Mass. LOMAP: Law Practice Advisor

Time in a Bottleneck: Online Scheduling Tools Make Meetings Happen

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Getting a large number of people together for a meeting is like herding cats into a bathtub. When you’re talking busy cats . . . I mean, people . . . it’s even worse. Grease those cats. Now, give those greased cats business suits and a knowledge of how to exploit loopholes. Lawyers are some of the busiest cats around. Grease ‘em, but don’t teach ‘em how to drive. But, whether you’re trying to organize colleagues, clients and/or related professionals, it’s pretty clear, and pretty quickly, that everyone is busy. Everyone has things to do that are essentially important to them. How do you get diverse people with diverse interests to come together on a single topic at a single, established time?

Every attorney has had to organize for a meeting, whether on his or her own, or with the assistance of staffpersons. How do you gather the appropriate parties and attorneys for a deposition, especially when people are in different states? How do you get the parties, real estate agents and client on the horn at the same time, in order to resolve an issue prior to a real estate closing? Hell, How do you even organize an internal staff meeting, with everyone so busy, as you know, with all of your colleagues’ calendars packed?

The traditional method (skipping over cave wall scratching, smoke signals and carrier pigeon delivery, for the sake of expediency) for organization was phone contact, accompanied by sticky notes for purposes of recording responses. Of course, this method was cumbersome. It was time-consuming. It would inevitably involve playing phone tag. And, it only took one person to say no to an otherwise agreed upon time and date to throw the whole thing back in a tizzy, returned to the start. Then you’re between a rock and a hard place, because you can either accommodate that last late responder (and the one for whom the time is inconvenient is always the last to respond, right?) and upset everyone else, or you can leave the last responder off, and upset him or her.

There’s just gots to be a better way, right? Well, leave it to Mr. Gates. In removing themselves from the Dark Ages, folks began to schedule things, for themselves and with others, using Microsoft’s Outlook. Outlook and its associated email and calendar system was certainly an improvement over picking up something called the phone. (Wait, it didn’t have Internet on it?) However, Microsoft’s Outlook was not a cure-all. There were limitations for date and time ranges. Plus, the method for getting responses was to send a single email to a number of people. So, even if you agreed to join the meeting and were the first person to respond, you could bet your behind that you’d be subject to everyone else’s replies when people responded using the reply all feature. (But, that’s only fair, because you started.) And, since Outlook doesn’t tie email threads together like GMail does (GMail uses the first email in a string as a header and aggregates all new messages under the first message; Outlook introduces a new email with each reply, with the entire string existing underneath each new message), you’re getting a ton of emails that don’t apply much to you, while you wait for that final confirmation email . . . that may never come.

So, you’re telling me Outlook ain’t all that. Now what? Well, as modern society continues its slow creep past the graying eyes of Mr. Gates (it ain’t the 70s no more), I’m pretty sure you can find some free and easy solutions online, that work well, and that integrate with Outlook anyway. And, Lo . . . You can. Does that change your outlook?

TimeBridge is one top flight choice, and LOMAP’s own preferred option for scheduling meetings. With TimeBridge, you can set up to five dates and times and broadcast those preferences, via email, to the parties with whom you’d like to meet. Potential meeters link to TimeBridge’s website from their email. (No registration is required, incidentally.) They choose their available dates. If everyone agrees on a date, you’re done. If not, just propose five new dates. No fuss, no muss, no reply all emails. Nifty features of TimeBridge include that you can synchronize it with your Outlook contacts, you can create groups for inviting frequent meeters and you can schedule a web conference out of TimeBridge. Note, however, that TimeBridge will try to default you to an option that allows responders to see your whole calendar. Bad idea. Turn this function off. Then they’ll never know you were blowing them off on some dates to go see the newest Twilight movie. Beyond the free version, TimeBridge also offers a pay-for-use version, with the regular features plus some add-ons.

Doodle is another good, free and easy-to-use meeting scheduler tool. In Doodle, you provide a subject for your invite email, and then choose as many potential meeting dates and times as you wish. Doodle, in essence, works the same way as TimeBridge (really, these products all, essentially, work the same way; but, so do the Pacer and the Maserati), it’s just that TimeBridge is easier to use, and more intuitive to use. Doodle does have some cool other features, though. It synchronizes with a lot of different online calendars, including Outlook, iCal and Google Calendar. It will also allow more interface options; and, by that I mean that you can schedule from more places, including from Facebook, on iGoogle and on your mobile phone.

There are several more meeting scheduler options that we (being two of us only) have not yet had the opportunity to test. Maybe you can . . . and then tell us all about them. Get started now!: When Is Good, Set A Meeting (SAM), Meeting Wizard, Meet-O-Matic and Tungle, are all available, for your, um, tungling . . . I guess.

