From the site: "Have all of your posts, comments and mentions on the Internet, especially in social media, become the dreaded "permanent record?"  Is what people see in Google about you what you want them to"know" about you? As lawyers participate in social media - Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, just to name a few  - there's a growing sense that Internet presence is becoming online reputation. In this episode, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell look at this important new phenomenon and suggest practical ways that you can find and manage your online reputation, while avoiding the most common pitfalls. After you listen, be sure to check out Tom & Dennis' co-blog and book by the same name, The Lawyers Guide to Collaboration Tools and Technologies.

>Show Notes Wiki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (25.3MB)

Related Podcasts

• October 30, 2008 -- Social Media, Twitter & Law Firms
• July 6, 2009 -- What Technology is Dead Today?
• April 16, 2009 -- Online Interference in the Jury Box
• April 14, 2009 -- ABA TECHSHOW in Review
• March 31, 2009 -- Reality Check: The Impact of Legal Technology for Lawyers

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 24 August 2009

Posted by Nerino Petro: "Today's issue of YourABA e-news includes a link to Ethics checklists for solo and small firm practitioners. This is really a compilation of prior ABA articles, free CLE audio and sample forms on ethical issues facing lawyers. These are well worth reading and adding a bookmark in your browser so you can refer back to these as needed."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Nerino Petro's Compujurist, 25 August 2009

Posted by: John Jantsch: "More than once those that follow what I do have asked me how I seem to get so much done in a day. I have to admit that I get a lot of help from the man behind the curtain and from you my readers and subscribers. That's the part that many don't see, but the rich set of, often free, tools out there now make it much easier to run your business and increase your productivity.

I use a power set of tools throughout the day to write, collaborate, bookmark, filter, find and conduct commerce. Here is my current list of favorites, although like so much on the Internet, some of these could change in the blink of an eye.

Google Alerts ...

Central Desktop ...

Google Reader ...

TweetDeck ...

Firefox ...

Flickr ...

Snapz Pro X ...

Adium ...

ScreenFlow Pro ...

su pr ...

Email Center Pro ...

Jott ...

Simple Note ...

WordPress ...

Google Analytics ...

Infusion Soft ..."

The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below

Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 26 August 2009

Posted by Ernest Svenson: "I recently had the chance to review a short little book called 'Dangerous Law Practice: Myths, Lies & Stupidity'.  The book only has 94 pages, but it's chock full of pith and common sense.  The book was written by seven authors, mostly folks who are tuned into technology.  So much of the wisdom has to do with how to incorporate technology into your practice.  

But, it's not all tech-centered.  For example there is the chapter entitled 'The Low Fee Myth,' which debunks the idea that you get more clients if you charge less money.  The lesson there is not to crank up your fees, though.  The message is to 'charge what you are worth, and be sure that the client agrees you are worth what you charge.'  If you want to learn more about the book, or purchase it click here."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Ernie the Attorney, 11 August 2009

In the news: "In deduplication, documents are assigned an algorithmically calculated alphanumeric value and compared to all other electronic files in a data set. As simple as this seems, there are two different ways to "dedupe": by custodian and by case. Both have their advantages and pitfalls."

The article discusses deduplication by case and detecting duplicate e-mail attachments with conclusion.

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 27 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe   <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by John Heckman: "There seems to have been a recent uptick in inquiries along the line "Do I really need Time Matters?" Can't I do everything I do with TM just with PCLaw? (Manifestly, this corresponds to increased dissatisfaction with Time Matters and LexisNexis).

The generic answer is pretty simple: If you have an extensively customized Time Matters setup (for example, do you have custom fields on the "Additional" tab?), and make substantial use of chains and triggers, then the answer is "No, you would not be happy with PCLaw." However, if you use TM mainly as a calendar and rolodex for contacts and matters, then PCLaw may be able to do what you need. As usual, the devil is in the details.

[The article discusses:]

Calendar and Chains (Linked Events)...

Triggers...

Customization of Matters...

Documents...

Timers...

Data Import...

So the answer is.... it all depends on what you are looking to do. If you make a list of the five things you wish your current system would do, but doesn't; and another of five functions you absolutely can't afford to lose, and compare the result with some of the details above, you will be in a much better position to make an informed decision."

The full text of this post is available at the source site listed below

Source: Does It Compute?, 24 August 2009

Posted by Scott Hanselman: "My one-hundred-and-seventy-second podcast is up. Dan Bricklin is an innovator and entrepreneur, and created VisiCalc, the first electronic spreadsheet in 1979. He's just written a book called Bricklin on Technology full of observations, stories, case histories and insight into the human aspect of technology. This week he sits down with me. (So cool! Woot!)

Links from the Show

Dan Bricklin's Blog

New Modes of Interaction - Google Wave and Project Natal

Dan on Twitter - @danb

Book: Bricklin on Technology

Dan's Podcasts, Videos, and Writings

Subscribe:

Download: MP3 Full Show #172

Play in your browser

Do also remember the complete archives are always up and they have PDF Transcripts, a little known feature that show up a few weeks after each show."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Scott Hanselman's Computerzen.com, 26 July 2009

Posts are going to be a little erratic for a while. Mom is still recovering from hip surgery at our house and my husband had a heart attack last Friday and is having a triple bypass next Monday. I'll post whenever I can fit in the time.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "There's an interesting article this week in Texas Lawyer about how judges are using social media. On one level, having judges who are familiar with social media can be helpful in dealing with certain issues that may arise at trial, like tweeting jurors or electronic discovery involving sites like Twitter and Flickr. But on another level, some of the judicial Facebook usage described in this article seemed a bit intrusive, in my view.

Judge Susan Criss, of Galveston's 212th District Court where she's served since 1999, often "friends" lawyers through Facebook. In order to avoid any communications that might be perceived as ex parte, Criss asks lawyers to de-friend her if they're appearing before her at trial. But as she peruses the Facebook profiles of her friends and associates, Criss sometimes comes across comments by litigants bragging about how they'll make money off a case. She says that in these instances she alerts lawyers on both sides. That's courteous, but lawyers should be sufficiently familiar with social media to check these sites themselves.

Similarly, Criss keeps track of what lawyers are doing. According to the story,

Criss recalls that recently a lawyer told her she needed a continuance because of a death in her family. The judge previously had given the lawyer a weeklong continuance, but at a subsequent hearing the lawyer's senior partner, who appeared on her behalf, told Criss his colleague actually needed a month-long postponement, Criss says. "I knew from her bragging on a Facebook account that she had been partying that same week," Criss says. The judge says she told the senior partner at the hearing about her Facebook discovery and denied his request.

Another time, Criss says, she told the lawyers in her courtroom for a weeklong trial that she intended to go to a bench-bar conference and would miss a day of court. "Then that evening, I was on Facebook. I saw another lawyer post about the bench-bar conference. The lawyer who had been in my courtroom then wrote, 'Judge Criss is coming to speak at your conference Friday. Be nice to her so she will be in a good mood when I come back.' I wrote, 'I will be in a good mood when I come back.'" The lawyer who first posted about the conference then wrote to the friend, "Ha, ha you forgot Facebook was public," Criss adds.

That seems a little scary to me!

What do you think of this judge's use of Facebook?

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 25 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "There's an interesting article this week in Texas Lawyer about how judges are using social media. On one level, having judges who are familiar with social media can be helpful in dealing with certain issues that may arise at trial, like tweeting jurors or electronic discovery involving sites like Twitter and Flickr. But on another level, some of the judicial Facebook usage described in this article seemed a bit intrusive, in my view.

Judge Susan Criss, of Galveston's 212th District Court where she's served since 1999, often "friends" lawyers through Facebook. In order to avoid any communications that might be perceived as ex parte, Criss asks lawyers to de-friend her if they're appearing before her at trial. But as she peruses the Facebook profiles of her friends and associates, Criss sometimes comes across comments by litigants bragging about how they'll make money off a case. She says that in these instances she alerts lawyers on both sides. That's courteous, but lawyers should be sufficiently familiar with social media to check these sites themselves.

Similarly, Criss keeps track of what lawyers are doing. According to the story,

Criss recalls that recently a lawyer told her she needed a continuance because of a death in her family. The judge previously had given the lawyer a weeklong continuance, but at a subsequent hearing the lawyer's senior partner, who appeared on her behalf, told Criss his colleague actually needed a month-long postponement, Criss says. "I knew from her bragging on a Facebook account that she had been partying that same week," Criss says. The judge says she told the senior partner at the hearing about her Facebook discovery and denied his request.

Another time, Criss says, she told the lawyers in her courtroom for a weeklong trial that she intended to go to a bench-bar conference and would miss a day of court. "Then that evening, I was on Facebook. I saw another lawyer post about the bench-bar conference. The lawyer who had been in my courtroom then wrote, 'Judge Criss is coming to speak at your conference Friday. Be nice to her so she will be in a good mood when I come back.' I wrote, 'I will be in a good mood when I come back.'" The lawyer who first posted about the conference then wrote to the friend, "Ha, ha you forgot Facebook was public," Criss adds.

That seems a little scary to me!

What do you think of this judge's use of Facebook?

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 25 August 2009

Posted by Rick Borstein: "I'm hitting the road to show off Acrobat 9 in Chicago, Columbus, Cincinnati, Seattle and San Francisco!

Come see me present a free 3-hour demonstration of Adobe Acrobat 9. Free breakfast included!

You'll see lots of great Acrobat features including PDF Portfolios, forms, redaction, conversion tips, export to Word and Excel, security and lots more!

Adobe Acrobat Forum

Columbus, OH - Wednesday, September 16

Register Now

Time: 9:00 am - 12:30 pm (EST)

Where: Capital Club
41 South High Street
Columbus, Ohio 43215
(614) 228-0225

Cincinnati, OH - Thursday, September 17

Register Now

Time: 9:00 am - 12:30 pm (EST)

Where: The Westin Cincinnati Hotel
21 East 5th Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513) 621-7700

Read on for a full agenda and details."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Acrobat for Legal Professionals, 25 August 2009

Posted by Tom Kane: "For those who rushed out this past weekend to take advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program (like my son), now it is time to rush to offer fixed fees. According to a front page story in today's Wall Street Journal the "'Billable Hour' (is) Under Attack," and more and more companies are demanding fixed fee arrangements from their outside law firms. BigLaw is beginning to get the message.

Additionally, my colleague Jim Hassett has written extensively about alternative fees on his blog, Legal Business Development. He is currently conducting a survey of the AmLaw 100 firms' practices in this area, and the survey should be completed in the next few weeks. The results will undoubtedly shed light on the views regarding alternative fees among these firms.

Since smaller firms are more flexible in terms of changing their billing structure than are the more bureaucratic, large firms, there is still time for small to medium-sized firms to take advantage. So, don't wait.

Time is of the essence as they say. Call your key clients now to let them know you are willing to discuss flat fees before you get left behind. It won't be long before the big guys get that huge tanker turned around.

If you are interested in reading some of my posts on alternative fees over the past 4 years...

