Posted by Allison Shields: "I've been doing a lot of networking lately with all kinds of groups representing a wide variety of industries and disciplines in addition to law -- and yet the same themes keep emerging. I keep getting introduced to people with the same basic values and philosophies, and it's beginning to make me think - what is the message for me and my practice, and is that message sinking in? 

Whether you believe in the "Law of Attraction" or subscribe to the theory that people and events are brought to you by the Universe for a specific purpose or to teach you a particular lesson, you do need to pay attention to what and whom you are attracting to your practice. What do those people say about you and about the image you portray to the world about yourself and your practice? How can you learn from them to maximize your opportunities and make changes where necessary?

Take notice of the kinds of people who are attracted to you - are the same kinds of clients being referred to you over and over? Are you beginning to meet people who fit a particular mold or share a similar world view? Are you confronting the same issues time and time again in your practice?

As you become more aware, you will start to see some patterns, as I have. What can you do with this information?..."

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

Source: Legal Ease Blog, 16 December 2009

Posted by Bitter Staff: "If 2009 has proven anything, it's that nothing is predictable at law firms anymore.  Lockstep gave way to mass layoffs.  The billable hour absconded to "alternative billing." "Offer" was replaced by "defer" and "rescind." And year-end bonuses... Don't get us started.

But there are still a few things that happen annually in BigLaw around this time of year that are extraneous to economic conditions.  Irrespective of the financial climate, there are seven things that always seem happen at law firms around Christmas time.

1.  Drunken fool partner shags secretary at firm holiday party...

2.  Naïve midwestern associate says 'Merry Christmas' to Jewish partners...

3.  Hopeful, optimistic NY associate en route to his family's idyllic, snow-covered house in New England is given emergency assignment minutes before leaving...

4.  Ambitious, hard-working, pedigreed associate filled with holiday spirit and unfettered joy has his self-esteem shattered at his year-end review...

5.  Wall Street friend announces obscene bonus, making banker- wannabe associate hate his life...

6.  In a vain attempt to become the firm's 'funny' associate, some schnook gives lingerie to a female associate for her Secret Santa gift...

7. Scores of disillusioned, bitter lawyers pledge to find a more exciting, more fulfilling profession in the New Year..."

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

Source: Bitter Lawyer, 17 December 2009

Posted by Tom Kane: "It's been awhile since I posted my top ten legal marketing tips, and I've never done so in a single post before. So, here goes in the reverse order of near-term effectiveness and how I posted them (with links to where you can read my earlier post on each):

No. 10 - Be Active In Organizations 
No. 9 - Networking With Super-Connectors 
No. 8 - Take A Reporter To Lunch 
No. 7 - Write Articles of Interest 
No. 6 - Talk It Up With More Speeches 
No. 5 - Communicate Often 
No. 4 - Offer To Make Proposal 
No. 3 - Seek Client Feedback Often 
No. 2 - Entertain Your Client 
No. 1 - Visit Your Clients 

Hope they are helpful to you and your firm."

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

Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 17 December 2009

Posted by Jackson and Wilson, Inc.: "When I try a case, I never tell my jury during voir dire or opening statement to withhold judgment until they've listened to all the facts of our case or opposing counsel's case.

I never tell my jury that what I'm about to discuss with them during voir dire or opening is not evidence.

I never waste the time of my jury telling them a trial is like a picture puzzle. That they will not understand what picture is on the box until all the pieces are all put into place towards the end of the trial.

I don't thank the jury during opening statement for their anticipated interest (most of the time they're not that interested). I know it. They know it. So why say it?

I rarely tell my jury during opening that the outcome is important to everyone involved in the trial.

Here's why..."

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

Source: Trail Lawyer Tips.com, 16 December 2009

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

Source: Due Process: The Georgetown Law Library Blog, 15 December 2009 (Hat tip to the Moritz Legal Information Blog)

From the site: "In this edition of The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program, talks about value billing and using transparent pricing to become more competitive.    Rodney welcomes Attorney Jay Shepherd from the Shepherd Law Group, P.C , to discuss his thoughts on value billing and his passion for providing "open/transparent pricing" to deliver value to his clients.

Special thanks to our sponsor, AbacusLaw

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:41 -- 21.2MB)

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

Source: Legal Talk Network, 16 December 2009

Posted by Sam Glover: "My social media strategy is nothing fancy, but it works. If you are looking for social media schemes full of promises and puffery, go talk to a social media "expert." This is what works for me.

I try to make it easy for potential clients and local media to find me. Just as important, I try to establish myself as an authority so potential clients want to hire me before they meet me, and so local media want to quote me as an "expert."

Here is how I do that with social media.

[click to continue...]"

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

Source: Lawyerist.com, 14 December 2009

Posted by Gary Price, Founder and Senior Editor: "One of the most impressive "freebies" on the Internet comes from ebrary. We've mentioned it before. It's officially called ebrary Discover.

Users (you don't need to have a subscription) can search and read more than 20,000 full text books online (recent titles) in a wide array of disciplines from a variety of publishers. The financial aspect only comes in to play if you want to print or save a page.

When you register for the service (it takes only a few seconds and, again, it's free), you have to place a minimum of $5 on a credit card. The money is ONLY used if you decide to print or copy a page. Each page costs a quarter to print or save. A unique payment plan for sure.

We see all of this as a win-win.

Users gain access to over 20K titles and the chance to sample some ebrary technology. ebrary gets users to learn about the company and try its technology in a practical and useful manner. It would be great if all demos could be like this..."

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

Source: ResourceShelf, 14 December 2009

Warrantless Search of Cell Phone Data Barred Unless Necessary for Officer's Safety or to Preserve Evidence

Court Limits Application of Earlier Decision

From the site: "2008-0584 and 2008-0630.  Medcorp, Inc. v. Ohio Dept. of Job & Family Servs., Slip Opinion No. 2009-Ohio-6425.

Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2009/2009-Ohio-6425.pdf

View oral argument video of this case.

In response to a motion for reconsideration of a decision it handed down earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Ohio today issued an order limiting application of its May 7 ruling in Medcorp Inc. v. Ohio Department of Job & Family Services (ODJFS) to cases in which an appeal of an administrative agency order was filed after the announcement of the Medcorp decision."

Read full text

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

Source: The Supreme Court of Ohio, 15 December 2009

Posted by JD Hull: "While the work of the Judicial Conference's five Advisory Committees never really stops, big changes to federal court rules, including the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), don't occur that often. The newest amendments are "technical amendments"--but the changes are anything but technical.

Two years in the making, the changes were signed into law (H.R. 1626) by the President on May 7, 2009, and became effective December 1, 2009. There are also significant changes to some of the time triggers in the appellate, criminal and bankruptcy rules. All are part of the Judicial Conference's "Time-Computation Project".

FRCP. Rule 6, FRCP, the general "time counting" provision, and post-trial Rules 50, 52, and 59, are among the rules changed. Gone forever in Rule 6 is the much relied-upon (and, for many, much beloved) "11-day rule" adopted in 1985. It was designed to take the hardship out of 10-day post trial deadlines, i.e., don't count weekends and holidays for deadlines of 10 days or less. But you no longer need it.

Continue reading..."

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

Source: What About Clients?, 16 December 2009

Posted by Penelope Trunk: "It might be that the only useful thing you ever learned in school (besides how to make small talk at a party) is how to ask a good question.

Most of us didn't learn that, though. Because it's so hard to teach. I know it's really hard to teach because people with Asperger Syndrome don't understand how to ask a question, and I watched speech therapists (pragmatics specialists) try to teach my son, while I took notes for myself.

Children with Asperger's often have to learn when to use Why, What, and Where because they don't know how to ask questions, even though they often have through-the-roof IQs. They actually seem mentally slow because they cannot learn as fast as other children due to the lack of good questions - which is a great illustration of how important asking questions is.

I will answer almost any question someone asks, which makes me better at asking questions myself, but I am also very conscious of the fact that most questions people ask me are terrible.

So here are tips on how to ask good questions.

1. Trust that people are interesting...

2. Use a therapist to teach you to ask questions...

3. Recognize questions that are hard for you but easy for everyone else...

4. Match the right question to the right person...

5. A question you never think of is one of the best surprises of all...

So here's a question for today: We know that women get more interviews if the name on their resume sounds male. (Here's one of a bazillion studies.) And we know that people do better in their careers if they are honest about who they are. (This applies to both your name and your sex orientation.) But here's something I never thought of: What would it be like to pretend to be a man at work?"

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

Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 15 December 2009

In the news: "Across the country, newly minted attorneys are proudly telling their friends and family that they have successfully passed the bar exam. But at the same time, they remain unemployed, or at least not satisfactorily employed in a legal job. Here are some concrete actions law graduates can take to enhance their chances for a successful job search even in a difficult economy, provided by Alyssa Dragnich, the assistant director of career services at The Pennsylvania State University, Dickinson School of Law."

Topics discussed include:

• Consider your target market...

• Tailor your application materials...

• Review your resume and cover letter to make sure they are perfect...

• Make your resume dynamic...

• Keep excellent records...

• Start networking...

• Set a numerical target...

• Convince the employer you want that job...

• Contact your law school's career services office...

• Guard against depression...

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 15 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Sabrina I. Pacifici: "Deep Web Research 2010: Marcus P. Zillman is a an internet search expert whose extensive knowledge of how to leverage the "invisible" or "deep" web is exemplified in this guide. The Deep Web covers somewhere in the vicinity of 1 trillion pages of information located through the world wide web in various files and formats. Current search engines are able to locate around 200 billion pages. Marcus identifies sources to mitigate the odds on behalf of serious searchers."