. . .

Liner Notes

Frequent in-office consult visits offer me the time to drive around a lot. It’s just me and my thoughts. But, then, when my head starts to hurt, I turn on the radio. I usually listen to Radio 92.9 WBOS, if I am not listening to my iPod. Listening to BOS makes me seem far cooler than I really am. It makes me seem like I know a lot about new rock, when I’m really just afraid of it, and only a poser.

I can say things like, “Man, I really like The Bravery. They have this sort of Duran Peter Gabriel Duran vibe going. I like that song 'Believe'. Good tune.” And “So, the Foo Fighters are releasing a Greatest Hits album, and there’s this new track off of it called 'Wheels' that’s pretty sweet. I once fought some foo . . . it did not end well.” I guess people are hating on this song, because they think it is a bad departure from the Foo Fighters’ sound. I don’t think it’s that dissimilar, and I think it has a cool, classic country rock edge to it. Excuse me, “edge”.

But if you don’t like those wheels, perhaps you’ll like these “Wheels”, of Gram Parsons’ Flying Burrito Brothers. Or, maybe you’ll like these “Wheels” even better: the Burrito Brothers’ Chris Hillman’s live version of the tune. (You may remember Chris Hillman from playing with Manassas and CSNY, as well.)

Speaking of country rock, and alt-country, which are two (or one, depending upon how you see it) of my favorite music stylings, you should take a listen to Jimmy Buffett’s early recordings (you know, before he sold out), and listen to some of the righteous stuff he used to produce, like "Rockefeller Square" and "High Cumberland Jubilee".

And, remember the coach from the opposing team in Bobby Boucher’s “The Waterboy”? Well, that was Jerry Reed, who was a musical artist well before he was an actor, and who sang tongue-in-cheek country tunes, like Blue Yodel No. 8: “Mule Skinner Blues” (featuring Chet Atkins), “Amos Moses” and the “U.S. Male” (featuring great wordplay on the United States Postal Service and its slogans), with a distinctive guffaw.

That’s a Wicked Google-y!: Refine Your Googling with Search Operators and Latent Functionality

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:37:00 +0000

I’ve written previously here at the blog about some of the nifty applications and programs that the folks over at Google have introduced. Not that I ever really get into web stuff, but I have been generally impressed with Google. My like affair began when I made two almost concurrent moves: I stopped searching in Yahoo! and went to Google, and I switched my email over from Hotmail (Hotmail used to be good, but the new Hotmail (Windows Live) really, really, really . . . really sucks) to GMail. I love the threading of conversations, GChat and the search features in GMail. Google searching is much better than Yahoo! searching, and I don’t know why I wasn’t searching Google from the beginning: Oh, it was because Google wasn’t around when I was younger. Wow, I guess that makes me old. Depressing. And, I don’t know why I wasn’t using GMail from the start, either: oh yeah, see above. Damn. It’s gonna be a long weekend. If there is one thing that I have learned about the Google Universe, it is that it is vast, and there is always more to learn. As the great Socrates knew, I am now knowing that I know nothing. This makes for a lot to learn.

So, I was at a debate tournament this past weekend. (I know what you’re thinking. Wow! A debate tournament. Jared is even cooler than I thought he was. I know, I know. It’s a burden I’ve carried my whole life. It is difficult, but we all have our crosses to bear.) So, one of the coaches is talking about searching in Google, and how you can limit searches to specific websites (The New York Times, for example) or specific website types (.gov, .org, for example). Overhearing this, I immediately put down my Hershey’s dark chocolate (for the antioxidants) bar down, and eavesdropped. (I didn’t pick it back up--flu season and all.) And, of course, my first thought was not for myself, but for the faithful readers of the LOMAP Blog. Yes. Another week I would not have to think about my own topic: I had my blog post for the week of Halloween.

The search for Google search operators could only lead to one place: Google. A Google search for Google search operators yielded favorable results. And, what I learned was that my grail cup was overflowing, and that Google had unshrouded its mysteries, so easily. So, there was more to the story: there are a number more of helpful Google search operators to apply to the refining of your searches.

