason

Victory or Death: Commandancy of the Alamo—Bejar, Feb. 24th 1836

Commandancy of the Alamo—Bejar, Feb. 24th 1836—
To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world—

Fellow citizens & compatriots—I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna—I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken—I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch—The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country—Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis
Lt. Col. comdt

P.S. The Lord is on our side—When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn—We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels & got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves.
Travis

Bio of Jason Atchley, Legal, Strategy and Technology Consultant

Legal, strategy and technology consulting to law firms, law departments and corporations with a focus on eDiscovery, litigation support, and business development.

Jason Atchley holds a Juris Doctorate and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jason is the Director of Legal Technology Consulting. Jason has extensive experience as a trial lawyer, general counsel and legal technology consultant. He has tried, managed and consulted on numerous large multi-district pharmaceutical cases, complex commercial litigation matters and IP lawsuits.

Jason focuses his efforts on market facing activities in Texas and the surrounding States with an emphasis on e-discovery and legal technology consulting services. Jason provides legal, strategy and technology consulting to law firms, law departments and corporations with a focus on eDiscovery, litigation support, and business development.

Jason prides himself on bringing solutions to clients and their counsel, both at law firms and corporate legal departments. Jason uses his experience as a trial lawyer, chief legal officer and legal technology consultant to advise clients in identifying, selecting and implementing the correct e-discovery and legal technology solutions.

Jason and his wife reside in Austin, Texas with their children.

Crossfit and the importance of Discipline

In the May of 2009, I stood 5'9 and weighed 209 lbs.  I was bloated and well there is no nice way to say it: I was fat.  I took control of my health, my eating, my body.  I told myself that if I could control my eating, my exercise, my general overall fitness, then I could control anything.  I set out to do just that.  I adopted an eating plan that I came up with after doing some research.  I eliminated 5 things from my diet: 1. bread, 2. sodas, 3. sugar, 4. fried foods and 5. red meat.  The weight loss was almost instant.  Not only was I controlling what I ate but I began to exercise 5-7 days per week.  I would do 100+ pushups, 200+ situps and briskly walk 2 miles every day.  I was down to 172 lbs in November of 2009, just 6 months later.  I then began doing Crossfit exercises and began adding muscle to my physique as well as improving my overall general fitness.  I began doing Crossfit workouts in January of 2010 and have done them approximately 3x per week since.  I am at an all time fitness level and feel better than ever before.  But almost better than the physical payoff has been the mental payoff.  I now know after losing 40lbs of fat and adding more muscle to my frame than ever before in the span of approximately 10 months that I am capable of doing anything I set mind to do.  That I am able to accomplish whatever I want.  That if I can reverse a decade of eating poorly and exercising infrequently in a matter of months, then I can accomplish anything in my personal or professional life.  The discipline I imposed on my eating and exercise routines has carried over to every other part of my life.  It has been huge for me.  It has paid dividends in every facet of my life.

I am now dedicated to this lifestyle of discipline, healthy eating and fitness.  I am wearing size 30 jeans for the first time in over a decade!  I have a full 6 pack and have 12% body fat.  I am determined to lower that to 10% and to add even more muscle.  I am committed to me.  And through that discipline and dedication, I know I can accomplish anything I commit myself to.  I owe my life, my health, my happiness to my new eating and exercise plans.  It was a lot of work but I deserved it.

Set your goals, commit yourself to them and be disciplined in the way you go about each task.

Until the next time,

Jason Atchley, Strategy Consultant

It was a Super Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday!  I woke up to breakfast in bed prepared by my beautiful wife and 5 wonderful children.  I then got up and did my Crossfit workout, went on a 2 mile walk and then took my Bullmastiff to the dogpark!  He had a great time playing with a black Great Dane and a Labradoodle!  I then played basketball with my two oldest sons.  We played 21 and had a great time!  They are really good!

We went back home, relaxed and then I took my oldest son to his Lacrosse assessment.  He owned it!

We returned home, cooked beef fajitas, chicken wings, queso and chips and got ready for the birthday party and the Super Bowl!

My wife and kids made a great cake for me (red velvet with cream cheese icing) and sweetly sang happy birthday to me.  It was great just watching their faces as they sang to me.  I loved spending the whole day with them!  We also had chocolate ice cream!

We then watched the Super Bowl and cheered for the Packers to beat the dreaded Steelers!  We had fun watching the Black Eyed Peas perform at half time and laughing at all the silly commercials!  The Darth Vader one reminded me of my youngest son!

All in all it was one of my favorite birthdays ever!  My family did a great job of making me feel special.  I love them dearly.  I am truly the luckiest man alive.

Until the next time,

Jason Atchley, Consultant

Snow Day!!!

It is a beautiful day in Austin, Texas!  It snowed about 1" last night.  The kids' schools were closed.  We were out of bed by 7am and out on the slopes by 8 sharp!  We took our dog, Rex, with us and went sledding down the hills on the golf course!  The kids used boogey boards and skateboards with the wheels removed!  We played outside for about 2 hours.  It was a great, great time!  We came in, ate hot tortilla soup and watched videos from our vacation to Yosemite and San Francisco!  We have had a great time spending the day together!

I LOVE SNOW DAYS!!!

Until the next time,

Jason Atchley, Consultant

Failure is sometimes Better than Success.

i would rather fail at trying to make something out of myself than succeed in making myself into nothing. 


- Jason Atchley, Consultant

New Clients

I am looking forward to working with some new clients this week on finance-banking matters.  I absolutely love the challenges presented by designing, negotiating and closing deals.

Make it a GREAT day by making the right decisions when you have the opportunity!

Until the next time,

Jason Atchley, J.D., Strategy Consultant

Social Media Links

Jason Atchley, LinkedIn

Jason Atchley, Business Week

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Jason Atchley, Entrepreneur Connect

Jason Atchley, New York Times

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Jason Atchley, Weedle

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