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

Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 14 December 2009 Copyright ©2002-2009. BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.

Posted by David Bilinski: "Gartner Research just issued their top 10 strategic technologies that companies should be considering as they prepare their business plans for the New Year. "Social Computing" has come back to the top 10 list after an absence over the last two years. Gartner stated:

"Social Software and Social Networking. Social software includes a broad range of technologies, such as social networking, social collaboration, social media and social validation. Organizations should consider adding a social dimension to a conventional website or application and should adopt a social platform sooner, rather than later, because the greatest risk lies in failure to engage and thereby, being left mute in a dialogue where your voice must be heard." (www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=777212)

But wait one minute: how many law firms permit their staff to have access to social media while at their desk? Larger and many smaller law firms have blocked access to such sites as Facebook (www.facebook.com), Twitter (www.twitter.com) and LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com) on the belief that doing otherwise would lead to unproductive time and loss of productivity. Or they are fearful that the firm will suffer a loss of confidentiality or have a loss of face arising from an errant post. As a result, they have not taken any steps to add any social networking to their marketing mix.

What does it matter if your law firm is not on Facebook?

According to Facebook:

* Facebook contains more than 300 million active users
* 50 per cent of Facebook active users log on to Facebook in any given day
* The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older

OK - you say your clients are not on Facebook. Think again. With the developed world sitting at one billion people - Facebook is reaching about 30 per cent of the developed world (or at least those with access to a computer and time to use it). What business enterprise can afford to ignore a market of that size?

OK - you say that social media is not an effective way for your firm to communicate your message. Think again. In an article "Social Media - An Effective PR Tool for Law Firms" (http://tinyurl.com/yhanp3t) stated: "According to the recently released, 2009 American Bar Association Legal Technology Survey Report, one in eight firms uses social networks. The report also stated that tools that use the Internet are significantly increasing the productivity of lawyers and decreasing their wasted time."

The authors then go on to list the "Four ways legal professionals can benefit from social media:"

1. Enables the exchange of valuable information...

2. Expands your professional network and opens up opportunities...

3. Social media has the power to humanize your firm...

4. And last but not least, social media can attract potential clients...

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

Source: David Bilinski's Thoughtful Legal Management, 7 December 2009

From the site: "The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recently reported that there is a "strong association" between homes built with Chinese drywall and levels of hydrogen sulfide in the indoor air.  In this edition of Ringler Radio, host Larry Cohen welcomes Attorney Ervin A. Gonzalez,  partner at Colson Hicks Eidson and Attorney Jerrold S. Parker, Managing Partner with the firm Parker Waichman Alonso LLP, to talk about the latest in Chinese drywall litigation. They will discuss the recent CPSC report, the property and health issues and next steps for homeowners.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:05 -- 21.4MB)

Related Podcasts

• August 27, 2009 -- Credit Card Consumers & Arbitration
• July 16, 2009 -- Chinese Drywall Litigation"

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

Source: Legal Talk Network, 15 December 2009

In the news: "'Romantic' would not be the first or last word that comes to mind when considering the best practices in document preservation. But Gibson Dunn attorney Farrah Pepper shows that the same common-sense principles that preserve romantic unions can apply to successful document preservation."

Topics discussed include:

Timing is everything...

Get to know each other...

Uncover hidden issues early...

At the outset, keep your options open...

Relationship history matters...

Communicate clearly and regularly...

Get it in writing...

Be committed...

Love means having to say you are sorry...

Know when to let go...

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 16 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Michelle Golden: "If you entered the professional workforce more than, say, ten years ago, you probably can't imagine an environment in which computer access was disallowed. 

Or imagine, twenty years ago, if using the telephone in your daily tasks was not permitted.

But what if you were expected by management to get your job done as efficiently and effectively as possible. 

Ludicrous, right?

Wouldn't you be thinking management was foolish to cut off access to the tools which you'd used in your daily life growing up and throughout your education years?

You'd be thinking management is not very bright or not very trusting--maybe both--and that they are definitely cutting off their collective nose to spite their face.

Both of these tools can also be used for "playing around" and not getting our work done. Being, yes, unproductive! But they can also enable us to get your job done exponentially faster than without them. 

Similarly, for years we've watched big morale problems stem from companies locking down internet, blogs, and IM access. It's because we now KNOW that these tools let us research and communicate better and faster than ever before...

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

Source: Golden Practices, 11 December 2009

Posted by Brian Tannebaum: "Trial and Jury Consultant Dennis Elias posted this gem yesterday about how far we lawyers have fallen in the category of ethics & honesty - in just one year.

The article is a fascinating, but not surprising summary of what people think of various professions.

Making the highest gain - police.

Making the largest drops - lawyers, and worse, clergy.

We're better than priests?

Not really, they just dropped more than us this year.

Maybe the clergy have lost our respect due to the various sex scandals, or maybe people think God is not doing enough to help the economy. I don't know.

But let's talk about lawyers.

Lawyers dropped from 18% to 13%. So I guess 87% of the public don't hold lawyers in high esteem.

...

We dropped 5% in one year. Why?

It doesn't matter.

My advice, don't lie, cheat, steal, try to give some of your time when you can, and do a good job for your clients.

It's no longer about the profession, it's about you, as a professional."

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

Source: My Law License, 10 December 2009

Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: "The Supreme Ohio Court announced last Monday that it will begin certification of court interpreters as of Jan. 1, 2010, with Rules 80 through 87 and Appendix H of the Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio going into effect on that date.

The Interpreter Services Program is designed to provide assistance to judges and the courts statewide on issues of foreign language interpretation, and was initiated with the Court's joining the National Center for State Courts' Consortium for State Court Interpreter Certification in June 2003. The Court then created its Advisory Committee to Study Use of Court Interpreters in April 7, 2005

"State and federal law requires complete and accurate interpretations in legal proceedings," the Court's release said. "These rules ensure that constitutional guarantees are afforded to all linguistic minorities, including deaf and hard of hearing populations. The certification will ensure that interpreters working in the courts meet the minimum standards of language fluency. Applicants will take the written examination developed by the Consortium for Language Access in the Courts, an arm of the National Center for State Courts. Candidates will also take an oral examination, to measure their English and foreign language ability."

New Rules

The Supreme Court also has several publications relating to court interpreters:

"Report on the Use of Interpreters in Ohio Courts" (2006)

"Working with Interpreters for Deaf or Hard of Hearing Persons in the Courtroom" (2007)

"Working with Foreign Language Interpreters in the Courtroom" (2007)

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

Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 11 December 2009

From the site: "Erin Brockovich began her career by taking a risk, looking into a case and ultimately helping the people of Hinkley, California who were battling medical problems due to the contamination of the water supply.  From there, Erin has become a global speaker and a passionate environmental crusader. On this edition of The Paralegal Voice, co-hosts Lynne DeVenny and Vicki Voisin welcome Erin Brockovich to offer her advice to the paralegal community. Erin will discuss the power of a paralegal and their vital role in a case, the Million Baby Crawl and her never ending fight for awareness, the truth, and a person's right to know.

Special thanks to our sponsors, Teris, West Live note, Clio, and the National Association of Legal Assistants (NALA).

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:01 -- 26.6MB)

Related Podcasts

• October 8, 2009 -- The Landmark Decision in Connecticut v AEP
• July 7, 2009 -- New Hiring Trends in the Paralegal World
• March 5, 2009 -- Paralegals in a Down Economy
• December 18, 2008 -- The Controversy Surrounding Gardasil
• March 12, 2008 -- Paralegals: The Backbone of the Law Practice"

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

Source: Legal Talk Network, 11 December 2009

Bruce Sterling writes: "Last week, a Maryland appeals court upended a first-degree murder conviction because a juror consulted Wikipedia for trial information. [We first posted about it here]. Earlier this year, the appeals judges erased a conviction for three counts of assault because a juror did cyberspace research and shared the findings with the rest of the jury. In a third recent trial, a juror's admission to using his laptop for off-limits information jeopardized an attempted-murder trial.

On Friday, lawyers for Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon asked for a new trial in part because five of the jurors who convicted her of embezzlement Dec. 1 were communicating among themselves on Facebook during the deliberations period - and at least one of them received an outsider's online opinion of what the verdict should be. The "Facebook Friends," as Dixon's lawyers call them in court documents, became a clique that the lawyers argue altered jury dynamics.

[Snip]

The issue is not peculiar to Maryland. The American Bar Association noted that in March, an eight-week federal drug trial in Florida ended in a mistrial - not because one juror tattled to the judge that another had resorted to cyberspace searches about the case. After asking all 12 jurors, the judge learned that eight others had Web-surfed, too.

Appeals elsewhere are based partly on jurors' posts on Twitter and Facebook, according to the ABA, with worries about the lack of control and breach of trust."

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

Source: ResourceShelf, 13 December 2009

Posted by Bruce Carton: "Attention all lawyers who practice before United States Bankruptcy Judge Robert Kressel, D. Minn.: He has just about had it with your crappy "legalese" and he has a 19-point plan to get you writing like a real person again.

This is just a taste. Here is the full list of things you won't be doing any longer in Judge Kressel's court."

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

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 11 December 2009

Posted by Evan Schaeffer: "Your choices for a citation style?

The Bluebook. The Greenbook. The Maroonbook. Plus others, which you'll find listed in an article at the University of North Texas: "Citing Legal Materials/Legal Style Manuals."

What's important isn't so much the one you use, but that you choose one and use it consistently throughout any single document.

Otherwise, you'll look sloppy, an impression that will cast your legal reasoning in a negative light.