Most of you probably know about some of the simpler operations here: putting quotation marks around a phrase will make for an “exact phrase” search (for “exact phrase”, in this case--creepy); placing an OR between search terms means that your results will yield either of those options (Boston Red Sox 2004 OR 2007, for example); and, you can exclude certain terms from search by placing a minus sign before them (the Google web search help page gives a great example: jaguar –car –football –o(perating)s(ystem)). Beyond the simpler search operators, there are also some further nifty tricks (and treats) you can use: to search within one site, use the “site:” term before the website at which you’d like to search exclusively (balloon boy site: nytimes, for example); you can include an asterisk within the search box if you want Google to attempt to supply a missing word (try “jumbo *”--I thought I’d get jumbo shrimp, or something. Instead no, I end up reading through to a depressing story of an elephant that they hanged in Tennessee. Only in Tenessee, home of Miley Cyrus (well, pending the resolution of the Hannah Montana Movie, whatever that is) and Andrew Johnson. There appears a good lift of other, deep discovered search operators available at the Google Guide, which is unaffiliated with, and unendorsed by, Google: here’s a list, and a guide specific to using the search operators. Most of the simpler, and simpler complex, search operators, are on display, with examples, at the Google basic search help page.

In my travels around the Googlosphere, I also picked up on some other interesting uses for the Google search engine, that serve to convert it to some other operation. Let me explain: Need a calculator? Punch “9 x 3” into Google, and see what results. Here’s a hint: the answer. Google can also do far more sophisticated calculations, as well, for you interested math majors out there. And, I do wish that this was around when I was in 10th grade and had to buy that redonculously expensive graphing calculator. In addition to making calculations, Google can also run certain mathematical conversions (try 145 miles in km, for example). You can also access stock information by typing in the ticker symbol (try CSCO, for Cisco), find weather reports (type weather Boston MA) and even locate natural phenomena (try earthquake Cincinnati OH) like historical regional earthquakes. The Richter Scale comes home . . . well, not too close to home, but you get the idea, like, near at hand, or something.

Google is pretty good about providing information on some of these latent search tips if you know where to look, and start looking there. The Google search features page and unaffiliated Google Guide (which provides an historical record of Google search features added through September 2005) were pretty easily discoverable, and pretty helpful, too. If you use iGoogle, you can get Daily Google Tips broadcast to your homepage. Sign up here.

One of my favorite things about these Google search tricks (or treats, depending on how you look at them), is that the good folks at Google have extended the concept to the GMail search function, which was, even absent advanced search options, one of the best features of GMail to begin with. The GMail search operators are even easier to use than some of the headier Google search operators. Some of my particular favorites include: searching in folders (in: inbox/in: trash/in: spam); searching by message type (is: starred/is: unread/is: read); searching by to:/from:/subject:; searching with date restrictions (before: 2009/10/31; after: 2009/10/31); and, searching by attachment (filename: report (name)/PDF (type)). All of the GMail searching tools are available for your perusal, here. This help section also includes a short video link, generally covering the GMail search features.

If Google dressed up for Halloween, it would be a ghost, because, after reading this blog post, you can see right through it.

For Halloween this year, I am a Law Practice Management Advisor. Crazy Pickle Arm was taken.

Speaking of Halloween, let’s award some things, apropos of nothing:

Best Costume: Wolfman/Werewolf

Best Song: (tie) “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers; “Thriller” by Michael Jackson; “Savoy Truffle” by The Beatles

Best Candy: “100 Grand” (eaten) by me

Best Monetary Gift: 100 Grand

Worst Train Commute: the Newburyport/Rockport Line (passing through Salem)

(Hey, Wait, that’s my line. Check that. New best costume: Disgruntled Lawyer.)

Thanks to Professor Susan Miskelly, of Bridgewater State College, for jogging this post out of me by referring to the site specific search available through Google.

Preach What You Practice: LOMAP Debuts New Podcast, "The UnBillable Hour"

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Back in July (which seems like it was just yesterday, given our being recently hit with a heat wave two days following a snowstorm--the Spirit works in mysterious ways, does he not), Rodney wrote here at the blog about the importance of listening to podcasts. Taking not wanting to be hypocritical to the extreme, Rodney has decided that just listening to podcasts is not good enough for him. Oh, no. He must, instead, host his own podcast. The man is just insatiable.

In wanting to practice what he preaches, and because of a concurrent, joined desire to preach what he practices (as well as a likely secret boyhood desire to be a disc jockey--now he just needs a catchphrase), Rodney has managed to finagle LOMAP’s debut podcast, “The UnBillable Hour: Law Practice Advisory Podcast”, which premiered last week.

The podcast, produced by the Legal Talk Network (providers of fine legal podcasts), and sponsored (most generously, I might add) by AbacusLaw, (purveyors of fine law practice management software), will run for six monthly episodes.

The first episode is currently available at Legal Talk’s UnBillable Hour homepage. The topic of the first podcast is “Legal Marketing for Success”, and features Rodney’s comments, and interview with Lee Rosen, attorney marketer extraordinaire and practicing attorney out of the North Cackalacky. (Erik Mazzone loves this guy, so you know he’s got to be good.) The podcast itself totals 25 minutes in length, and is a good listen. Check it out. Two points if you can tell me who the voiceover guy at the beginning is. What do those two points count for? Probably nothing.