Continue Reading

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 24 August 2009

From the site: "There are important benefits for trial lawyers using a deferred compensation plan when it comes to their contingent fees. How does it work and are there any restrictions for plaintiff attorneys who want to structure their fees? Ringler Radio host, Larry Cohen is joined by co-host Doug Merritt and special guest, nationally recognized tax attorney Robert W. Wood from the firm of Wood & Porter in San Francisco, to discuss the requirements and answer the questions that could help trial lawyers manage their incomes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (43.8MB)

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 21 August 2009 

Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: "USAToday.com last Wednesday morning reported that many "states were trying to put the brakes on bad driving by targeting 'super speeders,' lane hogs and those guilty of multiple moving violations."

"The moves," the article says, "come as a growing body of evidence suggests that aggressive driving -- including speeding, tailgating, changing lanes without signaling, ignoring traffic signals and weaving in and out of traffic -- is deadlier than drunken driving. An April study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that aggressive driving was a factor in 56% of all fatal U.S. crashes from 2003 through 2007."

Florida is leading the way with a new law that sends its worst drivers back to driving school, while Georgia, to cite a second state, is adding an extra $200 fine to the tickets of "super speeders" -- defined as drivers caught traveling more than 75 mph on two-lane roads or 85 mph on any road, according to the article."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 21 August 2009

Posted by Joe Hodnicki: "In the mid-80s I saw an attorney drafting on a personal computer for the very first time. My first thought was "why the hell do that (!)" because the attorney, a partner, have a great secretary right outside his office door. (My second thought was, "billing time spent formatting the document?"). The attorney practiced labor law in the newspaper industry and saw how electronic composition and layout was revolutionizing the industry but there was no connectivity between this attorney's Epson lapbricktop and our firm's word processing system. At the time, I was still dictating my work product as was almost everyone else who wasn't applying pen or pencil to legal pad. By the late-80s I had a little Apple in my office but still handed dictation tapes to my secretary. Why compose documents when my secretary (Hi, Marj) did it so much better than I ever could. The Apple was great for playing computer golf while waiting for the word processing department to spit out drafts late at night.

As law firm work product transitioned to attorneys using desktop computers for drafting and document production, they still benefited from the professional skills of secretaries who knew how to properly format legal documents. Today? Don't know, but do know law school students have a long way to go before they will format legal documents as well as professional legal secretaries. In addition to the formalities of document structure, law school students and apparently attorneys also need skills in legal typography. Now, there's a website that offers some guidance -- Typography for Lawyers by Matthew Butterick.

Butterick is an LA civil litigation attorney with an art degree from Harvard University. He studied graphic design and typography, and before practicing law, he was a digital typeface designer. From the About This Website page:

Even though the legal profession depends heavily on writing, legal typography is often poor. Some blame lies with the strict typographic constraints that control certain legal documents (e.g. court rules regarding the format of pleadings). But the rest of the blame lies with lawyers. To be fair, I assume this is for lack of information, not lack of will. This website tries to fill that void.

See also Butterick's Why is typography important for lawyers? page. Hat tip to Binary Law. [JH]

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Law Librarian Blog, 25 August 2009

In the news: "After a decade of electronic discovery, lawyers have recognized a gap between what a string of binary code can do and what a lawyer's dual-hemisphered brain can do to prepare for trial. What kind of meaningful relationship is ahead in the marriage of litigators and computers?"

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 26 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe  <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Stewart Mader: "John Mancini of AIIM published my article 8 Things You Can Do With an Enterprise Wiki, on his Digital Landfill blog. The article is part of 8 things, an ongoing series on topics like information, records, and content management, governance, email trends, knowledge sharing, business processes, etc. I'm reprinting the article here, in its entirety, for archival purposes, but you should head over to Digital Landfill to check out all the great articles in the series:

Many people think Wikipedia when they hear the word wiki, but there are multiple ways to use a wiki within an organization that are very different from Wikipedia, and more strongly aligned with the day to day activities, needs, and goals in a work environment.

Let's look at eight ways a wiki can help you readjust your valuable time to get more of your essential work done, spend less time on meetings and redundant activities, and more efficiently assemble, refine and reuse valuable information.

1. Meeting Agendas...

2. Meeting Minutes, and Action Items...

3. Project Management...

4. Gather Input...

5. Build Documentation...

6. Assemble and Reuse Information...

7. Employee Handbook...

8. Knowledge Base...

Related Articles

• Wiki Adoption Part 4: Email Overload Killed the Businessperson
• Wiki Adoption Part 2: Be Firm, and Think Long Term
• 6 effective (and slightly badass) ways to keep meetings brief, action focused, and relevant
• Video: Track Action Items in the Wiki
• Day 10: Action Items

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

In the news: "Making a living as a solo can be lonely, so attorneys who are going to do it ought to have a large support network. Still, there will be times when the solitary nature of the solo's calling will settle in like a thick fog, writes solo Paul Schorn. In those moments, inspiration and energy can come from fictional accounts of that brave (if half-mad) loner tilting at windmills in the interest of justice. Schorn discusses three inspirational Hollywood characters and some lessons they hold for the solo. "

1. Frank Galvin in "The Verdict."

2. Atticus Finch in "To Kill a Mockingbird"

3. Vincent "Vinny" Gambini in "My Cousin Vinny."

Read full text 

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 21 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>

From the blog: "At some point in our careers, lawyers end up in a rut.  If you ask them why they practice law, they would be hard-pressed to come up with a compelling answer.  

Some lawyers practice merely to make a living, to bring home a paycheck.  Other lawyers feel the law is a calling and focus on professional responsibilities of our chosen endeavor..."

Continue reading this insightful post at the source site listed below.

Source: The Greatest American Lawyer, 20 August 2009 

Posted by Tom Kane: "Establishing good relations with reporters and editors is always a good thing. It is also one of my top ten best practices (check out No. 8 - "Take a Reporter to Lunch"). Press coverage increases your credibility and is free vs. advertising, which both requires out-of pocket costs, and by its nature is less credible because it's you talking vs. a reporter quoting you.

In 365 Marketing Meditations: Daily Lessons for Marketing & Communications Professionals by Richard S. Levick and Larry Smith of Levick Strategic Communications, the meditations for today and tomorrow contain two excellent points in dealing with reporters:

August 20: "Don't ever promise an exclusive without delivering;" and

August 21: "Don't snub reporters because you've never heard of their publications. They have a funny way of eventually landing at The Wall Street Journal."

Good advice if you want to build solid relationships with reporters."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 20 August 2009

Posted by Allison Shields: "Email management seems to be a hot topic lately. David Bilinsky's Thoughtful Legal Management blog contained his suggestions for email management in a post earlier this month entitled simply Email Management. His post specifically addresses the issue of what to do to archive emails when a file has been closed.

Jim Calloways' Law Practice Tips blog also includes some great recent posts on email management. For example, consider liberally using unsubscribe to manage the flood of email. Even better, read Jim's post on Tips for Using Outlook Tasks to Clear Your Inbox. As Jim points out, Outlook 2007 does a much better job at this than earlier versions of Outlook do. Jim also notes that many of the emails we 'store' in our Inboxes are emails that act as reminders of tasks. Rather than letting them pile up (and get lost) in your email inbox, he recommends the drag and drop method to place the message into a task - setting a date only where necessary - and thereby clearing out the inbox clutter.

Don't feel like reading more about email management? For step by step tips for how to save emails to a client file, see this step by step email management screencast by Lawyerist, or listen to the podcast about email management from Adriana Linares and Debbie Foster on Legal Talk Network.

Here are some of my own email management tips:...

The full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Ease Blog, 20 August 2009

Posted by Diane Pfadenhauer: "Just as we try to enjoy the last few weeks of Summer, it's not to late to be contemplating the possible effects of the HINI Flu Virus.  The EEOC has also gotten on the bandwagon by making available  guidance information under the Americans With Disabilities Act.  The Guidance addresses infection control, pre-employment inquiries, and provides a brief FAQ so that you can begin preparing for the effects of a possible pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control has also made available comprehensive information on its website.  It recently, for example, issued guidance relating to school closures.  You can bet that such closures will have an impact on employee attendance.  In addition, you will also find guidance on how long a victim of the flu should be kept away form others (give this one to your work-aholics).

Follow this link to the EEOC's Guidance: ADA-Compliant Employer Preparedness For the H1N1 Flu Virus

Follow this link to: The CDC's Web Page on H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu)

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Strategic HR Lawyer, 14 August 2009

From the site: "Why retire? So says Attorney Jack Borden, who is in his law office at 6:30 every morning, doing what he loves - practicing law. Recently, Borden celebrated his 101st birthday, being named 'America's Outstanding Oldest Worker for 2009,' by Experience Works. Now he is the special guest on this edition of Lawyer2Lawyer with co-hosts and attorneys, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi , who discuss the gamut with Borden, senior partner at Borden & Westhoff, LLP. Hear his vivid stories from the past century about the legal profession, tips for young lawyers and his secret to longevity.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (24.2MB)

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 20 August 2009

From the e-newsletter: "Are you new to the world of virtual discovery? First off all, welcome."

E-discovery involves all of the aspects of civil-litigation discovery, and applies it to electronic information.  If you are foraying into this tech version of discovery, be ready to hear words like metadata, spoliation, ESI, and raw data.  If your eyes aren't already glazed over, relax.  There is lots of help, and luckily most of it is available in just a few convenient clicks.

One way to get up to speed is to read the book for e-discovery newbies---not suggesting you are a dummy in any way---titled "Electronic Discovery for Dummies".  And the book is actually available for free through RenewData.

 Read more... 

Source: FindLaw's Modern Practice: Law & Technology. 20 August 2009. Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>

From the e-newsletter: "Do you know what steps to take to protect your legal rights after an accident or injury? FindLaw's Accident and Injury Center provides tips on preserving evidence, making notes about what happened, getting a police report, and finding an attorney -- all with an eye toward protecting your legal rights.

 Read more... 

Related Resources
• Browse FindLaw's Accident & Injury Center" 

Source: FindLaw's PUBLIC ADVISOR: Legal News & Resources for the Public.. 20August 2009. Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>

In the news: "The Hippocratic oath in medicine begins with the admonition "first, do no harm." This simple directive also fully applies to the practice of law, says Jones Day partner Steven C. Bennett. Junior lawyers, however, often overlook the potential consequences of their behavior, assuming that someone else more senior will help them before or after a problem occurs. Bennett catalogues some of the most common ways that a junior lawyer can mess up a matter, and offers some basic cures for each potential pitfall."

Topics discussed include:

1. WASTING TIME...

2. WASTING RESOURCES...
3. BINDING THE CLIENT...
4. DROPPING THE BALL...
5. LOST/ALTERED DOCUMENTS...

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 20 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Last week, I asked whether lawyers make a poor impression on clients when using free e-mail addresses like Gmail or Yahoo. This week, there's a more serious debate brewing in the blogosphere over e-mail, specifically, whether free e-mail services are unsafe at any speed. In other words, are the confidentiality and privacy features of these systems so grossly inadequate that no level of caution can make them suitable for communication with clients?