Further reading: "Communicating Your Authority," by Maureen B. Collins, Illinois Bar Journal, 12/03.

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

Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 3 December 2009

From the e-newsletter: "When it comes to teenagers behind the wheel of automobiles, perhaps it is time to be afraid, very afraid.  Indeed, recent research by the Pew Internet & American Life Project  presents some fairly sobering statistics about texting and driving. Pair that with some statistics about car crashes and car crash fatality numbers with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and it gets downright scary...

Related Resources:

Texting While Driving Laws on The Rise (Findlaw's Law and Daily Life Blog)

Teens, Texting and Driving (Findlaw)

Driving While Texting: Apps to Block It and Toughening Laws (Findlaw's Common Law Blog)

Read full text

Source: FindLaw's Modern Practice: Law & Technology, 10 December 2009 Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.

Posted By Rob Millard:

"The Big Picture: A VERY COOL, 165 second summary of what lies ahead for the legal profession by our friends at Beaton Consulting in Australia. Adobe Flash (free download) required.

Are YOU ready for the future?"

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

Source: The Adventure of Strategy, 1 December 2009

Posted by Al Nye: "For the 5th year, Reid Trautz is back with his Holiday Gift Guide For Lawyers. This year features everything from the Beatles to a gas-powered blender. Check it out.

While you're there, check out other articles from his excellent blog."

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

Source: Al Nye The Lawyer Guy, 8 December 2009

Posted by John Jantsch: "About this time of year, some people get in planning mode for the new year. Often times this planning involves dragging out white boards and reviewing last year's plan to evaluate progress.

My take it that kind of planning, trying to figure what to do next, only leads to mediocrity. It helps you get a little better, maybe, but it's usually all down there in the ground level, tactical stuff.

Look, you know what you need to do, why not just stop the planning and jump off the ledge with some audacious goals - the kind that force you to get really, really uncomfortable, the kind that start at about 50,000 feet and manifest as chaos. The kind that change your perspective, your breathing, and your entire organizational vibe.

Here are five needle moving ways to make big impact in 2010

1) Embrace One Big Change at a Time...

2) Make Meaning Important in Your Business...

3) Do Remarkable or Quit Being Boring...

4) Get What You're Worth...

Stop taking clients and work that isn't right for you!

5) Fuse Online With Off...

I wrote a piece on this topic on OPENForum: 5 Ways to Use Social Media Activity Offline"

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

Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 7 December 2009

Posted By Patrick J. Lamb: "I just returned from a breakfast at which Stephen Dubner, one of the authors of Freakonomics and the sequel, Superfreakonomics, made some remarks.  He told the story about the work he and his co-author did studying the hand hygiene habits of doctors at a hospital.  Doctors self-reported washing their hands 71% of the time.  By studied observation, the true frequency was 9%.  Committees were formed, edicts were issue, all to no avail.  Keep in mind, this was an effort to convince the highest educated cohort in a hospital to do that which all of them acknowledged they needed to do.  The a carrot was used.  Doctors would be observed and each time they washed their hands, this observation group would give them a Starbucks gift card.  Still no real improvement.  Anyway, Dubner went on at length about the various steps the hospital took to try to get the doctors to do that which they know they should do.

I won't reveal what ultimately caused the doctors to change their behavior, but Dubner's conclusion is that changing human behavior is incredibly difficult.

What does this have to do with alternative fees?  Everything...

Continue reading this interesting post at Patrick's blog site:

Source: In Search of Perfect Client Service,  6 December 2009 

From the site: "As we come to the end of a tough economic year, we take note of some of the effects of the recession, one of which is homelessness on the rise.  Attorneys and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi welcome Attorney Steve Binder, a deputy public defender with the San Diego Office of the Public Defender and founder of  the Homeless Court Program and Attorney Maria Foscarinis, founder and executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, to discuss the issues, including the jobless rate impact and the legal requirements of cities and towns to cope with homelessness.

To Donate: Veterans Village of San Diego (VVSD)

Special Thanks to our sponsor, Clio

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:18 -- 22.2MB)

Related Podcasts

June 17, 2009 -- The SEC Tackles Wall Street Meltdown

May 21, 2009 -- The Impact of the Recession on Law Firms and Lawyers

November 25, 2009 -- Thanksgiving Edition: Giving Back to Those in Need

September 15, 2009 -- Inside the ABA Journal's Legal Rebels Project

June 22, 2009 -- Legal, Economic, and Pragmatic Considerations in Cross-Border E-Discovery"

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

Source: Legal Talk Network, 10 December 2009

Posted by Allison Shields: "Social media for lawyers has become a 'hot topic' - suddenly everyone wants to talk about it. This month I'm talking to two separate groups of lawyers about social media, next week I'll be meeting with some colleagues to discuss some other programs and workshops specifically geared toward lawyers' use of social media, and next month I'm presenting to yet another group on the topic. Lawyers are asking what social media platforms they should participate in and why. But it's the 'why' that I want to address in this post.

Yesterday I was speaking with a colleague about lawyers and their use (or lack of use) of social media. We were discussing the reasons why lawyers, particularly those in larger firms, might be resistant to the idea of making social media a regular part of their day to day practice building efforts. We each identified very different reasons why we think it makes sense for lawyers to engage in social media, and why we are participating ourselves.

As a result of our conversation, I thought it made sense to reiterate a point I make often with my clients - before you begin using any marketing or practice building tool, you must define the purpose for which you are using that tool. You must have a reason for choosing to participate and identify what goals you want to reach or what results you expect to achieve.

Last week, during a presentation on social media I asked a group of lawyers how many of them were on LinkedIn. Almost everyone raised their hands. Then I asked them, "Other than putting up a profile and occasionally inviting someone you've met at a networking event to connect with you, has anyone done anything else with LinkedIn?" Not one person had. Most of them didn't know there was anything else to LinkedIn other than posting their profile and occasionally (usually haphazardly) inviting others to connect or accepting invitations they had received..."

Continue reading this interesting post at Allison's blog site:

Source: Legal Ease Blog, 10 December 10, 2009

Posted by Ernest Svenson: "I got an email the other day from a lawyer who had a couple of questions about my communications tools: 

"What phone system are you using?  Do you have a traditional landline and also a cell phone or only a cell phone?  I am a solo practitioner with two incoming lines and AT&T DSL service.  I am searching for a more effective system and hopefully something less expensive than the $325 or so monthly cost."

Obviously, everyone's communication needs will vary slightly.  So it's not like there are absolutes that apply across the board. Nevertheless, there are some broad principles that solo and small firm lawyers should keep in mind.

1. Consider using a VOIP service for your business line...

2. Leverage your cellphone...

3. Seriously consider a 'virtual receptionist' service...

4. My current set-up...

5. Conclusion..."

Full text is available at the source site listed below.

Source: Ernie the Attorney, 10 December 2009

In the news: "Nixon Peabody implemented YouSendIt, a secure file transfer service to deliver documents to clients. YouSendIt's centralized administrative console, easy deployment, security, and auditing capabilities made it an "unbeatable replacement" for Microsoft SharePoint and private couriers."

Read full text 

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 11 December 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 not too late. There are still a few weeks of the holiday season to go, before the doldrums of January set in. Go visit your key clients (okay at least those that are local) and referral sources to thank them for their business/referrals, and take them to lunch or dinner.

Also, take along an appropriate gift. Or send one at least.  Sorry, don't have a bunch of new ideas this year, but you can look over my "holiday gifts" posts of prior years. I still like most of them.

Also, send a holiday card. Yes, a holiday card. Quickly. But make sure you sign it personally, and include a short note, such as "hope you have a terrific holiday season" or whatever. Write something to show you care enough not to just send the firm's unsigned, impersonal card. Here's another post of mine on this topic.

You may be surprised what comes of all this in 2010, if not sooner."

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

Source: Legal Marketing Blog.com, 9 December 2009

Posted by Bruce Carton: "It is somewhat hard to believe that 43 years after Miranda v. Arizona, the requirements for providing suspects with their legal rights could still be murky. Indeed, by now, grade-school kids can probably recite most of the now-famous "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you in a court of law..." speech.

But the Supreme Court appears to consider the requirements for effective Miranda warnings unclear, and it heard oral argument on Monday in Florida v. Powell. According to the case, the police read Powell his Miranda rights straight from a standardized form they use:

You have the right to remain silent. If you give up this right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any of our questions. If you cannot afford to hire a lawyer, one will be appointed for you without cost and before any questioning. You have the right to use any of these rights at any time you want during this interview.

Powell, however, argued that these warnings failed to advise him of one crucial thing: his right to have a lawyer with him throughout the entire time that any questioning was being done by law enforcement officers, not just "before answering questions."  As discussed in this post on The Briefcase blog, the Florida Supreme Court agreed with Powell, holding that the right to have an attorney present existed "at any time you want during" questioning. This right, however, was not stated on the standardized form used in the Florida jurisdiction in question, one of only a handful in Florida that failed to include it. The Briefcase writes that Monday's oral argument before the Supreme Court "resulted in a parsing of the Miranda decision on a scale usually observed in rabbinical debates about the Talmud." 

The SCOTUSblog also has a detailed account of the argument. The Florida attorney general's office reportedly argued that its Supreme Court had improperly used a "hypertechnical analysis of the warning's language." The Solicitor General's office joined with Florida, arguing that no particular form of warnings was constitutionally required. SCOTUSblog says that Justice Stephen G. Breyer seemed to disagree, however, reciting from the Miranda decision that the lawyer must be "with him during interrogation." Opting for a Catholic metaphor, Justice Scalia likened Powell's argument to debates over the number of "angels dancing on the head of a pin." Scalia stated that it was "quite fantastic" for Powell to argue that "if I knew that I could have an attorney present during the interview, well, that would have been a different kettle of fish and I would never have confessed."

