Chasing the Paper Dragon

Oakland, Calif. – October 13, 2006 – ShadowCounsel, a paper and other media-to-digital conversion and remote paralegal support company serving law firms and other paper intensive enterprises, today introduced what is believed to be the first complete search and retrieval database processing service requiring no specialized software. “Two products, Summation and Concordance, currently dominate the litigation support software market,” states ShadowCounsel President David A. Black. “We can and do provide imaging (scanning), OCR, metadata coding and load file creation for law firms and other businesses that have purchased either one of these fine packages. On the other hand, a lot of folks have neither the financial resources for costly software license expenditures, nor the time to learn how to use additional technologies. ShadowCounsel has therefore started building search and retrieval databases that can be navigated via the freely available Adobe Reader, which is currently used by over 500 million people worldwide. This is not only an inexpensive route to go, but also maximizes a lawyer’s ability to share large document data sets through the use of a free, instantly available and extraordinarily popular product that won’t go belly-up or otherwise become obsolete in the foreseeable future.”

About ShadowCounsel: ShadowCounsel provides digital conversion and virtual paralegal assistance at prices among the lowest in the nation. The company’s mission is to maximize attorney effectiveness by minimizing clerical headaches to the greatest possible extent. Mr. Black urges his current and potential clients to, “save space associated with the storage of your hard copy documents, time finding relevant information, and money you continue to waste on too much support personnel, rental space and lost productivity by taking a more paper-less approach to your work.” ShadowCounsel offers:

High speed scanning - the act of taking image snapshots of paper, microfiche or microfilm files, which result in perfect reproductions that last a lifetime, can be viewed and stored on a computer, and generated back into hard copy form instantly via a printer whenever one desires.

Enhanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) of scanned images - resulting in lightening fast full-text search and retrieval via Adobe Reader, or any of the other free computer desktop search engines currently on the market.

Automated metadata coding, OCR and load file creation, resulting in “structured” search capability - for those utilizing Summation and Concordance litigation support database packages.

Manual metadata coding of PDF format images, resulting in “structured” search capability – for those with no specialized litigation support software. Clients receive an OCRd/coded “database” navigable via the free Adobe Reader. This is a great place to start for individuals new to digital conversion technology and its benefits in that it requires no additional software expense.

Remote paralegal support – electronic document production, including automated Bates numbering/confidentiality designation and electronic redaction; bookmarking/indexing; hyperlinked exhibit notebooks, briefs and witness binders; document review and other analytical work not requiring a JD; and a host of other assistance options.

ShadowCounsel believes storing hard copy documents on a CD or DVD mirroring an established hard copy filing structure and holding over 14,000 (5 bankers boxes) and 80,000 (28 bankers boxes) pages, respectively, makes more sense than paying for the storage space associated with hard copy file banks. “Continuing to store files in paper form defies logic,” adds Mr. Black.

ShadowCounsel: “Win the paper chase… by ending it.”

David A. Black
ShadowCounsel
2601 Carisbrook Drive
Oakland, California 94611

Phone: 510-479-7290 (main); 415-793-6154 (cell)
Email: shadow_counsel@yahoo.com; blackda@speedpost.net
Web Site: http://www.shadowcounsel.org

ShadowCounsel was profiled recently on University of California, Davis Writing Program Lecturer Andy Jones’, Dr. Andy's Poetry and Technology Hour, a KDVS public affairs radio program.

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