Toby Brown at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog cautions against reliance on these services. Re-reading the terms of service agreements from Gmail and Yahoo, Brown discovered that they both reserve the rights to pre-screen e-mail and target ads to content. Because these free e-mail services expose confidential communications to third parties, Brown believes that lawyers who use these services may be waiving confidentiality and could put themselves at risk of disciplinary action....

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 19 August 2009

Posted by Mark Bennett: "We lawyers love to hear ourselves talk. That can be the death of a jury selection. In a good voir dire, the jurors do most of the talking. Even if I can't hear what the lawyer and jurors are saying, I can tell a good voir dire from a bad one by listening, as long as I can tell who is talking. Lawyer talking most of the time? Bad. Jurors talking most of the time? Good.

So the fourth Simple Rule for Better Jury Selection is the 90/10 Rule: let the jurors talk 90 percent of the time (or more) in voir dire.

Try to find a way to elicit more information with fewer words (more about that later, especially in Rules 8 and 11). If you have a brilliant defense, try to find a way to get one of your jurors to come up with it. If a juror or your adversary says something that must be refuted, let your jurors refute it (if it's worth refuting, one of them will, given the chance, refute it). Among the many benefits of talking less, you'll learn more, the jurors will like you more (or at worst dislike you less), and the judge will be more reluctant to limit your time.

90/10: Get them talking, and keep them talking."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Defending People, 14 August 2009

Posted by Sabrina I. Pacifici: "The Third Branch: "The Judicial Conference has issued a series of "suggested practices" to assist courts in the use of Internet materials in opinions. The recommendations follow a pilot project conducted by circuit librarians who captured and preserved webpages cited in opinions over a six-month period...The guidelines suggest that, if a webpage is cited, chambers staff preserve the citation by downloading a copy of the site's page and filing it as an attachment to the judicial opinion in the Judiciary's Case Management/Electronic Case Files System. The attachment, like the opinion, would be retrievable on a non-fee basis through the Public Access to Court Electronic Records system." 

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 19 August 2009 Copyright ©2002-2009. BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.

From the blog: "Former criminal defense and in-house lawyer Taisha Rucker used to wonder what else she could do with her law degree. Now 13 years later, she's answered the question, and is working on a book to help law students, new grads, and burned-out lawyers who are just beginning to ask. As part of Rucker's research, she has created a thoughtful blog (www.LimitlessLawyer.com) that profiles successful ex-lawyers whose legal career took an unexpected turn, and she provides a brief online survey for those who want to tell their own story.

Rucker (University of Michigan Law, 1995) currently works for an educational consulting company in San Francisco, and in her spare time is honing her skills writing screenplays.

If you have a JD and want to share your insights about how to transition to an alternative legal career, or how to juggle a dual legal and nonlegal career, check out Rucker's blog and click on Survey.

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Lawyer Avenue, 4 August 2009

From the ABA Law Practice Management Section: "Following the informative discussion of Jim Calloway, Sharon Nelson, Ross Kodner's book "How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times," this edition of The Digital Edge, explores marketing and management tools for lawyers during a down economy.

Download Podcast"

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Law Technology Today, 14 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "When it comes to Internet marketing, there's no one size fits all solution.  The effectiveness of any of the tools that I've discussed here at the Legal Marketing Blawg, such as blogs, Twitter or video depends not just on whether your current or prospective clients spend time online but  also where and how they use the Internet.

To understand the importance of how clients use the Internet to your online marketing efforts, consider the results of an April 2009 study by the Pew Internet Project released last month.  According to the study, 56% of those polled said they have at some point used wireless means for online access - a figure that's significant enough to convince most lawyers to either start or step up marketing measures online..."

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Nolo's Legal Marketing Blog, 19 August 2009

In the news: "You have poured dollars and time into creating an informative and client-friendly site. Now what? How do you drive traffic to your site? According to consultants Stacy West Clark and Jason P. Lisi, there are definite tricks of the trade, both online and off, that need to be applied."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 20 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Dan Michaluk: "When, if ever, is it appropriate to use humour in a hearing? And what boundaries should lawyers respect?

This, my first slaw.ca post, has been a great opportunity to read a little, think a little and affirm my belief that humour is an important advocacy tool, though subtlety is the key to its successful use.

My interest in the subject of humour and advocacy began at an Advocate's Society lunchtime session a few years ago. In debriefing a mock examination, one of our well-respected Superior Court judges took great exception to a flippant remark made by a witness. She turned her gaze to the audience of lawyers and warned us never to use humour in court. She was sobriety personified, and her warning stuck with me. I can still hear her words: "Ours is a very serious profession."

Read more... or Read more right here... »

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Slaw, 19 August 2009

In the news: "The corporate-sponsored event season is nearly here, and chances are that lawyers will spend a Saturday evening in a cocktail dress or ball gown in the months to come. These events are fantastic opportunities to network, bond with less familiar co-workers and step out feeling fabulous. However, if the health of your bank account is on your mind, buying a fabulous outfit may be a challenge. Here are some ways to keep the costs of dressing up under control, from Andrews Kurth associate Kasia Benson."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 19 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe  <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Tom Kane: "It's easy! Listen to and communicate with your clients.

Not only will it cut down on malpractice claims according an ABA article on avoiding such claims. In this month's issue of Law Practice Today the article highlights Mark Goulston, M.D., who states that lawyers can improve their communications with clients by doing one thing: "listening." As we all know, listening is a critical element of communication. By letting the client talk and if "you listen to their real concerns...They feel gratified. The challenge for professionals is that they fear...the clients will waste their time with venting. But the opposite is true," according to Dr. Goulston, a clinical psychiatrist.

Further, the article refers to the most recent Profile of Legal Malpractice Claims published by the ABA last fall. The startling statistic is that only slightly more than 10% of claims filed against lawyers actually involve possible malpractice. The remaining 88% of complaints involve lawyers' failure to communicate with clients.

That's where marketing comes in. If clients are unhappy because of a lawyer's lack of communication, what are the chances that they will refer someone else to that lawyer. Does zilch come quickly to your mind. It should.  The failure to take every opportunity to communicate with clients is just plain dumb marketing - or even worse, marketing malpractice.

P.S. In a sidebar, the article contains the "Top 12 Ways of Avoiding Malpractice Claims." Several of them, are also smart marketing tips."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 18 August 2009

Posted by Chuck Newton: "Sometimes you need to trade technology for telephony.  A chat message for yakking it up.  Getting on the horn instead of getting online.

Growing primitive is a combination, for me anyway, of growing your law practice with going primitive, which is a term that describes trading keyboarding or texting for a phone call.

Do not get me wrong, social media is awesome in so many ways.  But, it is also lacking in so many ways.  Ways that it takes to grow a law practice rapidly.  It is hard to sometimes express warmth, affinity, empathy and appreciation by texting or email.  It is hard to measure tonality or the inflection of one's voice.

Phone calling is more complicated.  You run into the palace guards, voicemail, and wrong numbers.  Sure it is a little reminiscent of going back to dial-up, but let us face facts.  Phone calling is so retro these days it is cool.

It is more personal.  It represents a slower pace.  It is more distinguishing.  It is native.

It might be easier to make contact with social media, but all of the emails, texts, and tweets somehow get lost in the mix.  Phone calls represent a little more lasting impression.  Try calling someone, when you do not need them for anything specific, and for no reason at all but to figure out how they are doing.

Next to personal contact, telephone communications probably work best, especially for the initial contact.

It is all about marketing, and just making friends.  These two tasks really go hand in hand.  In the area of network or relationship marketing, phone calls are key.

I will get more immediate referrals for staying in contact by phone with my referral sources than by emailing them constantly.  Sure both help, but calling is more memorable.

So my tip to you is to grow primitive."

Other great tips abound at the source site listed below!

Source: Chuck Newton Rides the Third Wave, 14 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Last week, I took a quick hop up to New York with my daughters to visit Banana Republic's design studios.  The trip came courtesy of my lucky 12 year old, Elana who won both the tour and $400 in spending money in a contest at Miss O and Friends.  Though I was happy for my daughter, initially I balked about losing a work day during a period when I'm swamped.  Plus, fashion doesn't come very high on my interest list; I'd have preferred a tour of a court room or even a baseball game.  But I needn't have been so stodgy, because as it turned out, even the fashion industry offers some valuable real life marketing lessons that could benefit lawyers.

1. Advance Planning...

2.  Know Your Customer/Clients...

3.  Outside Inspiration...

4.  The Passion..."

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: MyShingle, 16 August 2009

From the blog: "If you're doing some research on the Supreme Court, make sure that this website is your first stop for sources. Containing over 200 pieces of information about the U.S. Supreme Court cases decided between 1953 and 2009, it contains a wealth of useful information!"

From CM Law Library Blog

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Moritz Legal Information Blog, 18 August 2009

In the news: "Most of us can be reached by phone in different ways: office, mobile and home. But calls made to one place may not reach us, and voice mail messages left in one box may not be retrieved. Google Voice attempts to solve this by adding yet another number, the Google Voice number."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 19 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

From the site:

"Caring Connections provides free advance directives and instructions for each state that can be opened as a PDF (Portable Document Format) file.

These materials are copyrighted by Caring Connections. Permission is granted to download a single copy of any portion of these texts. Use by individuals for personal and family benefit is specifically authorized and encouraged. Further copies or publication are prohibited without express written permission.

Source: National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

See: Preparing for the Final Hours (Wall Street Journal)"

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: ResourceShelf, 18 August 2009

Posted by Paul Luvera: "David Ball and Don Keenan have done an excellent job of outlining the importance of Reptile motivation and the practical applications in their book Reptile. They recommend the plaintiff show the defendant's actions constitute an immediate public danger and that a verdict for the plaintiff will reduce that danger. Since the ultimate goal is survival, safety and safe practices are the way to achieve it. This case, you should argue, presents an opportunity to make things safer by their verdict. In fact, the justice system is a public safety system. They suggest that the important points to be made at trial are these:

1. The defendant's conduct threatens everyone's safety

2. A proper verdict for the plaintiff will reduce the danger

3. If a proper verdict for the plaintiff is not given, the danger will be increased

Therefore, our job is to teach the jury safety rules that apply to the case and show the violation of those rules. We need to demonstrate that the greater the danger, the greater the care required. There were safety rules that applied in this case. The defendant in this case failed to follow the rules by doing the job right. The defendant violated a safety rule.

Ball and Keenan recommend that the plaintiff apply the "no unnecessary risk" rule. That is no one is allowed to needlessly endanger another. For example, no doctor is allowed to needlessly endanger a patient and a company making products is never allowed to needlessly endanger the public. Where there is more then one way to accomplish the same thing, you must always select the safest way."

Read more interesting trial tips at Paul's blog.

Source: Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips, 8 august 2009

Posted by Bonnie Shucha: "Mark Gediman at 3 Geeks and a Law Blog has an interesting post about law firm cost recovery for online database charges.