You can read a transcript of the entire oral argument in Florida v. Powell here

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

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 9 December 2009

Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: "Franklin County Magistrate Pamela Browning last Monday morning declined to grant a preliminary injunction against the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles to prevent them from cancelling vehicle registrations of nearly 45,000 cars & trucks largely driven by undocumented immigrants. Beginning yesterday, the Columbus Dispatch reported, it will be illegal for thousands of immigrants to drive on Ohio's roads. The BMV is canceling their vehicle registrations for failing to prove they are legal U.S. residents. Police can stop those driving with revoked registrations, issue tickets and seize license plates. Drivers who cannot provide adequate identification risk going to jail, with undocumented immigrants also potentially facing deportation.

"BMV changes to weed out fraudulent registrations began on Aug. 24," the article said, "the reforms being delayed for more than a year after former Public Safety Director Henry Guzman met with Latino business owners and then asked for improvements to the policy. BMV began a crackdown on Oct. 8, mailing out some 47,457 letters to those with questioned registrations instructing them to appear at BMV offices by yesterday and provide a state driver's license, ID number, or a Social Security number so their identities could be verified."

While the BMV's letter said that registrations would be cancelled as of Dec. 8th , the BMV decided to wait until yesterday to take the action to provide those affected with a full 60 days notice, spokeswoman Lindsay Komlanc said.

Magistrate Browning's ruling

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

Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 10 December 2009

From FindLaw: "When your office hours end, your law firm's Web site stays open for business. Faced with a pressing legal problem, most people today turn to the Internet as a 24-hour-a-day tool for researching issues and looking for representation.

Online inquiries can come in anytime, from anywhere, but can be lost just as quickly. Giving prospects the information they're looking for, and providing it fast, is critical to your success in closing online leads.

To convert more of your Web "clicks" into qualified clients for your firm, start by addressing the key issues.

• Understand online prospects...
• Respond first...
• Provide a quality response...
• Screen the prospect...
• Moving forward... 

Read full text

Source: FindLaw's The Practice Paper: For Solo & Small Firm Lawyers. 9 December 2009 Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe  <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.

In the news: "What constitutes "unauthorized access" under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act? Mitts Milavec partner Carolyn M. Plump draws on two lines of cases and details the steps companies can take -- short of filing suit -- to safeguard data when an employee is asked to leave or resigns."

Topics discussed include:

ELEMENTS OF A CFAA VIOLATION

CONFLICT REGARDING 'UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS'

STEPS TO PROTECT AGAINST UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS

Read full text

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

Posted by StephanieWestAllen: "Abstract:

This paper analyzes the ways in which jurors use everyday storytelling techniques in their deliberations. It begins by reviewing the literature on how jurors receive and process evidence, emphasizing narrative and storytelling. It then presents some new, qualitative linguistic data drawn from actual jury deliberations, which shed light on jurors' standards of evidence and proof, as well as on the persuasive tactics they use in dealing with each other. Although these data are limited, they provide an interesting basis for assessing existing ideas about jury evidence-processing and thinking more broadly about the strengths and weaknesses of the jury system.

Click to download 'Stories from the Jury Room: How Jurors Use Narrative to Process Evidence' (SSRN)".

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

Source: idealawg, 9 December 2009

Posted by Lisa Salazar: "I am back on my writing bandwagon: lawyers should leave copywriting to copywriters.

I will never forget the first law firm invitation that I made for a lawyer. We went through at least 20 versions and agonized as to whether to use the words "invite" or "cordially invite." An invitation. An invitation that would be read once. An invitation that would be read once and then thrown away.

Of course, I am the exceptional lawyer who can write good copy. ;)

Why? Because I was trained as a journalist and as a writer long before I ever went to law school. Because of that very experience, I did not do very well in my legal writing class--a badge of honor in my book.

Here are my 5 basic rules for writing good copy:

• Do not write a sentence that is longer than two lines.
• Drop all adverbs...
• Use an active voice...
• Do not use legalese, unnecessary capitalization or Latin...
• Do not use exclamation points...

These are just a few of my rules for writing. If you want to read an excellent book on how to become a good writer, I would suggest Stephen King's On Writing--a splendid how-to book on the craft.

And be patient with yourself. It takes a very long time to write a good, short sentence.

As the famed journalist A.J. Liebling said, "I can write better than anyone who can write faster, and I can write faster than anyone who can write better."

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

Source: 3 Geeks and a Blog, 8 December 2009

From the site: "2009 has been the year of the smartphone. Lawyers are moving from traditional email access with a BlackBerry to apps and mobile browsing on iPhones and other smartphones.  In this episode of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, co-hosts Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell take a look at the growing movement to mobile and its implications for the legal profession.  In addition, Tom & Dennis welcome Jeremy Diviney, Co-founder, Chief Architect and Director of Operations at Bill4time, to discuss the importance of using Mobile software.   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.

Special thanks to our sponsor, Bill4Time.

>Show Notes Wiki

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:49 -- 25.1MB)

Related Podcasts

• July 20, 2009 -- Email Etiquette 2.0
• June 22, 2009 -- Lawyers and Smartphones
• October 27, 2009 -- Raise Your Voice: Upgrading Your Blackberry Program
• October 21, 2009 -- The Electronic Legal Pad and the Post-Paper Practice of Law
• August 7, 2009 -- The State of the Blawgosphere"

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

Source: Legal Talk Network, 9 December 2009

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi: "What will the law firm of the future look like? That was the question for a panel of general counsel, law firm partners and industry observers at a panel in New York City Thursday night. If there was consensus among them on any point -- and I'm not sure there was -- it was this: The firm that will thrive in the future is the firm that is able to deliver better value through innovation and technology.

The panel was hosted by LexisNexis to highlight its release of a survey on the state of the legal industry, which I recap in a separate post. D.M. Levine of The American Lawyer has already provided his report on the panel. It was moderated by Darryl Cross, vice president of client profitability at LexisNexis, and included:

All on the panel agreed that law firms should change how they do business. All did not agree, however, on what that change should look like. In fact, the one other point of consensus among the panelists may have been that there is no one-size-fits-all answer for firms or for clients. The legal industry is not a monolith, said Kalis, and any attempt to define it as such is a fallacy.

If change is to come, it should be through the mutual efforts of law firms and clients, several panelists said. The discussion should not about "us" and "them," said Sabatino, who is also a director of the Association of Corporate Counsel. "There should be synergy between clients and firms." Qwest's Baer agreed: "This isn't an adversarial situation between clients and firms."

Maybe not, but the panelists did not always see eye-to-eye. Some of the key points of discussion:

On law firm profitability...

On alternative fees...

On law firm management...

On demand for legal services...

On training of new lawyers...

On "procurement" of outside counsel...

In a final "lightning round," moderator Cross asked the panelists, "In 2015, what will be different?" Their answers illustrated their divergent perspectives:

· Baer: Law firms are smaller.

· Kalis: Law firms are bigger.

· Walsh: The core law firm model has changed.

· Helfer: Firms are more entrepreneurial.

· Henderson: Smaller firms will make more money.

· Sabatino: Law firms are transparent and built on a model of trust.

· Cunniff: Careers will be more customized."

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

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 8 December 2009

Posted by Ron Friedmann: "Legal professionals debate if the 'new normal' will differ from the 'old normal'. Aric Press' American Lawyer editorial, The Change Agenda: Can You Hear the Ice Melting? shifts the question from 'if' to 'how'. The answer to 'how?' is 'process'. 

Press writes that even when demand picks up, the changes so far are 'likely irreversible'. There are 'plenty of disparate events that support the observation that this change business is more than just a sideshow'. He focuses on two: 1. alternative fee arrangements (AFA) and 2. legal process outsourcing (LPO).

According to the editorial, one-half of the 20 'A-List' firms are on record as doing AFA for marquee clients. And a survey AmLaw conducted to quantify the change found that one-quarter of large firms have outsourced work to LPOs.

In my view, the ascension of AFA and LPO mark the beginning of a deeper shift: lawyer as artist or craftsman to lawyer as manager and engineer. As Press says, 'this year it became clear that LPO is really about the "P." It's not whether the work is done in Bangalore or Bangor or on Broad Street; it's how the work is done".

I agree that that process is key. In my 2003 post When Clients Come Knocking, I wrote "paying attention to the process [of law practice] seems at least as important as evaluating the 'outputs' such as results and costs.... One could even imagine formally analyzing the processes to determine best practices across firms. It seems likely that the firms using better processes will produce better results at a lower cost."

While LPO has the word process in it, AFA has the idea of process in it. In my recent post Alternative Fee Arrangements (AFA) are Not as Hard as You Think, I suggested that process is one of three AFA pillars (with tech and staffing the other two).

A related signal of process importance is a surge in legal project management. PM is just the beginning. In support of process, lawyers will need data, metrics, analysis, and structure. So expect to see far more business and financial analysts working side-by-side with lawyers to collect data, analyze them, and create rational, tested processes."

