What's New at SLUG?
by Heather Cline Hoganson

At the March SLUG meeting, SLUG Chair Gabor Morocz presented $2000 to VLSP managing attorney Vicki Jacobs. Jacobs gratefully accepted the check, which will be used to purchase much-needed file servers.

In addition to money, SLUG member Timothy Miller volunteered to help VLSP redesign their web site. Look for it in the months to come!

Who Joins SLUG?

SLUG members come from all areas of practice, including government (city, state and federal), solos, and big firms, from legal secretaries to judges. Members represent public law, probate law, environmental law, family law, real estate law, contract law, and legal technology consulting. Those who are new to legal technology mix with those who have been on the cutting edge for years. Meetings generally start with member questions, and these range from swapping local consultant notes and numbers, to questions about new software or hardware, to ethics and technology queries. No special experience is required to attend, just a general interest in how technology can be used to make our lives - well, if not better, at least more efficient.

Meet the SLUG Officers

SLUG Chair Gabor Morocz was born in Budapest, Hungary. He completed his legal education at Eotvos Lorand University of Budapest, School of Law, and became an attorney in 1980. After working as corporate counsel for four years, Gabor fled communist-ruled Hungary in 1984 and was granted refugee status in the United States. He started working with computers in 1985, teaching himself the finer points by reading books and magazines. Gabor took and passed the California Bar Exam in 1989, after preparing by attending the University of West Los Angeles, School of Law, for two years as an auditing student. Hired by the Department of Motor Vehicles while still awaiting bar results, Gabor has risen to assistant chief counsel in DMV's Legal Office. Gabor has helped with the computerization of the medium-size office, creating the office LAN and selecting software. He planned, designed and implemented DMV's computerized case management system, which handles close to 30,000 closed cases and 2000 ongoing cases. With about 150 new cases added monthly, attorneys also input their notes, reminders, timekeeping and cost information into the single system. Gabor has been a SLUG officer since 1998, serving as secretary/treasurer and as vice-chair before his election to chair.

SLUG Vice-Chair Heather Cline Hoganson got her first computer just before Star Wars came out (an Apple II with a short serial number), and has been using computers ever since. Pong gave way to AppleWriter and Harvard Graphics and then the IBM function keys used with Word Perfect 5.1 stole her heart. While attending McGeorge School of Law and working at the "LawLab" (the computer center), Heather assisted other students on a variety of programs and was introduced to the Windows environment. She currently is staff counsel at the Office of Administrative Hearings and, between research assignments, maintains the office Intranet and Internet. Heather previously served as secretary/treasurer for SLUG. She didn't get a Palm Pilot, Handspring Visor, or RIM Blackberry for Christmas, so she is still in the market....

SLUG Secretary/Treasurer Timothy Miller is an attorney at The Diepenbrock Law Firm, practicing environmental law. Since Tim practices in a field that is heavily governed by many different federal, state and local administrative agencies, the use of the Internet and technology is a critical part of keeping pace with regulatory developments. Tim started out with a Timex Sinclair 1000 that was only useful for playing games, eventually working his way up through a Commodore 64 to Intel 80x machines. Tim worked his way through McGeorge School of Law doing various technology jobs, including being a student representative for Lexis-Nexis. Tim also worked at the McGeorge computer lab, assisting users with a myriad of computer software and learning hardware and operating maintenance. At that same time, Tim learned HTML from a book and took a job as a student intern at the California Resources Agency, developing web pages for the agency's web site on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Unable to kick the coding habit, Tim maintains a web hosting and design business on the side.

General Information

SLUG provides a forum for the discussion and study of issues relating to the use of computers and information technology by lawyers and in law practices. SLUG is a section of the Sacramento County Bar Association and is affiliated with the Sacramento PC Users Group (http://www.sacpcug.org.)

SLUG meets monthly to present new hardware or software applications, or legal technology issues to its members. Between 20-40 members generally attend each meeting. Our membership size is between 120-150 attorneys and associate members. SLUG also maintains a listserv to facilitate communication amongst its members between meetings. See the SLUG web page on the SCBA site for further information on subscribing to the listserv. www.sacbar.org/slug.html.

SLUG is always on the lookout for new topics and presenters. If you have a particular topic you think SLUG should address, or wish to address SLUG members yourself, please contact SLUG Chair Gabor Morocz, at MGVGNM@DMV.CA.GOV.

SLUG provides its members the benefit of being able to rent SLUG's In Focus Lite Pro 435z computer display projector, purchased jointly with the Macnexus Users Group. Rental fees are currently only $25 per day, as compared to typical market prices of $300-350 per day. Contact Stuart Home at stu.home@macnexus.org for more information on projector rentals.

SLUG is proud to have created and to maintain the Sacramento County Bar's Web Page as a service to the County Bar. SLUG is also pleased to have sponsored tentative rulings on-line as a service to the Legal Community.

SLUG's May luncheon meeting (May 16th, noon to 1:30) will feature a presentation by Summation on litigation software, including transcript and document management tools.

To register for the May meeting or to find out about future meetings, contact Timothy Miller at 446-4469 or by E-mail: tmiller@diepenbrock.com.

Gabor presents $2,000 check to VLSP Managing attorney Vicki Jacobs.