I find myself constantly explaining/defending/justifying our cost recovery policy. Maybe I've been sampling the Kool-aid along the way, but I've come to realize that most firms that charge back for online services are actually saving their clients money.

Mark offers some examples of the cost savings that can be achieved using online databases v print materials, including this one:

Charging a fee for pulling a case online is less than the cost of pulling it off the shelf
Let's say a firm charges clients $10 per case. It takes about a minute to pull and print the case. With a billing rate of $300/hr, the total cost to pull that case would be $15 ($10 for the case, $5 for the attorney's time).

If the case is pulled from the shelf, let's figure the following time is spent: 5 minutes to walk to the books, 2 minutes to pull the right volume, 5 more to copy the case and 5 more to walk back to the office for a grand total of 17 minutes. The cost is $85. And this doesn't count the cost of the space required to house the cases or the copying charges.

The cost to pull the case online is only 17% the cost of pulling it in print. I realize that not everyone does these activities in exactly the same way. However, what is clear is that the client actually saved money in the process.

But he does note that there are some caveats to the online saving rule, particularly when using a treatise, "usually a practice guide, that the end user knows intimately." He notes that "it is actually better to keep these types of treatises in print."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: WisBlawg, 14 August 2009

 Posted by JD Hull:

Continue reading...

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: What About Clients?, 18 August 2009

In the news: "Consultant Debra L. Bruce says that when she is contacted by laid-off lawyers who are looking for help in augmenting their job search efforts, or attorneys whose business has dropped off, one of her first questions is about what kind of networking they do. The frequent response is that they haven't done much networking because they aren't comfortable with it. For reluctant networkers, Bruce provides four tips to make the essential activity of networking more enjoyable -- or at least less painful."

Tips include:

1. GO WITH THE INTENTION TO HELP...

2. DEVELOP STARTER QUESTIONS...

3. GET INVOLVED STRATEGICALLY...

4. REPEAT...

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 18 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe   <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Over at  Idealawg, Stephanie West Allen plays host to a robust debate over whether Generation Y lawyers -- or "millennials," lawyers under 30 -- who seek work/life balance to the exclusion of focusing on client needs are unrealistic slackers or serious professionals with different priorities than previous generations. West Allen set off the discussion with this question:

I continue to ask myself where the client service focus is in this generational wrangling. In fact, that is what I listen for when I hear the discussions. How much is it mentioned? If at all?

Although blogger Scott Greenfield responded with a standalone post, Does the Word "Slackoisie" Offend You? Good, (making his opinion on the issue clear with his title), many others chimed in on the original post's comment section. Dan Hull of What About Clients? claims that most millennials he's hired in his firm have been inferior in quality to older lawyers, and that their level of self-involvement makes it difficult for them to put the needs of clients first. Charon QC sides with Greenfield and Hull, though he also acknowledges that work without enjoyment can lead to unhealthy habits.

On the other side of the debate is Susan Cartier Liebel, who believes that West Allen asks the wrong question. She contends that the professional goal of client service and the personal goal of a life well lived aren't mutually exclusive, and that the millennials are an exciting group that will bring change to the profession. Likewise, Alli Gerkman also says that client service and personal life are not incompatible and that younger generations have been brought up to multitask, writing:

Thanks to technology, GenY is far more tied to the client at all hours of the day than any previous generation and this, to them, is normal. Young lawyers and professionals I know think nothing of fielding client calls over the weekend or diving into a client emergency in the middle of the night.

As for me, I am still not sure where I fall on this continuum. I can tell you that I cringe when I hear newer solos talking about how working for themselves means that they can dress anyway they want without taking into account a client's expectation of how a lawyer ought to look. At the same time, I've also had terrible experiences with older lawyers whom I've supervised (particularly those retired from a government background) who ignored deadlines and turned out terribly researched work product.

Ultimately, as lawyers, our clients' needs must always come first. If that means handling fewer clients to spend more time with children or getting by on four hours of sleep to finish a brief (both of which I've tried over the years), then that's a decision that Generation Y and all lawyers must make."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 17 August 2009

Posted by Raymond Ward: "What's the secret to making your writing flow? Actually it's no secret at all. Taylor explains at Men With Pens. (Hat tip to the [non]billable hour.)

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: the (new) legal writer, 8 August 2009

Posted by Henry Fawell: "A well-timed survey from Russell Herder underscores that many businesses have failed to adopt social media policies in the workplace. According to the survey, more than 1 in 3 executives have no policy for employee use of sites like Twitter or blogs, yet nearly half of those executives fear social media use could damage the company's reputation. To view the full results, click here.

The survey is well-timed because Womble Carlyle is publishing a column on this subject tomorrow in The Daily Record. We'll outline a few steps executives can take if they are interested in channeling their workforce's use of social media through a clearly-stated policy. Stay tuned. We'll post the column on this blog tomorrow."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Wag the Dog, 13 August 2009

From the e-newsletter: "While we're on the subject of courts, let's visit The Robing Room.  It's a site designed by lawyers, for lawyers, to evaluate Federal district court and magistrate judges.  You can rate judges and magistrates, and review the ratings and comments made about them."

Source: Internet Legal Research Weekly by Tom Mighell. Volume 10, Issue 16. 16 August 2009. Subscribe <http://lists.inter-alia.net/mailman/listinfo/inter-alia>.

By Julie A. Fleming: "Do you know how to get the most from your sponsorships?  I was interested to see this article from The National Journal, with the headline, "No More 'Chalets': Legal Marketing Focuses on Building Business.  Good idea, no?  Sponsorships can be good avenues for business development, but simply posting a firm name on a tent at a high-priced (or even high-visibility) event is unlikely to accomplish that goal.  The article notes that, 'Firms are zeroing in on opportunities that allow their attorneys to get out in front of a specific group of potential clients, such as industry conferences.'

But getting in front of a group of potential clients can mean different things to different people.  These are some of the considerations I recommend you evaluate (Read the rest of the entry...)"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Life at the Bar, 14 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "The Wall Street Journal reports that several coffee shops in Brooklyn, New York and San Francisco are restricting laptop use.  With unemployment on the rise, patrons are spending more time and less money in coffee shops, taking up space that might otherwise be occupied by paying customers.

As far as I could tell, home-office shinglers who work out of coffee shops aren't likely to be impacted by the new limits.  Most of restrictions on use apply during busy lunch hours, though in at least one instance, one customer reported that she was asked to put away her laptop and leave a cafe on a Friday evening even though the place was empty.

Even where coffee shops don't impose any restrictions on laptop use, if you're a home office lawyer who uses a cafe to work or to meet clients, you should be sensitive to the needs of coffee shop owners, who like you, are also in business to turn a profit.  Thus, you should abide by certain rules of etiquette when you use a coffee shop as an extension of your office.  Below, are a couple of my own suggestions, but I'd love to have you add yours as well:

1.  Always buy something, preferably more than you would if you weren't using the space...

2.  Don't be a table hog...

3.  Bring an extension cord...

4.  Don't talk too loudly on your cell phone...

5.   Try to repay the favor...

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: MyShingle, 7 August 2009

Their Balance and Wellness issue includes the following feature articles that look good:

Achieving Life/Work Balance Through Effective Time Management

By Kathleen Brady

Managing your time effectively doesn't necessarily mean doing more throughout your day.

How to Take a Vacation from Your Law Practice

By Sheila M. Blackford

You know you need a vacation, but can you really enjoy time away from your practice while not stressing about your clients?

A Lawyer's Tale: Recovering from Depression

By Keith Anderson

In this personal account, Keith Anderson describes his struggles with depression and how he has, again, found meaning and happiness in his life.

Job Satisfaction: Little Things Lawyers Can Do to Make a Big Difference

By Dan Millman

Putting your heart into your work not only provides a feeling of satisfaction, it also is a key to success.

Putting Up With Nothing--How To Do It

By Joshua Hornick

Putting up with negative situations hurts the quality of your practice and your life. There are two tried and true methods to eliminate situations that keep you from the top of your game.

Who Is the Best and Brightest?

By Ronda Muir

There are many ways to assess the success of someone's life. In this article, read about a few of these types of metrics.

Source: Law Practice Today, August 2009

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi : "Lawyers, it seems, prefer coke. And we refer not to soft drinks, but to drugs. As between cocaine and marijuana, occupations show a clear divide in their drug of choice. For lawyers, the choice is cocaine.

Over the past week, Richard Florida has written a series of posts for The Atlantic in which he and two colleagues slice and dice data from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health to create a picture of the relationship between drug use and various political, economic and psychological characteristics of states. In his latest entry, This Is Your Occupation on Drugs, he looks at the relationship between drug use and specific types of professional and creative jobs.

Occupations sort relatively neatly along the lines of marijuana versus cocaine use. The short of it is that marijuana use is more positively associated with science (.35), education (.38), artistic professions (.35), and engineering and architecture (.29), while cocaine use is positively associated with lawyers (.41) and, to a lesser extent, with business and finance occupations (.27), computer jobs (.25), and management fields (.26).

So what are we to make of this? Florida puts the question to one of his colleagues in analyzing this data, Peter J. Rentfrow, a lecturer in social and developmental psychology at the University of Cambridge.

I think it's interesting that cocaine is high for finance, law, and quant professions. Although we can't infer whether it's people in those jobs actually doing drugs, those professions are generally regarded as intense and lavish. So it's interesting that an expensive stimulant like cocaine is used more often in places where comparatively large numbers of people work in intense and high-paying jobs ...

What I think is particularly interesting about the results is that most professions possess elements of income, education, and personality. Even in those cases where lawyers and architects make similar amounts of money, they're very different lines of work and appeal to different types of people.

What Rentfrow seems to be saying is that intense professionals are more likely to prefer cocaine while mellow professionals are more likely to prefer marijuana. If so, one can only wonder what might happen if one day the intense professions and the mellow professions got their drugs mixed up.

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 14 August 2009

In the news: "It may have been a while since you have drafted a resume, and you might be surprised to learn that the rules are slightly different for a more seasoned candidate than for a junior attorney. For instance, consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass recommend using a combination functional/chronological format rather than a straight reverse chronology of your work experience. Also, if you have more than five years of practice experience, you should be emphasizing your expertise over your education."

Read full text 

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 17 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe  http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw

Posted by Evan Schaeffer: "Are the lawyers who you work with expressing any of the following ideas--

• A feeling that it's important to videotape all depositions of any witness an opponent might use at trial?
• Surprise that the lawyers' opponents are not videotaping depositions of witnesses the lawyers plan to present at trial?
• A desire to videotape depositions with their own, in-house equipment?

There seems to be a trend towards videotaping depositions more frequently than in the past. Here's more evidence of that, as well as a possible explanation: "Put Your Best Foot-in-Mouth Forward: Use Depo Video Powerfully," by Dr. Kevin Boully.

Hat tip: The Discovery Update, 8/09, byAtkinson-Baker Court Reporters.