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

Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 6 December 2009

In the news: "Law firms used to be about relationships, retention, loyalty and trust. But that trust has been broken, as seen from the demise of big firms that appear to have traded their culture for currency. And in those firms that have survived, associates are seen as fungible commodities in whom no one has a stake. Is this business model sustainable? The answer is "No," writes Orrick's Patricia Gillette, because it ignores what law firms need to fuel their engines: associates who are invested in the future of their firms."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 9 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Joe Hodnicki: "In The View From the First Chair: What Every Trial Lawyer Really Needs to Know (LawyerAvenue Press, Sept. 2009), Martin L. Grayson writes "the verdict or judgement, tells not only who won or lost a case, it is also a ruling and a judgment on how you presented your evidence and arguments and conducted yourself as counsel. To a large extent, the verdict will be based on you." Grayson's work is a crash course on the litigation process, one that offers specific tips and insights into the legal and psychological art of the lawsuit, particularly at the state trial court level. Young litigators and law students who want to become litigators will get a sense of what is really required for trial preparation including insights into the mindset of the trial lawyer. The author, Martin L. Grayson, has been a litigator for 25 years, is a former member of the board of editors for the ABA Litigation Section's Litigation and a former Judge Pro Tempore for Los Angeles County Superior Court. See also Grayson's blog, Grayson On Trials."

Esther Cho, Reference/Government Documents Librarian, Loyola Law School, recommends this book for "law firm libraries that specialize in litigation as it details common sense for trial lawyers and it would be a good read for a new associate to begin to understand his or her profession." See her AALL Spectrum Blog review. Lets add academic law libraries for the benefit of law students planning on a career as a trial lawyer.

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

In the news: "Cutting or eliminating IT and litigation support staff attendance at technology shows such as LegalTech and ILTA does little to improve a firm's bottom line, says Parker Poe CIO Steve Fletcher, because surviving a down economy is as much about exploring new efficiencies as cutting costs.

Topics discussed include:

THE BOTTOM LINE -- WHAT'S IN A NUMBER?

COST-CUTTING

JUST WORRY ABOUT THIS YEAR?

CLIENT SERVICE

INCREASING THE TOP LINE WITHOUT BILLING ANOTHER DIME

Read full text 

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 9 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Sabrina I. Pacifici: "New York Times: "Google on Tuesday introduced a new approach to presenting news online by topic, developed with The New York Times and The Washington Post, and said that if the experiment succeeded, it would be made available to all publishers. The announcement of the "living stories" project shows Google collaborating with newspapers at a time when some major publishers have characterized the company as a threat. Google has also taken steps recently to project an image of itself as a friend to the industry."

Google Living Stories

• "The Living Stories project is an experiment in presenting news, one designed specifically for the online environment. The project was developed by Google in collaboration with two of the country's leading newspapers, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
• All in one place: Complete coverage of an on-going story is gathered together and prioritized on one URL. You can now quickly navigate between news articles, opinion pieces and features without long waits for pages to load.
• Easy to explore: Each story has an evolving summary of current developments as a well as an interactive timeline of critical events. Stories can be explored by themes, significant participants or multimedia.
• Smarter reading: Updates to the story are highlighted each time you come back, and older news is summarized."

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

Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 8 December 2009 Copyright ©2002-2009. BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.

Posted by Tom Mighell: "If you use Outlook as your primary email program, I'd wager that you spend a lot of your average day working in that program. And Microsoft would prefer it that way - that's why it takes care of most of the things you need during the work day - email, calendars, contacts, and tasks. But for something that we use so often, most of us don't use it properly, or make the most of its capabilities. Microsoft wants to help us out with that.

They've published a great 40-page document called Best Practices for Microsoft Outlook 2007. It's a really good collection of tips and tricks for using Outlook 2007 in more productive ways. The Outlook team that published this article also put together some basic principles of good time management that are worth reprinting here:

Basic principles of good time management

Outlook 2007 is a tool to help you manage your e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks. As such, it is at the center of not only your communications but also your time-management. To get the most out of Outlook 2007, we suggest a few basic principles:

-- Reduce the number of places you read e-mail. Filter all of the messages you need to read into one place -- your Inbox -- using a series of rules.

-- Let some e-mail pass by. Use rules to send e-mail you need to read to your Inbox and then let the rest flow into distribution list folders, untouched. You don't need to read every message sent to you. Only the important ones should go to your Inbox. Remaining messages can be useful to keep -- in case you get looped in on an issue, for example.

-- Reduce the number of places where you manually file messages. Reduce the mental tax of filing by relying on search to locate messages.

-- Process your e-mail using the 4 Ds When reading a message, decide whether to:
* Delete it.
* Do it (respond or file for reference).
* Delegate (forward) it.
* Defer it (using categories and flags) for a second review in your task list.

-- Reduce your to-do list to one list. Use a single to-do list and calendar to manage what you need to do.

-- Work in batches. Use categories to help you group similar tasks together.

-- Use good judgment when sending e-mail Follow the dos and don'ts of writing great e-mail. Review your time and tasks regularly.

The best practices document is great, and is available in both Word and PDF versions. Give it a look.

Posted by David Canton: "2010 will see some interesting and useful developments in the tablet / e-book reader space. The concept of a thin, light, portable device with a decent screen size (i.e. a letter sized piece of paper) and long battery life to read things on - such as newspapers, magazines, books, the web - is quite compelling.

There are a few products on the market already - such as the Kindle. In my view the tipping point to widespread adoption will be colour screens that can render glossy magazine resolution, the ability to get web content via wifi rather than just over a cell network, and a low enough price point. At least that's what I'm holding out for.

To some extent this is vapourware - but there is a lot of activity and potential competition in this space. Consider:

Several Slaw articles have mentioned the Kindle and e-book readers like the Sony reader.

Another entrant announced within the last few days is the JooJoo, formerly known as the Crunchpad . This one is rather controversial. The story behind it (feuding developers) is as interesting as the product itself.

Of course there is the much anticipated Apple tablet - which many predict will appear some time in 2010.

Microsoft has shown a concept called the Courier.

And top that off with a publishers consortium that is working on digital publishing standards."

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

Source: Slaw.ca, 9 December 2009

In the news: "The crazy holiday season ... why does it make our hearts beat faster knowing we have so much more "to do" and so little time to achieve it all? Why is it we both love and hate this time of year? The holiday season is not the time to slow down your business development activities or stop networking, because we still have budgets, goals and targets to achieve, writes consultant Neen James. She provides some strategies that will help you stay productive and help set yourself up to grow your business in 2010."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 7 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by StephanieWestAllen: "Reading stories about lawyers who have been practicing for more than 50 years always causes me to stop and imagine what the profession was like back when they first entered the law. Bill Wetherall has been practicing for 72 years!

Read what he has to say in this article from The Union (California's Western Nevada County). A sample from "Weathering it all: Attorney still practicing law at 98":

The attorney attributes his longevity to his years of work, sports and many hours spent on the trails around the Empire Mine State Historic Park grounds.

"I still do a mile every day," he said. Household chores also keep him limber.

...

Wetherall came to town in 1955, and quickly struck up a law partnership with Harold Berliner. The partnership dissolved when Berliner decided to run for Nevada County's district attorney, a post he held from 1963 to 1980.

"We never had a harsh word in seven years" of partnership, Wetherall said.

"It was easy to get along with him because he was so competent," Berliner said. "He was a very hard worker and still is."

...

Despite tough economic times, he survived because "there's always a certain amount of legal work to be done," Wetherall said. "It's like the medical system: Being sick has nothing to do with the economy." 

...

As the years wore on, Wetherall saw the legal profession change in several major ways.

"Specialization and the advent of women" were the most important, Wetherall said. Specialization "took a little fun out of the law because we used to do a little bit of everything."

Women have brought a different perspective to law that was long-needed, he added. ...

Click to read the rest of the article."

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

Source: idealawg, 5 December 2009

From the blog: "I'm reviewing a cover letter to a proposal. The 24-page proposal is from a law firm that wants to offer legal services to an insurance company. The 650-word cover letter was drafted by an attorney who worked on the proposal.

It's awful (the cover letter) -- two pages of hype that belongs in a brochure. In a cover letter, it sounds insincere and phony. And those are not the adjectives that describe the cover letter of a winning proposal.

My job is easy. All I have to do is call the firm's marketing director, and say this:

Why don't we use the cover letter we used on the last three proposals. Each of those proposals turned out to be winners, so why not follow a proven path?

Then he gets to talk to the attorney. If he can persuade her to use the proven cover letter, great! I can get it ret and set in no time. If he can't, . . . .

Here's my advice to an attorney writing a cover letter to a proposal: Keep it short. It's not a brief. It should consist of nothing more than the following:

1. Attached is the proposal you requested;
2. Please call me if you have any questions/concerns about the proposal;
3. I look forward to being of service to your organization.

That's it. Anything more than 250 words is -- in most cases -- too much.

And listen to your marketing director. You've got your talents, and he's got his."

For more great advice, visit

Source: Set in Style, 4 December 2009

Posted by Chip Bell and John Patterson: "Networking is also a way to encourage customer storytelling - the best connections glue there is. Network can mean creating on-line events that function as a "watering hole" for customers. Facilitate interactions with other customers. Provide giveaways or drawings to promote a spirit of warmth and camaraderie. Ensure there are value-added takeaways that tie your organization to the network experience. Invite a special person your customers will want to meet.

Effective social media management involves figuring out what makes your customers different from others and then capitalize on it. Try to get inside your customers' minds to unearth what unique need or desire your service can address. Help your customers feel they are a part of a special group with the same allure that the "The Few, the Proud, the Marines" has for a Marine recruit. When Jeff Bezos started Amazon.com he wanted to create an on-line experience of the neighborhood bookstore. Since there was no bookstore clerk to tell patrons about an obscure new mystery or the best book on crocheting, he turned the job over to customers, encouraging them to write book reviews. The result was a community of book lovers, or to quote Bezos, "neighbors helping neighbors make purchase decisions."