Related posts:

1. "Videotaping the Deposition of Your Opposing Expert"
2. "Controlling Abusive Counsel with Video Depositions"
3. "Videotaping Your Opponent's Deposition"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 13 August 2009

Posted by Jim Hassett: "The new third edition of our free LegalBizDev Guide to Alternative Fees ends with a series of recommendations.  Here are the first five:

1. Don't over analyze; just do it...

2. Ask clients what they want...

3. Identify internal champions ...

4. Get off to a good start...

5. Increase efficiency by adapting tools from other professions..."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Business Development, 5 August 2009  http://adverselling.typepad.com/how_law_firms_sell/2009/08/alternative-fees-part-21-recommendations.html

Alternative Fees (Part 22): More Recommendations

 " ..Here are the rest of them:

6. Define and measure success
7. Evaluate results regularly, and learn from mistakes
8. Tie results to compensation
9. Don't be penny wise and pound foolish10. Act like an entrepreneur, not like a lawyer"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Business Development, 12 August 2009

From the blog: "Today, ars technica alerts us to a new service, free, from Princeton's Center for Information Technology Policy.

From the Article:

Federal court documents are currently made available to the public through a crufty system called PACER. For eight cents per page, users can download filings and other relevant documents associated with individual cases.

[Snip]

A team led by CITP director Ed Felten has devised a novel means of boosting the availability of PACER documents outside of the paywall. They have created a new Firefox extension called RECAP that seamlessly replicates PACER content and uploads it to a mirror hosted by the Internet Archive. When RECAP users browse the PACER site, the content that they pay to view will be uploaded to the mirror by the Firefox extension. Users will get free access to the documents that are already hosted by the mirror.

Over time, free PACER content will accumulate at the Internet Archive's mirror, making it unnecessary for additional users to pay PACER for access to those files. The unrestricted availability of the mirrored legal documents will empower legal researchers and members of the public who can't simply pass the access costs along to clients as most lawyers do.

This blog post provides an idea of how much material is available at this time.

The ars Technica article also mentions OpenRegs.com.

A website established in June by Mercatus Center researcher Jerry Brito and programmer Peter Snyder to help people navigate federal regulations.

See Also: Michael Arrington at TechCrunch takes on the legality of the service.

In late May, 2009, ResourceShelf posted about the "just released" Open Jurist project who's aim it is to compile, organize, and make searchable opinions (for free) At that time the database contained about 647,000 opinions.

Hat Tip: LS

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: ResourceShelf, 14 August 2009

Posted by Jim Calloway: "A lot of people are concerned about online reputation management. They are worried about things posted online about them or their families. Lawyers in particular worry that unhappy former clients will post untrue things about the lawyer online that are difficult or impossible to refute.

Our Rules of Professional Conduct say a lawyer may reveal information relating to representation of a client "to establish a claim or defense on behalf of the lawyer in a controversy between the lawyer and the client" or " to respond to allegations in any proceeding concerning the lawyer's representation of the client." ORPC 1.6(b)(5) 

OK, who thinks that applies because you didn't like something a former client said on Twitter or Facebook? Yeah. Me neither. Well, maybe if it libels the lawyer. But proving the fact of libel as a defense to an ethics complaint is not a road most of us would choose to travel.

So to me, the key to online reputation management is to put lots of positive information about you online and to tell your story. Just overwhelm any critics.

As we have seen with many well-documented Facebook and Twitter stories, the biggest potential danger area for damage to your online reputation is you. We saw it happen with flame e-mailing when angry and now you can post your anger or missteps online for the entire world to see with social networking.

Today's example is from a lawyer who uses Twitter. This lawyer is one of those who tweets many times a day and certainly has more followers than I do I'm not going to identify that lawyer because I do understand if you do that many tweets a day not all will be award-winners..."

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below. 

Source: Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, 11 August 2009

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi : "What will we see in the law firm of the future? It is a question Richard Susskind considered more than a decade ago in his book, "The Future of Law," and again in last year's book, "The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services." With the economy what it is, Susskind is far from alone in considering this question, as two recently published articles underscore.

In The Philadelphia Inquirer this week, Larry E Ribstein tells business writer Chris Mondics that law firms have yet to figure out the model that will get them out of the economic mess in which they find themselves. Ribstein, a professor of business law at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of a blog that focuses on business law, Ideoblog, says that their response so far -- cutting costs and discounting rates -- is not a cure.

"My theory is that big law firms don't have a coherent business model," Ribstein says in the article. "From a client standpoint, why would you pay so much per hour for a lawyer who works for a big firm vs. [a lower rate] for a lawyer who works for a smaller firm? What value does the big firm add?"

Instead, firms need to take a far more creative approach. One he suggests: Law firms might raise capital from investors. That would provide firms with lower-cost financing and make them answerable to investors. But before that could happen, of course, there would have to be changes in the legal ethics rules that bar such arrangements.

In another recent article, 2020 Vision, published in National, the official magazine of the Canadian Bar Association, lawyer and writer Mitch Kowalski imagines a speech delivered in the year 2020 by one Nancy Kwan, the CEO of a professional law corporation, upon being named Canada's legal CEO of the year. She talks about the elements that have made her firm a success.

She sums up the firm's approach as "better, faster, cheaper." To get there, the imaginary Kwan explains, the firm made changes in four key areas:

• Structure. The firm eliminated individual ownership and rights and created a separate and distinct corporate entity that did away with consensus decision-making and replaced it with a board of directors.
• Overhead. The firm outsources as much as possible, including legal research, document preparation and due diligence.
• Knowledge management. The firm's KM director is a member of its executive team and KM is an integral part of every lawyer's workflow.
• Billing. All fees are fixed and agreed on with the client before the work is done. If the firm fails to perform as promised, its fee is reduced.

This imaginary firm of the not-so-distant future, of course, reflects what some innovative firms of today are already instituting. As Ribstein suggests, for firms to find a business model that will work going forward, they need to think creatively."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 13 August 2009

Posted By Patrick J. Lamb: "Over the weekend, I was cleaning out some old files on my computer and I ran across a slide show I had put together for a presentation on client service.  I thought I would post them here. There were two over-arching points to the presentation that are worth reminding yourself of everyday:

1.   You need to know what your client thinks about you.  In detail. Not asking, assuming you know, drawing inferences--those approaches are for losers.  Ask.  Ask aggressively, by which I mean you should frame your questions in ways that are design to elicit criticism.  You must never lose sight of the truth that no lawyer is perfect. Because that is so, every client should have criticisms are suggestions on how you can improve performance or the delivery of value. 

2.   The second truth is that if you hear the word "fine" (as in, "everything is fine"), understand that you've just been sentenced to death.  And if you doubt me, remember this post the next time you're out at a restaurant having a mediocre or worse meal, and your waiter asks how everything is, and you answer with "everything is fine."  You need clients who are more than satisfied, more than pleased.  You need clients who are advocates, who think you are so great that they want to have legal problems just so they can deal with you. 

Certain companies have effectively branded themselves by providing such extraordinary products and services that they become the standard by which competitors are judged.  If your service firm is not the benchmark by which others in your industry are judged, you have room to improve, and improving enough to become the industry benchmark should be a focal point of your efforts.  Anyone who is not the standard is at grave risk of losing clients."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.  

Source: In Search of Perfect Client Service, 10 August 2009

Posted By Tom Kane : "In March I wrote a post about a client of mine who admitted being timid when it came to asking clients for work or friends as I recall). There are also many lawyers who are shy when it comes to asking for referrals. One reason is that they don't want to appear "pushy" or come across as a snake oil salesperson.

Today I ran across a post on Automatic Referrals that mentions the "no-pressure referrals" that Judith Cane talks about on Advisor Radio (unfortunately, not being a financial professional, I couldn't figure out how to register free as the post suggests - hey, I was on vacation last week and my mind hasn't fully reengaged). Notwithstanding, I wanted to make a point about asking for no-pressure referrals without scaring off the referral source.

One option involves offering educational opportunities for potential clients to learn more about the dangers in your area of the law. On these occasions, you can outline the benefits to them by getting professional help without directly asking for their business. This can be done via newsletters or seminars.

So, let your referral sources know about the availability of such resources; and ask them if they know of anyone that might benefit from such information. In effect, this is an indirect referral since your contact is only providing the name of a "potential" client who may or may not benefit from information you are willing to share."

The active links are available at the source site listed below. 

 Source: The Legal Marketing Blog.com, 13 August 2009

Posted by Larry Bodine: "Prepare for better business development with the talking points from this month's featured articles in Originate!, the business development newsletter.

Lead Article: Making His Mark - 8 Things an IP Lawyer Wished He Had Known Sooner about Making Business Development Work

Attorney Nicholas Weston knew he had to do something different at his boutique IP firm. If he wanted to improve the kinds of work he was doing plus stop wasting time and money, he had to overhaul his approach to business development. Here he shares eight marketing errors he used to make and how, mainly by trial and error, he changed his ways. By his good example, you might avoid these errors yourself.

Turning Seminars into Billable Work: Getting the Right People to Attend

Getting the right people to your seminar demands attention to marketing and selling. Otherwise, warns Michael Cummings, you'll fail to reap the reward for all your efforts. Here are the steps you can take to promote the value of your program and to seal the deal so the people whom you want walk in the door.

The Best Beginning: What to Do When the Matter Ends

Eighth Stage of the 12 Step Pipeline: In this stage of managing your sales pipeline, you've just finished the first matter with a client. How can you set the stage for future work? Andy Havens reveals how a simple question can help you build that future and your service quality, and advises what not to do as well.

Side-by-Side: Comparing a Business Development Winner and Loser

How differently can two partners at the same law firm respond to a tough economy?  As night and day, observes Larry Bodine, Esq. Here he itemizes the pair's winning and losing approaches to business development and career success. Where do you fit and what can you do about it?

Who Are You?: Winning New Business By Being Visible

No law firm wants to be viewed in their business community as having run-of-the-mill attorneys. The practice of law is too competitive for that. Instead, observes Thom Singer, you and your firm must actively commit to making yourself visible experts in your field, and seven good ways to get the word out.

Untouchables: Removing the Third Rails of Business Development at Your Law Firm

At so many law firms, there seem to be three main areas that are constantly discussed, hotly debated...but too hot to touch, observes Darryl Cross. These third rails (compensation, allocating marketing dollars and short-term focus) are often cowardly left to another day or a time of crisis. In the mean time, your business development potential is derailed. Here's how to get on track."

The active links are available at the source site listed below. 

Source: Larry Bodine's Law Marketing Blog, 13 August 2009

Heavy Advertising by Lawyers Is a Tricky Proposition 

In the news: "Carter Mario is one of the most visible lawyers in Connecticut. His name and face are splashed across television ads, billboards and buses. But recent firm efforts, including the hire of a new public relations firm, indicate that Mario may be adjusting his marketing strategy. There are potential drawbacks to using such high-profile advertising in a profession that doesn't quickly embrace flash, and personal injury lawyers especially have to walk a fine line without offending the public or other lawyers." 

Read full text

Clio Keeps Solo on Top of Her Practice 

In the news: "As a solo, Kira Fonteneau needed an efficient, portable way to manage her practice remotely that met her limited budget. An e-mail from the ABA pointed her to Web-based practice management software Clio. She found Clio a good fit for the needs of solos and small firms." 

Read full text 

Employee Recruitment and Retention at Firms of All Sizes 

In the news: "Firms of all sizes have this in common: Recruitment, retention and compensation are among the largest expenses on the balance sheet. But the advantages and disadvantages experienced by small, midsize and large firms in trying to prevent their best paralegals and secretaries from quitting could hardly be more different. Having worked at firms of every size, The Assistant-at-Law addresses the main strengths and weaknesses of each segment, as well as ways each can maximize the former and minimize the latter."

Read full text 

Source for all three articles: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 14 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw

From the site: "It can be said that patents are the key to sustaining innovative products and patent law is certainly an active area of legal practice in the U.S. But the U.S. Patent and Trademark office has been overwhelmed and undermanned. Could the Peer-to-Peer Patent system be the answer? Co-Host Bob Ambrogi welcomes Professor Mark Webbink, Executive Director of the Center for Patent Innovations, a research and development arm of New York Law School's Institute for Information Law & Property and Attorney Stephanie Scruggs, an expert in patent litigation from the firm of Hamify & King, to take an in-depth look at the innovative Peer-to-Patent system, that employs a crowdsourcing and open source model using experts in the patent process.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (25.4MB)

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 13 August 2009

Posted by Joe Hodnicki: "On 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, Greg Lambert says yes, and the bubble is going to burst. "I'm not saying that E-Discovery is going away," writes Lambert in I'm Calling It! - There's an 'E=Discovery Bubble', "what I'm saying is that there is going to come a 'correction in the market' over the next few years that will burst the bubble in the cost of collecting and analyzing ESI (electronically stored information)."

Lambert is absolutely correct about the need for a market correction. Searching for smoking guns in electronically stored data has been a boom for purveyors of e-discovery products and services more than it has for clients picking up the tab for e-discovery costs. As Lambert writes, "you cannot expect clients to continue to pay exponentially for the cost of processing, indexing and reviewing ESI if that cost is greater than the reward." 

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Law Librarian Blog, 14 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "There's an interesting opinion piece at Legal Week on the growing importance of specialization, by former law firm trainee Dominic Webb. Although the piece discusses lawyers in U.K. firms, it is equally relevant to American firms as well.

Webb says that today's large commercial law firms are "rammed full of specialists." The benefits of specialists are obvious -- they are highly competent at what they do, and thus can service clients more cost effectively. But there's also a cost to specialization, and that is the impact that it has on individual lawyers themselves. The problem is that young lawyers are asked to pigeonhole themselves into narrow specializations, often without any opportunity to even experience different practice areas. Webb writes:

Specialisation is inevitable, and indeed desirable, particularly at partner level. It is quite right to expect that experienced people, 20 years and more into their careers, will conclude that their knowledge, or their skill set, or indeed their client base, would be best directed towards one particular area of law.

But big law firms are expecting, often demanding, that lawyers make this decision not after a 20 year career, but after a two year training contract - a training contract where they may have only seen four pretty niche areas of law anyway. Inevitably it leads to good people becoming disgruntled, stuck in a rut, wondering why they ever became lawyers in the first place. People were not attracted to law by the thought of spending year after year negotiating and re-drafting the same 200-page loan agreement.

Still, the emphasis on specialization won't change unless it's in a law firm's best interest. Webb makes the argument that perhaps we over-emphasize specialization:

But surely an extreme level of specialisation is not a good thing for firms either, not in the long term. Having armies of people who are trained only to do one thing, and who are incapable of turning their hand to anything else, does not sound like a recipe for long-term success. The turnover of people in the big law firms, pre-recession at least, was enormous. When you're losing nearly a quarter of your workforce every year, you must realise that something is up. OK, over-specialisation is only one of several reasons for that, but it's a significant reason.

In the recession, specialization has been a lottery of a sort. Lawyers who specialize in bankruptcy remain busy, while those with financial industry or merger backgrounds are out of work. Yet a few years ago, the reverse was true, with financial and corporate work booming and bankruptcy floundering. Specialization can make lawyers more valuable, but at the same time, the old adage applies: Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 12 August 2009

In the news: "E-mails, IMs, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks enable employees to inflict greater damage to businesses due to the speed of publication to vast audiences and the difficulty of retracting information from cyberspace. How can employers protect themselves?"

Topics discussed include:

ISSUES

·        Productivity drain...

·        Exposure to legal liability...

·        Breaches of proprietary information...

·        Damage to business reputation...

MONITORING COMMUNICATIONS

·        Workplace monitoring...

·        Non-workplace monitoring...

LEGAL CONSTRAINTS 

·        Whistleblower protection...

·        First Amendment...

·        Lawful use of lawful products/off-duty protection...

·        National Labor Relations Act...

·        At-will employment...

·        Accuracy of information posted on Internet...

POLICIES

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 13 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe  <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: "The Office of Management & Budget (OMB) is in the process of "considering options for revising the federal government's prohibition on web-tracking technology such as 'cookies,'" with a goal of protecting the privacy of persons visiting federal government web sites while simultaneously making those sites more user-friendly & allow enhanced analytics. (See Federal Register announcement)

The White House's blog back on July 24th., chronicled the federal government's policies with respect to privacy issues and the Internet starting back in 1999, when "cookies" could only be used to collect information from a site if the agency running it gave "clear notice" of that. In June 2000, the general policy was changed to read that "'cookies' should not be used at Federal web sites, or by contractors when operating web sites on behalf of agencies, unless, in addition to clear and conspicuous notice, the following conditions are met: a compelling need to gather the data on the site; appropriate and publicly disclosed privacy safeguards for handling of information derived from 'cookies'; and personal approval by the head of the agency." Now that's being looked at again because, over the course of the last nine years, "'cookies' have become a staple of most commercial websites with widespread public acceptance of their use."

Not much is ever simple & easy in government, though, and, as a Washington Post article, yesterday, said "Even groups that support updating the policy question whether the administration is seeking changes at the request of private companies, such as online search giant Google, as the industry's economic clout and influence in Washington have grown rapidly."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 12 August 2009

Posted by Ron Friedmann: "The litigation support and e-discovery market has felt chaotic for years now: rapid growth, technological shifts, emerging judicial reviews, and changing roles of the main players (law departments, vendors, and law firms). EDD SHOWCASE: Strange Times by George Socha & Tom Gelbmann (Law Technology News, August 2009) provides good market insight. 

For anyone in EDD land, this is a must read. My key take-aways:

• Law firms nationwide purport to harbor deep EDD expertise - much of this is a convenient fiction
• No more than 30 companies have deep EDD expertise; others struggle to build it
• The fear of EDD cost and risk drives the market; "seldom mentioned, is every litigator's fundamental need to find the data necessary to tell a compelling tale.... Finding the right data and figuring out what to do with it should be primary drivers, yet all too often these considerations are not even part of the conversation." [See my June post , E-Discovery Goal: Win or Avoid Disaster?]
• "Increasingly document review has become the purview of specialized review shops -- some domestic, others partially or predominantly offshore."
• Survey data show a 9% dollar contraction in EDD yet market participants expect growth around 25%. My take: volumes continue to grow; unit costs are shrinking (and will continue to do so); more reluctance to share data so results may not be as reliable; and costs are shifting to earlier in the EDRM cycle where measuring them is harder.
• "In a crowded, noisy market, too many providers are making unsubstantiated claims and creating consumer confusion, while consumers lack effective means to compare technologies and methods."

 The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 3 August 2009

From the site: "In the 2009 Socha Gelbmann E-Discovery Survey, consultant/attorney  George Socha, president of Socha Consulting and Tom Gelbmann, managing director of Gelbmann & Associates, have jettisoned their traditional vendor rankings and instead offer analysis of a turbulent e-discovery year.  On Law Technology Now, host Monica Bay welcomes George and Tom to explore their survey findings, discuss the year ahead and look at the growth of EDD.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (16.0MB)

Related Podcasts

• August 11, 2008 -- 2008 Socha/Gelbmann E-Discovery Survey Report
• May 26, 2009 -- Learn to use NEW Technology: 101
• April 14, 2009 -- Legal Hold: Don't Destroy Those Documents
• March 11, 2009 -- The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Saving through E-Discovery
• January 21, 2009 -- Just Discovery (3 Part Series)

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 12 August 2009

From the blog: "Gary P. Rodrigues, a lawyer and publishing consultant, authored this article ("The full stop in legal citation - has its time finally come?") about whether legal citations should be modernized (e.g., whether a citation should be set as "LRC 1985 c 1 (5th Supp)" rather than "L.R.C. 1985, c. 1 (5th Supp.)").

What I found of particular interest was the author's comments about the role of editors:

In print, editors review every citation in a manuscript to ensure that all of the elements are present and that every date, letter, bracket, comma or period is in its proper place. While this work appears to be of comparatively little importance to the average reader, it in fact plays a critical role in transforming mere words on a page into an authoritative (or at least "authoritative looking") statement of the law.

Confidence in the substance of a piece of writing can be undermined by poor presentation. In my early days in legal publishing, I observed manuscripts that superficially appeared to be of inferior quality being transformed by editors into publications of importance when the distractions caused by poor grammar and incomplete references to sources were eliminated.

Editorial standards serve the same purpose in the online environment as they do in the print world, i.e they enhance the authority of the document and the credibility of its author.

In print, editors review every citation in a manuscript to ensure that all of the elements are present and that every date, letter, bracket, comma or period is in its proper place. While this work appears to be of comparatively little importance to the average reader, it in fact plays a critical role in transforming mere words on a page into an authoritative (or at least "authoritative looking") statement of the law.

Confidence in the substance of a piece of writing can be undermined by poor presentation. In my early days in legal publishing, I observed manuscripts that superficially appeared to be of inferior quality being transformed by editors into publications of importance when the distractions caused by poor grammar and incomplete references to sources were eliminated.

Editorial standards serve the same purpose in the online environment as they do in the print world, i.e they enhance the authority of the document and the credibility of its author. 

Indeed, poor presentation can make all the difference in the world, and law firms should keep that in mind in all their publishing efforts -- not just when they produce legal matter, but client alerts, seminar materials, Web sites, and the like.

If you wouldn't send an attorney to court wearing Dockers, then -- for much the same reason -- you wouldn't publish a client alert he wrote with the copy set in Arial, justified, but not hyphenated.

That would be a rather poor presentation."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Set in Style, 4  August 2009

Posted by Darren Rowse: "In this post Dan Kaufman from Bar Zine shares some tips on writing Sharp Snappy Blog Posts.

When you write a story you're lucky if you can get a reader beyond the first paragraph. This is true in print and it's even worse online (a recent study by Jacob Neilson at http://tinyurl.com/mubtmr makes for interesting reading). After all, your post is just one out of millions online - and the difference can lie in how well written your copy is.

Writing is a craft that involves a continual learning process.