The twin bean cans with the string was more than a tool for childhood communication. You had a friend on the other end of the string, an important part of your network of buds. You had a means to create a special identity by boldly creating a link that circumvented the oversight of adults. The cans were also a device that enabled secret-sharing, a bonding ritual that made you blood brothers (or sisters).

The advent of social media is revealing more about our customers than simply a faddish version of the cell phone or text messaging. It informs us customers want connections that matter and a means of expression that is valued. Properly understanding the anthropology of social media can be a great boon to the principles of building customer devotion."

To see part one of this series, click here.

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

Source: Service Untitled, 27 November 2009

Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: "Research RoundUp: Business Filings Databases Updated - Kathy Biehl's guide to online corporate and business filings available provides links to and descriptions of services available from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as selected commercial services. It is the most comprehensive, reliable web resource available on the topic.

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

Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 6 December 2009 Copyright ©2002-2009. BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.

Posted by Ron Jones: "As most of us are well aware of, the vast majority of links on Thomas.gov are not persistant.  So the link you worked with just two months ago may very well be dead.  The solution:  tinyThom.as, an online tool for preserving the webpages served up by http://thomas.loc.gov.  tinyThom.as generates full-size permanent URLs for THOMAS pages, and also generates short URLs which redirect to those long URLs in order to make them easy to pass around via Twitter, Email, Facebook, etc. Excellent tool for those of us working with Thomas on a regular basis. Check it out.

As an aside, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting story on several web companies, including the Internet Archive, working together to preserve the abbreviated urls for historical purposes.  See:  Trying to Save the Web's Shortcuts, Project Seeks to Preserve Links Behind Services That Shrink Internet Addresses"

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

Source: Law Librarian Weblog, 7 December 2009

From the site: "Church versus State issues are the basis for some very interesting U.S. Supreme Court cases. In this first edition of the Boston University School of Law podcast, host and media veteran, Dan Rea of WBZ-Radio 1030 gets beyond the legal documents and summary judgments in a conversation with BU Law Professor Jay Wexler, who brings those cases to life in his book, Holy Hullabaloos: A Road Trip to the Battlegrounds of the Church/State Wars. You will hear about the people and places involved in serious... and sometimes funny cases involving religion and the law.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:52 -- 19.8MB)"

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

Source: Legal Talk Network, 4 December 2009

In the news: "Faced with unexpected criticism about the propriety of several stock photos on its site, Houston-based Lindeman Alvarado moved quickly to remove images of a woman and children used to illustrate the firm's criminal defense practice areas. Do you know what content is on your Web site?"

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 7 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Tom Kane: "I'm reminded during this busy time of the year how important it is for lawyers and firms to start organizing their marketing planning for next year. The same theme is covered by Trey Ryder in an article in his current newsletter.

Then I realized that both of us covered the same topic over 15 months ago when I reference his advice in a post at that time. After rereading my post, I decided that an encore was in order so here it is:

September 4, 2008 
Too Busy For Marketing? Or Just Unfocused?

Often one hears from lawyers "I'm just to busy to be marketing." Maybe they are just focusing on the wrong stuff? Reasons might include they're too busy with:

• Administrative tasks best left to others, or
• Working on files they wish they didn't have, or
• Representing clients they don't like working for.

Marketing is not only healthy for one's law practice (as in keeping the family fed), but can also lead to doing the kind of work one enjoys doing for clients the lawyer enjoys working for. Granted it takes focus, planning and perseverance to ensure that business development efforts get the results that will bring enjoyment to one's legal practice.

My friend Trey Ryder has a great article in his current newsletter (sign up for free) that endorses the points raised above. He states:

"When I ask busy lawyers what they're busy doing, they often grumble about handling cases they don't want, dealing with the hassles of running an office, and so on."

Trey goes on to tell the story about a client, who almost hired him a couple of years earlier. When he asked why he was hiring him now, the lawyer said that he never got a marketing program going and "is no further ahead than he was then."

I have the same questions that Trey asked in his article:

• "Are you bringing in the cases you want?
• "Are you spending time in ways you find enjoyable?
• "Are you investing your time in the most profitable ways?
• "Are you delegating or referring out cases you don't want?"

Most lawyers have the best intentions when it comes to undertaking a marketing and business development program. But many lawyers are too busy doing things that keep them from undertaking those activities that will produce desirable results.

So, don't let two years pass before you realize that although you're busy, you may be too "busy" on the wrong stuff.

---------
Making a New Year's resolution to work harder at getting more focused and organized will definitely help your marketing and business development efforts in 2010."

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

Source: Law Marketing Blog.com, 3 December 2009

Posted by Joe Hodnicki: "A quarter-million Boomer lawyers are expected to start retiring by 2011. Lawyers at Midlife: Laying the Grouwndwork for the Road Ahead by Michael Long, John Clyde and Pat Funk offers them a detailed guide for retirement that includes a set of resources, information, and planning tools. Lawyers at Midlife considers such issues as

• Your vision of retirement and whether you and your spouse or partner share the same vision
• Your strategy for building and preserving financial resources for retirement
• Your current retirement assets and whether they are invested in the most beneficial ways to achieve your retirement goals
• How to navigate the Medicare maze
• How to develop an estate plan, an "encore career," and how to close one's law practice.

Lawyers at Midlife is not one of those feel-good self-help retirement books. The authors are well-versed in the field. Michael Long, JD/MSW, is responsible for developing retirement-planning assistance and programming for the Oregon Attorney Assistance Program. John Clyde, a certified financial planner, has conducted retirement workshops for thousands of state employees in the Pacific Northwest, and Pat Funk is a financial planning professional who conducts seminars for legal professionals preparing for their financial transition into retirement. While targeting lawyers as their audience, Boomer law librarians may also benefit from a close reading of the work."

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

Posted by Paul Luvera: "Trial November 2009 had a review by Russ Herman about a book, The Articulate Advocate written by Brian Johnson & Marsha Hunter. Russ has published on persuasion and, as nationally known trial lawyer, has lectured about argument, communication and persuasion.  I have not read the book, but some of Russ's comments about the book caught my eye. Here are some of the things Russ reports that the book recommends and I thought important:

• making panoramic eye contact with all the jurors before starting to talk. This is something taught by communications expert Josh Karton. The book suggests systematically looking at the jurors seated at the four corners of the jury perimeter
• Russ quotes the book as saying "Pauses are good; silence is golden." The pauses give importance to what you are saying and the jurors time to think about what you are saying.
• The book suggests that you should not panic when you are searching for your next idea or word. This is of particular importance because the pause actually makes what comes next of importance. Only nervous speakers feel they have to fill every silence with words
• Russ says the book suggests control your pace by speaking in phrases and not whole sentences. It suggests you use the timing and rhythm of the Pledge of Allegiance. I don't know about that, but I do know that the timing, pauses and pace of your talk is of the utmost importance in giving importance to what you are saying.  No one does this better then Gerry Spence whose timing is impeccable

The book recommends breathing deeply because the power of your speech is proportional to your breath support. All actors are taught breathing. Josh Karton makes this a significant part of his teaching of communication

These are good recommendations. If the rest of the book is as good, it will be worth purchasing."

Get more good ideas at:

Source: Plaintiff Trial Lawyer Tips, 28 November 2009

Creditor Entitled to Simple Interest on Defaulted Note Unless Parties Agreed to or Statute Allows Compounding

From the website: "2008-2363 and 2009-0170.  Mayer v. Medancic, Slip Opinion No. 2009-Ohio-6190...

Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2009/2009-Ohio-6190.pdf

View oral argument video of this case...

...The Supreme Court of Ohio ruled 7-0 today that pursuant to R.C. 1343.02, when a debtor defaults on a written instrument that specifies an interest rate payable on the unpaid balance, and there is no agreement of the parties or another statutory provision expressly authorizing the compounding of interest, the creditor is entitled to simple interest on the unpaid amount until payment is made.

The Court also held that after a debtor defaults on a written instrument, simple interest accrues on the entire amount owed, which includes both the unpaid principal and the interest that was due and payable to the creditor at the time of the default. The Court's decision, which reversed a ruling by the 11^th District Court of Appeals, was authored by Justice Maureen O'Connor."

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

Source: The Supreme Court of Ohio, 3 December 2009

Posted by J. Benjamin Stevens: "Blogs are not just for lawyers - there are several excellent blogs aimed at paralegals and legal assistants.  I have listed several below, and I invite you to let me know of others that I can add to this list:

• The Paralegal, published by Ana Pierro
• Paralegal How To
• Practical Paralegalism, published by Lynne DeVenny
• Paralegalese
• Paralegal Pie, published by Kim Walker
• Paralegal Gateway
• The Estrin Report, published by Chere B. Estrin
• ICC Law blog
• The Empowered Paralegal, published Robert E. Mongue
• Patti's Paralegal Page
• The Paralegal Mentor, published by Vicki Voisin"

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

Source: The Mac Lawyer, 30 November 2009

Posted by Carolyn Elefant: "Two weeks ago, I presented a nearly full day CLE in Oregon on Solo by Choice in the Current Economy, with a summary by Beverly Michaelis, one of the Oregon Professional Liability Fund's Practice Management Advisors.  But below are a couple of slides that I used for the Oregon program and others, highlighting many of the free products and services available to lawyers starting or running a law firm.  Though I don't believe that it's necessarily prudent or always cost-effective to run a law firm on freebies alone, free services, when used appropriately can give lawyers a wide range of capabilities that once would have been cost prohibitive.  And of course, don't forget that yet another free tool for starting a law firm is MyShingle!