Having been a journalist and editor for the past 15 years (and I'm now a blogger as well) I still find myself learning - but there are some hard and fast techniques to make your copy snappier and more engaging. Here are some of the basics:

1) Write Short Sentences...

2) Use the Active Voice...

3) Write in the Present Tense...

4) Use Positive Language...

5) Write in a conversational tone...

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: ProBlogger, 13 August 2009

From the site: "Hosts: Denise Howell, J. Matt Buchanan, Stephen Nipper, and Adam Bagwell

 

Twitter sued over patent, VoloMedia's podcasting patent and RSS, patent trolls, and more.

 

TWiL wiki shownotes, feel free to add or edit.

TWiL on Friendfeed

Talking points: http://delicious.com/thisweekinlaw/28

 

Running time...: 1:32:02

 

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: This Week in Law, 8 August 2009

Posted by Tom Kane: "Some years ago at a seminar, I heard a story (likely just anecdotal) about the lawyer whose client called, but because he was busy and "knew" what the client was calling about, he did not return the call. As the story goes, the client eventually called and retained another lawyer after reporting that she was seriously injured by a Coca Cola truck that ran a red light.

Recently, I was sent a copy of Dangerous Law Practice Myths, Lies and Stupidity by Judd Kessler, Gunter Enz, et al. The 94-page book looks like a fun read, although I have only just skimmed parts of it. Myth #34 reminded me of the above story and is sub-titled "Potential clients will wait for a great lawyer to call them back."

NOT!

In today's world, it's about rapid (if not instant) gratification. The book features parables by Arthur Simon, Esq. (a fictional law practice guru). So, what does he have to say about this issue?:

"Simon says: In our fast-paced high-tech society, clients seek instant gratification. If you don't take the opportunity to be the first lawyer to talk with the prospect (or a client), your competitor will, and there's better than a 90% chance that (the) prospect will become his client...."

Every lawyer should put a system in place to ensure that all calls are returned ASAP."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Law Marketing Blog.com, 11 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: " Perhaps there's an upside to the downturn after all. As this article, from Working Mother magazine describes, law firms are more willing to accommodate flexible schedules these days -- not necessarily out of noble motives, but because it's financially expedient to do so.

The article describes a bunch of changes at law firms, many of which are news to even someone like me who's been tracking this issue since the start of my beat here at Legal Blog Watch. According to the article, of the 50 Best Law Firms for Women, nearly all offer reduced schedules to lawyers, while 62 percent offer full-time telecommuting, and 42 percent have written flexible-schedule policies. Still, I'm a little bit skeptical -- and I wonder how many women are actually taking advantage of those full-time telecommuting options. The article doesn't say.

Still, a desire to work fewer hours now coincides with law firms' desire to cut costs. So some firms are allowing lawyers to reduce their hours to a 60 percent schedule and retain full-time healthcare, an arrangement that is preferable to layoffs. At some firms, experienced lawyers are paid by the hour on a project-by-project basis, which enables firms to offer high-quality service at lower costs.

All of the changes are heartening, but it's not clear how much they'll help younger female associates. Most of the lawyers mentioned in the article who've been provided the hourly-work arrangements or reduced time are experienced, partner-level attorneys in their 40s or even 50s. Most of these women had at least a full decade of uninterrupted work experience before having children and have plenty of options available to them. So it's no surprise that firms are now trying to retain them. But for younger associates with families who don't yet have work experience or a client roster, it's not clear how helpful these new flex policies are in practice.

Still, the article emphasizes one important point about the workplace and work/life balance: It's all about the economics. Now that times are bad, firms are finding it financially advantageous to offer flex time. But once the economy ramps up again, there's little guarantee firms will be so flexible. Ultimately, the lesson for lawyers who want work/life balance or any other benefit from law firms, in good times or bad, is this: Find a way to make yourself economically attractive, and you can write your own ticket."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 11 August 2009

Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: "Our thanks to the Cleveland Law Library, the Law Librarian Blog, and the Volokh Conspiracy for this one.

"Briefs filed in court are part of the proceeding's official record, but distribution of them by Lexis, Westlaw and other commercial online service providers may infringe on the copyright of their authors," the Law Librarian Blog reported back on July 24th..

"The question is whether the commercial posting of the briefs is fair use; and fair use law is, as usual, vague enough that there's no clear answer," Eugene Volokh had reported the day before.

"I do think that the posting is quite valuable to researchers and to others who are trying to figure out what actually happened in a case, and why courts reached the results they did, and I think courts can consider this social value in the fair use analysis. It's also quite unlikely that allowing such posting would materially diminish the incentive to write good briefs, or the market value of a good brief; that too is potentially relevant to the fair use inquiry. But the case isn't open and shut, because there are no precedents (at least that I know of) that are clearly on point, because the various fair use factors seem to cut in both directions, and because fair use analysis is so vague in such situations."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 11 August 2009

Posted by Julia Fleming: "Have you ever been in one of those deadly conversations in which a lot of words fly about and yet nothing happens?  Or when decisions are made and strategies are crafted, but everyone sitting around the table knows that nothing will actually change because everyone is talking around the real problem?  What a waste of time!

Fierce Conversations revolves around the "Mineral Rights conversation."  This simple 7-step process can be used to get to the truth of a situation, create understanding about it, tackle the challenges in the situation, and enrich relationships in the process.  The seven steps (with some sample questions) are:

1. Identify the most pressing issue...
2. Clarify the issue...
3. Determine the current impact...
4. Determine the future implications...
5. Examine your contribution to this issue...
6. Describe the ideal outcome...
7. Commit to action...  

The critical tactic to make a Mineral Rights conversation a success is to ask questions and not to comment on the answers until you've completed step 7...

And, as the author writes, allow silence to do the heavy lifting...

Imagine having a Mineral Rights conversation with a client, or having a modified version of it with a potential client...

Fierce Conversations also includes other tools, including an exceptionally useful model for determining decision-making authority, which I previously described on the Life at the Bar Blog.  Please click here to read that post."

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Life at the Bar, 12 August 2009

Posted by Evan Schaeffer: "He wasn't a legal writer, but Raymond Carver had something important to say about expressing complex ideas in a simple manner:

When something feels complex or complicated to you, write it out carefully and thoughtfully, several different times if necessary, until it flows smoothly and expresses exactly what you want it to communicate and nothing else.

Carver's tip appeared in a letter to his daughter. The quote is pulled from a post about Carver at Mark Athitakis' American Fiction Notes.

Related posts:

1. "Legal Writing: Is Shorter Really Better?"

2. "Writing Tip: When You're Stuck, Pretend You're Writing a Letter"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 11 August 2009

Posted by J. Benjamin Stevens: "There is no way to understate the importance of having appropriate passwords.  No, that doesn't mean using your last name or your dog's name, but rather rock solid passwords that actually protect your confidential information.

Are your passwords as safe as they should be?  Do you have a plan to help manage and remember them?  If you answered "no" or you aren't sure that the answer is "yes," then consider the following helpful resources:

• Create Stronger Passwords :: make your personal data harder to hack
• Manage Your Passwords :: rely on a password manager instead of your memory
• Remember Your Passwords :: always be able to access critical passwords

[His] Source:  "Top Password Tips" by Joe Kissell, published at Macworld.com."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: The Mac Lawyer, 11 August 2009

P.S. I bought myself an iMac last weekend and love, love, LOVE it!!

From the site: "In part one of this two part series on email management on Legal3.Oh!, co-hosts and legal technology consultants,  Adriana Linares and Debbie Foster, put the spotlight on email. They discuss what your email address says about you. Should you have more than one email address?  Adriana and Debbie will also look at transitioning to a new email address and tips for controlling spam as well as managing the information in your inbox.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (27.6MB)

Related Podcasts

• July 20, 2009 -- Email Etiquette 2.0
• April 14, 2006 -- Lawyers' Websites

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 11 August 2009

Posted by Kevin O'Keefe: "Seth Godin's post this morning, 'When tactics drown out strategy' may as well have been directed to law firms' flawed use of social media, including blogging.

New media creates a blizzard of tactical opportunities for marketers, and many of them cost nothing but time, which means you don't need as much approval and support to launch them.

As a result, marketers are like kids at Rita's candy shoppe, gazing at all the pretty opportunities.

The problem is that all of these opportunities are just tactics, not a strategy. Per Seth:

'Building a permission asset so we can grow our influence with our best customers over time' is a strategy. Using email, twitter or RSS along with newsletters, contests and a human voice are all tactics. In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a strategy... and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the strategy that they never really embraced in the first place.

Seth also nails why law firms are all over tactics, not strategy.

Most of us are afraid of strategy, because we don't feel confident outlining one unless we're sure it's going to work. And the 'work' part is all tactical, so we focus on that. (Tactics are easy to outline, because we say, 'I'm going to post this.' If we post it, we succeed. Strategy is scary to outline, because we describe results, not actions, and that means opportunity for failure.)

I presented at a webinar hosted by a law firm marketing company earlier this week. I emphasized how important it was to develop a strategy before beginning to blog. Identify your goals. Identify your target audience of clients, prospective clients, referral sources and their influencers. Identify how you are going to listen to this target audience. Identify how you will engage them in a meaningful way.

A number of lawyers in the audience wanted nothing to do with strategy. 'Show us how to blog effectively by telling me how to post content on a blog.'..."

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 7 August 2009

Posted by Jim Calloway: "A lawyer I know told me she had to complete her "semi" work before going on vacation. She continued , "you know, in case I get hit by a semi while on vacation, I wouldn't want people to find a mess here." Unfortunately, life is unpredictable and be it a semi mishap or just not waking up one morning, none of us knows when that day will happen.

In these times not only could someone find a mess in your office, but they might take digital pictures of it that could end up online. Take a look at these pictures from a deceased lawyer's office in the recent blog post by Courtney Kennaday of the South Caroline Bar "When you go to Heaven...will your practice look like this?"

The point isn't really how messy your desk might be, but how organized your files are and how easy it will be for those who follow you to take care of your clients and your uncompleted work. So, as Courtney did, I'll take one more opportunity to mention the article "When You Go to Heaven, Will Your Practice Go to Hell?" that Courtney and ReidTrautz published earlier this year.

Take a few minutes now to read the article and plan, so pictures like those won't be a part of your legacy."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, 10 August 2009

Posted by StephanieWestAllen: "Here's an article I wrote several years ago for my law school alumni magazine. I begin:

A comic's nightmare is to realize the whole audience is composed of engineers, police, or lawyers. These three professions are reputed to be low on the sense-of-humor scale. Funeral directors are often ranked down there, too. And law firms often have the quiet somberness of a mortuary.--not much merriment goes on in busy law offices.

Fun and play are often considered unprofessional, yet absence of humor is a problem for the legal profession. Merry barristers are successful lawyers. Humor has many extraordinary benefits for people practicing law--three are briefly described here.

Click to read the rest of "Law Firm Levity Is Good for Your Health" (Santa Clara Law, 2001, winter/spring)."

The active link is available at the source site listed below.