Take a look at these slides and please let me know about your favorite freebies in the comment section or your thoughts on some of the services that I've listed (I've used all of them at one time or another).

[Slide show is available at the source site listed below.]

Free Tools for Starting a Law Firm

View more presentations from carolynelefant.

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

In the news: "Duane Morris' Practice Support Department is challenged by tight deadlines and budgets and numerous processes that require planning and management. While the firm developed its own project database, the implementation of iFramework software took project management to a higher level."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 4 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Talking points for Episode 104: November 30, 2009 include:

"Can Lawyers Lie?

What's the Difference Between Perjury and Plain Lies?

Do Lawyers Know if Their Clients Are Lying?

Confidential Communications are Off-Limits

Can Lawyers Defend Clients They Know are Guilty?

Recap: Can Lawyers Lie?"

To listen to the podcast or read the transcript, visit the source site listed below.

Source: Legal Lad, 30 November 2009

Posted by Brian Galbraith: "Are you dreading Christmas? Will it be your first special holiday since your separation?  Are you depressed about not having your children for New Year's Eve, or Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or some other special day. Whatever the holiday, you are not alone.

I remember the first Christmas that my three boys were with their mother Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I cried and felt depressed most of the day. The time seemed to creep by so slowly. I felt all alone and like a failure.

I should have taken my 6 year old son's advice.

A few days before Christmas, he knew he would spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with his Mom because that's what we agreed. So, he asked me to write a letter to Santa and ask him to come to my house on December 26th instead of the 25th. My son said that Santa comes to Steve's house (Steve is my friend who is divorced with kids too) on the 26th so he was sure he wouldn't mind coming to our house then too!

Of course, Santa did come on December 26th, even without a letter, but I think the message my son unwittingly was giving me was that it does not matter when we celebrate Christmas...lets just make whatever day we have together full of love, gratitude, Santa and fun. He knew Santa (and joy) would arrive whenever we wanted them to arrive. We just had to schedule it.

To help make your holidays special, here are ten things you can do:

1. Ensure your schedule is specific...
2. Don't fight over which days you have your children...
3. Do something special for yourself...
4. Support your children...
5. Create new traditions...
6. Get outside...
7. Give of your heart...
8. Stay sober...
9. Surround yourself with positive, supportive people...
10. Relax...

There are several wonderful blogs about surviving the holiday season after divorce. I recommend Richard Sharp's blog, Anne Shales blog, Nancy Van Tine's blog and Rosalind Sedacca's blog.  All have excellent advice for parents who are going through a divorce at this time of the year.

Now, my youngest son is 12 years old and he says the best thing about Mom and Dad having separated is that he enjoys "two Christmases, two Easters and two Thanksgivings!" He says "if you like that kind of food, it's great!" Let me assure you... he certainly does like "that kind of food!"

So make it a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa or whatever special holiday you are celebrating this year. Joy will come whenever you schedule its arrival. It is up to you."

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

Source: Ontario Family Law Blog, 1 December 2009 [Hat tip to Colin O'Keefe at Real Lawyers Have Blogs!]

Posted by StephanieWestAllen: "Excerpt:

[A] peaceful, harmonious workplace can be the worst possible thing for a business, according to consultancy eePulse, which conducts in-depth surveys that measure employee engagement. Complacency, in fact, is the single greatest predictor of poor company performance. The second greatest? An environment in which employees are overwhelmed. In the first case, employees are reluctant to rock the boat. In the second, the level of employee satisfaction is low and the amount of dysfunctional fighting is high. In both situations, low energy levels and fear of political fallout curb action that might address any looming crisis. At Lehman, many alums told us, raising difficult questions could kill your career.

Most leadership experts argue that the best way to manage change is to create alignment, but our research indicates that for large-scale change or innovation initiatives, a healthy dose of dissent is usually just as important. Within an acceptable range of competition and tension, science shows, dissent will fire up more of an individual's brain, stimulating more pathways and engaging more creative centers. In short, more of what makes people unique, innovative, and passionate is available for use.

Click to read the rest of "How to Pick a Good Fight" (Harvard Business Review).

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

Source: idealawg, 2 December 2009

Posted by Julie A. Fleming: "I recently spoke with a lawyer who had tried a variety of business development activities, all to no avail.  She'd written articles, she'd taught seminars, she'd advertised, she'd attended some networking events, she'd posted her profile on various social networking sites, and so on.  But after all of that, she didn't have any results to report at all, and she was about to conclude that she just wasn't meant to be a rainmaker.

That reaction is so common.  It's so discouraging to work at something -- especially something as important as business development -- and to see no results.  But three mistakes often come clear when I talk with someone who has worked hard at rainmaking without meaningful results.

1. The lawyer is measuring the wrong thing.  Sure, new business is the clearest measurement of rainmaking success, but that's like starting a diet and measuring success only by reaching goal weight.  There are all sorts of (Read the rest of the entry...)

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

Source: Life at the Bar, 1 December 2009

In the news: "A dozen major corporations are involved in an initiative to boost the number of women and minorities in top law firm positions by adding part-time and flexible working schedules to the list of things they require of outside counsel. Participants hope that the initiative, spearheaded by the Project for Attorney Retention and dubbed the Diversity & Flexibility Connection, will help stem the tide of women and minorities leaving law firms and lead to more of them being promoted to partnership."

Talking points include:

DISAPPEARING WOMEN

THE GC'S ROLL

FIRM POLICIE

TURNING GOALS INTO REALITY

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 3 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Court Affirms Death Penalty for Springfield Killer

From the site: "2005-2364.  State v. Perez, Slip Opinion No. 2009-Ohio-6179.

Opinion: http://www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/rod/docs/pdf/0/2009/2009-Ohio-6179.pdf

View oral argument video of this case.

...The Supreme Court of Ohio today affirmed the death sentence of Kerry Perez for the aggravated murder of Ronald Johnson, who was shot and killed during a March 2003 robbery of a Springfield bar and its patrons..."

In the news: "David Allgood, GC of the Royal Bank of Canada, says one of the best aspects of a secondment -- when a law firm temporarily assigns a lawyer to a client's legal department -- is that the corporate legal team gains "top-notch" talent. Several GCs who were interviewed felt companies can benefit greatly from secondments, but also acknowledged possible downsides. Jim Comey, the head of Lockheed Martin's law department, said: "You fall in love with somebody but then have to say goodbye. It's like losing a colleague."

Read full text

By Minara El-Rahman: "The American Bar Association has announced that it will launch a new technology marketplace called ABA Tech EZ for its members to take advantage of. The purpose of ABA's Tech EZ will be to serve as an educational tool as well as to offer ABA members competitive pricing on legal information technology (IT).

According to the press release by the ABA, they believe that this collaborative initiative will help solo practitioners and small law firms who do not have the luxury of having an in house legal IT staff to help them run their businesses. Legal software can help with billing, legal research and other law firm computing needs.

Continue reading ABA Launches Tech EZ to Promote Legal IT.

Source: FindLaw's The Practice Paper: For Solo & Small Firm Lawyers. 2 December 2009. Copyright © 2008. FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe  <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.

Posted by Sabrina I. Pacifici: "FlyOnTime.us is a free resource for air travelers and anyone else interested in the on-time performance of the commercial air system in the United States. The flight and weather information presented on this website is derived from data provided by the United States federal government, while the security line times are submitted by visitors like you. This website has four goals:

1. Help American air travelers find the most on-time flights.
2. Help the American public understand the data from government sources by presenting it in interesting and attractive ways. For example, look at statistics for BWI airport, flights from PHL to ORD, Northwest Airlines, cancellations by airport, or airline percent on-time.
3. Tap the wisdom of crowds to collect data on airport security line delays.
4. Allow developers to access flight on-time data in a simple, programmatic way. See more at the developers page."

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

Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 2 December 2009 Copyright ©2002-2009. BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.

Posted by Robert J. Ambrogi: "Unsure what to get that special lawyer on your holiday shopping list? If so, then where better to turn for gift-giving advice than another lawyer? No Scrooges these, several lawyers have made their lists (and checked them twice) of the perfect gifts for the lawyer in your life. The lists are heavy on the gadgets, but also include clothing, appliances, books and cartoons.

The 2009 Holiday Gift Guide for Lawyers. Now in its fifth year, Reid Trautz's annual guide is becoming as much a holiday tradition as eggnog and bad office parties. We will forgive him the inclusion of his own book, given that this is his list. While the more studious among you may be tempted by his suggestion of Black's Law Dictionary for the iPhone, I'll take a FreeLoader Pro Solar Charger, so I need never see my iPhone run out of juice.

2009 TechnoLawyer Holiday Gift Guide. TechnoLawyer's list is short -- just three items -- but it excuses its brevity by offering "items for people with discerning taste." The list includes a top-of-the-line GPS device and a mid-level pair of earbuds. Needing neither, I'll gladly accept the third item on the list, the Yamaha PDX-30 speaker dock for iPod and iPhone.

Best Gifts for Patent Attorneys 2009. You need not be a patent lawyer -- or a lawyer of any kind, for that matter -- to appreciate the items on this list, compiled by Stephen Albainy-Jenei at Patent Baristas. Patent lawyers being geeky, this list has plenty of gadgets. But, for that female patent lawyer on your shopping list, there is also a pair of $259 Giuseppe Zanotti women's pumps, direct from Italy.

The Digital Edge: Tech Toys for the Holidays. Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson devote the latest episode of their podcast, The Digital Edge, to their suggestions of tech toys every lawyer would love to have. Their list features routers, e-book readers and a GPS watch, along with a marshmallow blaster and a shocking pen.

Last but not least, we must mention InventorSpot's list of the Top Ten Must-Have Toys for Christmas, if only to acknowledge its No. 10 pick and a perennial favorite gift among lawyer lovers and haters alike, My Pet Lawyer.

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

Source: Legal Blog Watch, 30 November 2009 

Posted by Penelope Trunk: "The workplace is set up to reward extroverts. For example, ENTJs make up only 3% of the population but they comprise a wide majority of the world's CEOs. The bias against introverts in American society is well documented, including research that shows that a spot on the cheerleading team foreshadows career success much more reliably than a spot on the honor role. Also, workplace catch phrases that annoy everyone are especially annoying if you're not an extrovert: Toot your own horn! Your career is only as strong as your network! Let's do lunch!

The absurdity of the workplace being set up for extroverts is that 57% percent of the world are introverts, according to Laurie Helgoe, a psychologist and the author of the book Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life is Your Hidden Strength.

A lot of people tell me that my posts about how to approach social situations if you have Asperger Syndrome are helpful to people who are introverts. That might be true, in that both types of people need to limit their exposure to social situations. But the difference is that people with Asperger's are disabled socially. People who are introverts could be great in social situations.

So you can't judge yourself by whether or not you are socially competent. Rather, if you have the choice to be in a social situation or be alone, which would you choose more often? An introvert has more energy for doing life if he or she gets time alone, to recharge. An extrovert gets recharged from being around people. (Here's a test to take if you're not sure what you are.)

I am not an introvert. (I'm an ENTJ.) But I have sensory integration dysfunction, which gives me a similar feeling to introverts when they are overwhelmed with outside input. So unlike most ENTJs, I have a soft spot for introverts. And I am realizing that introversion is an important thing to have in a workplace - the trick is having introverts that understand why they're so valuable.

Here are five ways to leverage the advantages of introversion:

1. Work in the world of ideas...

2. Give ten minutes and then go...

3. Have confidence in your self-knowledge...

4. Teach other people to interact with you...

5. Take control of your work...

And, I'm going to end by telling you to check out the book I recommend more than any other book in the world: Do What You Are by Paul Tieger. This book does not provide a single list of jobs suitable to introverts because there are so many different types of introverts. But this book can tell you what sort of introvert you are (for example, an artist or an activist?) and what sort of work you will thrive in.

As for you extroverts, stop assuming everyone is like you, and start tailoring conversation to introverts when it's appropriate. Once I understood the different types of personalities, I started doing much better at work."

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

Source: Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist, 30 November 2009

In the news: "In dire economic times, companies scrutinize functions and seek ways to run "leaner and meaner." Operations and personnel that do not ostensibly contribute to profit are at risk. Solo attorney David Bender explains how you can preserve privacy by adding it to your bottom line."

The list includes:

Reduced risk of sanctions...

Reduced risk of damage from contractor malfeasance...

More effective use of information...

Reduced customer churn...

Reduced probability of brand damage...

Avoidance of the monetary cost associated with a data breach...

Improved employee morale...

Protection against discontented employees...

Enhanced suitability for merger/acquisition...

Less-likely target for litigation by competitors...

Greater flexibility in bankruptcy proceedings...

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 2 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Tom Kane: "Some lawyers not trained in business still miss the distinction between various terms used in conjunction with the general term "marketing." Marketing is a process not an activity. It consists of many things that together make up marketing - including public relations and advertising, which simply put are tools of marketing.

The main difference between "PR" and "advertising" is that the former is free advertising (except for the PR agency costs involved, if any) in the form of publicity (being quoted in articles, part of a feature articles, etc.) and are usually written by someone else. Advertising, on the other hand, is paid for publicity in the form of ads. Clearly, the former is more valuable and credible than the latter.

Marsha Friedman, CEO of EMSI, a public relations firm, has an article on her web site, that I came across via LinkedIn that further clarifies the distinctions between these terms. Take a look."

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

In the news: "In order to protect brands and trademarks, brand owners should plan to conduct regular assessments of available social networking and Web 2.0 sites, with an eye to determining their popularity with the brand's target consumers and the ease of using these sites for infringement purposes."

Read full text

Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 1 December 2009. Copyright 2008.  ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.

Posted by Evan Schaeffer: "From Ron Miller at Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog, "Rolexes and Introductions"--

My style is conservative in that I wear "please don't notice my clothes one way or the other" attire. I would feel uncomfortable with a diamond hoop earring and a gold bracelet. But some lawyers with traditional clothes look like your Uncle Bill at a wedding: miserably out of their element. If that is who you are, be who you are. Juries are going to say, "Hey, he/she is not like me, but this is a real person."

There's more explanation in Miller's post, which goes on to discuss how to start an opening: Should you introduce yourself and your client before beginning, or not? Miller gives the right answer."

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

Source: The Trial Practice Tips Weblog, 17 November 2009

Posted by Jay Shepherd: "Words matter. What we call something matters. The name we give something usually provides people with the first opportunity to form an opinion about that something, so it's important that the name fits.

I hate "alternative billing." (If someone quotes me on this, make sure they include the quotation marks.) It's a terrible term; one that does injustice to the concept. As I've said before, it has a seamy connotation to it, like "alternative lifestyle." It seems vaguely Berkeley or Brookline or (gasp) Vermont, which makes tradition-bound lawyers very uncomfortable. We need an alternative for "alternative."

And I don't like the "billing" part any better. First, it makes it seem like the issue is about invoice styles, which makes it more boring than the Tax Code or, say, professional soccer. ("Woo! Another one-nought blowout!") Second, it places the focus on the law firm and its adminstration, rather than on the client and the value it is getting.

The intellectual godfather and guru of this ill-named field, the Verasage Institute's Ron Baker, has long advocated "value pricing" as the preferred term. [Update: Ron points out in the comments that he prefers "fixed price" when talking to the customers themselves; "value pricing" is more of a behind-the-scenes term.] It's definitely an improvement, and it is far more descriptive and accurate. The main idea, of course, is that lawyers should price their services based on their value to the client. (Gee, it sounds so obvious when you say it like that.) But my quibble is that the word "value" has Walmart-y connotations. People often connect "value" with "discounted," and that's missing the point entirely.

I propose a different approach:

Open-price lawyering.

What we're talking about here is legal services where the price is known to the customer ahead of time, so that the customer can make an informed decision about the worth of those services to him or her before actually agreeing to buy them. In other words, the price is out in the open. There is a fair exchange between lawyer and client with the client having as much knowledge about the price as the lawyer.

And what's the opposite of open-price lawyering?

Hidden-price lawyering.

The price is hidden from the client (and, often, even from the lawyer). I'm not saying that in a judgmental sort of way, like the lawyer is intentionally hiding the price from the customer. Well, maybe I am. But even if it is unintentional, that's no excuse for doing it.

Clients of the world: which would you rather have -- open-price lawyering or hidden-price lawyering? Sound off in the comments, or reply to me on Twitter at @jayshep.

Try it out the term, and let me know what you think.

Or offer an alternative."

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

Source: The Client Revolution, 20 November 2009

From the e-newsletter:

 ">>Access to Social Websites in The Legal Environment - Fall 2009 - Part 1: Survey of Law Librarians in Selected Firms, County/State Law Libraries and Law Schools.

http://www.llrx.com/features/accesssocialwebsiteslegalenvironmentpt1.htm

To ascertain the current use of social websites/media in law firms, a survey was conducted among Law Librarians entitled Computer Use in Your Organization. In addition to the responses from law firm Law Librarians, several Law Librarians from law schools and county/state government law libraries also responded as did an independent Law Librarian. The opinions of Law Librarians was sought since they are typically among the first professionals in the legal environment to explore, use and recommend new computer innovations and trends useful to attorneys, judges and legal scholars regarding information gathering, information sharing, electronic legal research and current awareness. Part 1 of the Survey details the responses of fifty-six Law Librarians regarding computer use in their organizations. Part 2 will review the responses and take a close look at the implications of the responses and what, if any, patterns can be predicted for 2010.

>>Strengthening Forensic Science: The Next Wave of Scholarship

http://www.llrx.com/features/forensicscience.htm

Ken Strutin's article focuses on threads of scholarly literature citing and commenting on the recent National Academy of Sciences report, Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward, and highlights discussions where experts and practitioners rethink the merits of a wide range of forensic issues.

>>Bridging the DiGital Divide: A New Vendor in Town? Google Scholar Now Includes Case Law

http://www.llrx.com/featres/googlescholarcaselaw

The November 17, 2009 Google launch of free caselaw searching via Google Scholar is the focus of John J. DiGilio's timely content and resource review.

>>Support for the Research Process - An Academic Library Manifesto

http://www.llrx.com/features/researchprocesslibrarymanifesto.htm

This document by Chris Bourg, Ross Coleman, and Ricky Erway can serve as a pathfinder for those professionals seeking to focuses on roles that academic, law and special librarians could undertake in order to better support the research process.

>>Free Tools and Applications for More Efficient Online Interaction

http://www.llrx.com/features/onlineinteration.htm

Many lawyers understand the importance of networking, but running a law practice takes time and no one ever seems to have enough of it. This factor is one of the main reasons lawyers offer as an excuse to avoid online networking, but Nicole Black proposes how choosing even a few efficient applications from the range of free tools available can streamline and accelerate this marketing process.

>>LLRX Court Rules, Forms and Dockets - updated by law librarian Margaret Berkland

http://www.llrx.com/courtrules"

Source: Pacifici, Sabrina. "New on LLRX.com for November 2009." Copyright © LLRX TM, Law Library Resource Xchange, LLC. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://www.llrx.com/subscribe.htm>.