Source: idealawg, 9 August 2009

• Optimism, Cynical Hostility, and Incident Coronary Heart Disease and Mortality in the Women's Health Initiative, published online August 1, 2009

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 10 August 2009 Copyright ©2002-2009. BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.

Posted by Penelope Trunk: "I don't usually write question and answer columns. (Although I have once or twice before.) I do read every single question that people send me. And these are three questions I've been answering a lot lately.

The full text and active links for this post is available at the source site listed below

Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 10 August 2009 [There are already 47 comments to this post - some interesting, some entertaining]

Posted by Evan Schaeffer: "From Forbes: "How To Sniff Out A Liar," by Melanie Lindner--

While there is no surefire on-the-spot way to sniff out dissemblers, there are some helpful tactics for uncovering untruths.

Liars often give short or one-word responses to questions, while truth tellers are more likely to flesh out their answers. According to a 2003 study by DePaulo, a liar provides fewer details and uses fewer words than an honest person, and talks for a smaller percentage of the conversation.

Skilled liars don't break a sweat, but the rest of us get a little fidgety. Four possible giveaways: shifty eyes, higher vocal pitch, perspiration and heavier breathing. Of course, not everyone who doesn't meet your gaze is a liar.

If you think this advice might be helpful to your deposition-and-trial practice, check out the full article. While not written specifically for lawyers, much of it applies to what trial lawyers do.

Related posts:

1. "Practice Tip: Assume Your Deposition Witness Is Lying."

2. "Cross-Examining the Liar at Trial: Two Absolute Prerequisites."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Posted by Dennis Kennedy: "Tom Mighell and I have recorded another episode of The Kennedy-Mighell Report podcast and it's now available on the Legal Talk Network and on iTunes. The episode is called "The State of the Blawgosphere" (show notes here) and here's the episode description:

On this edition of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell discuss the current state of legal blogging on the Internet and share with you what is new in the blawgosphere. In the "Stuff We've Been Talking About Ourselves" segment, Dennis & Tom will look at the "mobile platform" and how to make your site more mobile-friendly. In Parting Shots, Dennis and Tom leave you with lasting tips and observations.

In the episode, Tom and I discuss the current state of legal blogging on the Internet, and give you our take on what's going on. We share a few results from Tom's massive research project on the law blogs he's covered over the years in his Blawg of the Day feature. We discuss the scope and scale of law-related blogging, the "generations" of law blogging, and in what ways our advice to new law bloggers might be different today than it was a few years ago. I also recommend Scott Rosenberg's new book, Say Everything: How Blogging Began, What It's Becoming, and Why It Matters.

In a "Stuff We've Been Talking About Ourselves" segment, we note that we've been talking about smartphones and the "mobile platform." We've been talking about whether it makes sense to create versions of our blogs and websites optimized for the mobile platform. Absolutely yes.

The question then became: Well, how do you do that? Does it require a web developer or are there simple, easy and free ways to create your own mobile versions. In about ten minutes of research, we found the answer was a resounding "yes!" and we put some helpful links in the show notes.

Here's the quick, mobile-friendly version of my blog I created with Mofuse. (Note: it doesn't seem to be displaying for me when I use the Google Chrome browser.)

In my "parting shot" (useful tip), I mention that I've been unsubscribing to a bunch of email newsletters, which leaves me more time to read my favorite email newsletters, especially the TechnoLawyer family of email newsletters. I also mention how much I liked the new issue of the Law Practice Today webzine Wendy Werner edited on the Suddenly Solo phenomenon. Tom talks about his latest web experiment - a linkstream.

Give our new episode a listen and let me know what you think.

And try some of the back episodes as well."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Dennis Kennedy.com, 9 August 2009

From the e-newsletter: "The standard Google News has been a little more open lately about how many news sources are getting indexed, and now Google News is getting in on the act as well.  Google News announced last week that its news archive has been quadrupled, with new publications both from the US (Village Voice, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) and abroad (Manila Standard, The Nation).

The direct URL for Google News' advanced archive search is http://news.google.com/archivesearch/advanced_search. There you can narrow your search by a variety of options including date range and source. You can also narrow down your results to only those archives which are free.

Just to get a sense of how large the archives are, I did a search for a. I got about 328 million results. (By the way, you can also do a plain search for a on Google's Web search. You'll get over 17 billion results at this writing. Yes. 17 billion.) Running that search and looking for free articles only finds you about 179 million results, so based on this you can guess that something like half the Google News archives are free. (I'd have to do a lot more searching and calculating before I'd feel very confident about that, though.)

If you don't want to use the date range option in the advanced search, you can use the timeline view at the top of the search results to narrow you results to a particular year span. When you do that you'll get another timeline that lets you narrow down your results even further, as you can see in the screenshot below.

[See source site listed below for the screenshot]

You might notice that the search results also have links for related news articles (which unfortunately do not restrict themselves to the fee options you initially requested) and related Web pages. I found the related Web pages option was a good way to find new keywords for my topic, as Google seems to be doing some kind of relevant keyword extraction on the news archives.

I had never used Google News' archives that much, as it seemed to be mostly paid articles with a fairly limited offering. I'm very impressed with the new extent of the offerings. You know what would be absolutely perfect? The ability to set a Google Alert so that you get an e-mail when articles with the keyword of your choice are added to the archives. "

Source: ResearchBuzz. 10 August 2009. Copyright 2008 Tara Calishain. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of ResearchBuzz (http:// www.researchbuzz.com).  Subscribe. <http://www.researchbuzz.com/>.

In the news: "One common, but often unstated, perception working against senior job candidates is that they are not as technologically savvy as their juniors. Similarly, candidates who have been out of the job market for a while may not be as aware of changing trends affecting the legal profession. In this installment in their series for older attorneys making job transitions, consultants Valerie Fontaine and Roberta Kass discuss getting up to date on technology and trends, and communicating that knowledge to employers."

Topics discussed include:

BRUSH UP YOUR TECH SKILLS

GET CONNECTED

BE FINDABLE ONLINE

KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL

KEEP IT CLEAN

STAY ABREAST OF TRENDS

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

COMMUNICATE YOUR SAVVY

Read full text 

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 10 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw.

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "With associate positions hard to come by, new graduates -- desperate to find a paying job in the legal profession -- are applying for work as paralegals, legal secretaries and law librarians, according to Long Island Business News. The story sites one new grad, Jessica Sparacino, who secured a job as a paralegal at Jackson Lewis, but that was only because she'd been working in that position through law school. For the most part, law firms and other employers aren't willing to hire JDs for non-lawyer positions.

In general, lawyers are either over-qualified or under-qualified for many of the available non-lawyer positions. For example, one firm that advertised for an administrative assistant was inundated with lawyer résumés. But the firm declined to hire a lawyer because it felt the candidate would simply leave once a better job came along. Marjorie Jassin, vice president of Law Library Management told the Business News: "It is totally inappropriate to have an attorney in a library ... because most attorneys do not have the necessary library science skills and degree to work in a law library."

David Gabor, a lawyer whose firm turned down a JD for an administrative position, offered the most useful advice. Rather than take a low-level job, Gabor says that unemployed attorneys should start their own one-person practices.

"I deal with people in transition all the time," said Gabor, an employment lawyer. "If you're looking for a job, the worst thing you can do is sit around waiting by the phone."

Denise Doty, a Long Island attorney who was laid off in October, decided to start her own firm after spending six months looking for a job and doing pro bono work. Doty -- who has 15 years of experience -- realized that no one was going to hire her for a secretarial position, so she decided to strike out on her own. Now she has a growing client base that she's developed through word-of-mouth and social networking sites.

I agree with Gabor. If you spent three years in law school, you shouldn't be looking for work as a paralegal or a secretary. You should be finding a way to practice as a full-fledged lawyer.

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 7 August 2009

From the site: "On this edition of Ringler Radio, host Larry Cohen sits down with famed Boston trial attorney, Leo V. Boyle, from the firm Meehan, Boyle, Black & Bogdanow, P.C., to give you an inside look at his role as a trial attorney. Leo will talk about his love for the courtroom, the organization, Trial Lawyers Care, which provides free legal services to victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the importance of integrating storytelling into every aspect of the trial.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (29.6MB)

Related Podcasts

April 2, 2005 -- Lawyer Reputation

August 15, 2007 -- Big Dig Indictment

August 7, 2006 -- Future for Trial Lawyers in America"

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Talk Network, 10 August 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "As I posted several months ago, social media continues to transform CLE, both bringing down the costs (by allowing for class delivery through webinars) and making classes more interactive. But can social media serve as a source of education even without an underlying webinar or class? Over at Three Geeks and a Law Blog, Toby Brown suggests that bar associations consider giving CLE credit to lawyers who participate in social media environments.

Brown writes:

In Web 2.0 environments you stay current by monitoring blogs, watching tweets and engaging in the dialogue. Most of my continuing education comes from these sources. And more importantly, it has greater value based on my participation. I can comment on LinkedIn ... I retweet on interesting tweet and add a thought. Then another participant does the same. Or they pick up a related line of thinking and extend the dialogue. The result is a combined, asynchronous effort that brings many minds together and allows them to all benefit from the shared experience. The sum is much more than the parts.

Can lawyers stay up to date on legal subjects through social media alone? And would giving CLE credit for social media participation encourage more lawyers to come into the 21st century? Post your thoughts below."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 7 August 2009

In the news: "Martindale-Hubbell Connected is an online community designed for legal professionals that is quickly expanding as lawyers realize the advantages to connecting and collaborating with trusted colleagues. Here, two different lawyers with different needs chronicle their connection to M-H."

Read full text 

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 10 August 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw.

Posted byJohn Jantsch: "In continuing with my series of quick social media tips (check out 5 tips for LinkedIn) I'm covering some tips for business use of Facebook here. I've actually written about some of these tips in great detail before, but this can act as a quick primer for folks who like their info snack sized like this.

1. Fan page ...

2. Custom HTML ...

3. Special content ...

4. Events, videos and apps...

5. Ads for awareness...

Full text and the active link are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 10 August 2009

Posted by Anthony Cerminaro: "As a hardworking student, you have a lot to organize, including essays, exams, deadlines, and class schedules, not to mention your social and personal life - plus any part-time jobs you may have taken on. For help, see this list of mind-mapping tools that are designed to help you see your ideas more clearly, analyze and outline research papers, become more efficient when you study, and get inspired to be more creative in your work.

See also this post from 12manage for an explanation of mind-mapping."

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: BizzBzngBuzz, 30 July 2009

Posted by Bonnie Shucha: "Bev Butula's recent column in InsideTrack introduces a couple of tools for scheduling meetings:

Coordinating schedules when working with a group of individuals can be a time-consuming process. It often entails several email exchanges or numerous telephone calls. Many experience the problem arranging times to meet with co-counsel, committee members or social groups. There are several online programs designed to help facilitate the process. This article discusses two of them [Doodle and Meeting Wizard].

The active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: WisBlawg, 10 August 2009

The active links are available at the source site listed below.