If you like the podcast, check back monthly at the UnBillable Hour homepage to listen to further installments. If that does not even sate your appetite, and you still can’t get enough, join The UnBillable Hour Group on LinkedIn.

Thanks for listening.

. . .

And, you know, Rodney is not the only budding DJ within these LOMAP walls. I do a little unsanctioned DJing myself. That’s right: pirate radio (of a sort), right here at the LOMAP blog, where you can find my musical selections sprinkled throughout any of the posts hereat.

What does this have to do with law practice management? Absolutely nothing.

But, if you want to hear some sweet Buffalo Springfield, or some rare JT, or some rollicking Zevon, or even some Son Volt and this song, and whatever else pops into my head every now and again, you know where to find me. Don’t worry, though, I was not the first DJ, and I will certainly not be the last.

Data Privacy Creep: SJC Joins Club, Approves Interim Guidelines for Prevention of Identity Theft; File a Way

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 19:05:00 +0000

The grand Commonwealth of Massachusetts has, of late, taken a serious interest in the protection (from identity theft) of its residents’ private information. This is, to be sure, a good thing, in the abstract, and far better than other objects that the state could be/has been engaged in. I have been fortunate enough (knocking on wood as I write this) to not have become a victim of identity theft to this point in my young life. And, I am well-pleased each time I learn of a new way devised by the aggressively clean-living Puritan ancestors loving and legislating and judging within the confines of my home to protect from prying eyes me and my credit card numbers and those of my fellows. Of course, in reality, what is good for the gooses is not always good for the ganderers; and, in the case of the newly-unveiled Supreme Judicial Court Interim Guidelines for the Protection of Personal Identifying Data, what is good for the citizen, generally, may not be so good for the lawyer, advocatingly.

As is the case with the Massachusetts statutory and regulatory data privacy regime (as embodied via the Massachusetts General Laws chapters 93H (and CMRs) and 93I, which topics have been much addressed, perhaps ad nauseum, by LOMAP, generally, and, specifically: here and here and here (in chronological order) here at the blog), so is the case with the Interim Guidelines: protection for residents means additional administrative burden for businesses and for law firms/attorneys. With the imposition of the Interim Guidelines, the courts have decided, in essence, that, well, it is especially important to protect residents’ private information as it would otherwise appear in court filings, since that personal information is made a part of the public record, by way of court submission and recordation, and under the auspices of public access laws. Thoughtful of the court system to redact sensitive information from your submitted documents, isn’t it? Well, not so fast there, chief. You’ll be the one doing the redacting, or, at least, it’s suggested that you, please, be the one who does the redacting.

Here’s why and how:

On July 17, 2009, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced that it had approved Interim Guidelines for the Protection of Personal Identifying Data (PID) in Publicly Accessible Court Documents. The Guidelines became effective September 1, 2009. In addition to the requisite press release, the SJC also released the full Interim Guidelines, if you like to read. If you don’t, the SJC has also released what is a really very-well-done (which is just how I like my stake), quickie, summary fact sheet, that outlines the purpose and effect of the Guidelines. You can read them for yourself as linked out; but, for the purposes of filling out this blog posting, and just in case you like to read even less than I thought, here’s the upshot:

The Guidelines apply to all cases in all Massachusetts courts with respect to documents that are (or become, once filed, I suppose), publicly accessible.

. . .

Henceforth, the Filer (i.e.--you, and not some superhero who likes to keep his nails trim) should delete (white out, black out, omit) to the last four digits personal identifying data (PID) that includes the familiar 93H data sets, plus taxpayer identification and passport numbers or to the first initial of a mother’s maiden name. Any deletions made are then to be tagged with the following information: filer’s name, the date, the phrase “PID Guidelines”.

. . .

Exceptions (labeled “Exemptions”, in the Guidelines) are five, as follows: (1) when full inclusion is required by law or rule; (2) for certain PID in criminal or youthful offender cases; (3) when filer reasonably believes complete information must be included, in order to resolve a particular issue or for the identification of a person; (4) for transcripts of court proceedings; (5) for documents that are produced directly by non-parties in response to court orders, or subpoenas.

. . .

Clerks are directed to encourage compliance with the Interim Guidelines, but will not be reviewing documents for compliance, nor will they be rejecting documents for non-compliance.

. . .

Some interesting points from the full Guidelines, which you should obviously review, as well: (1) the Guidelines apply to both paper and electronic filings; (2) “filer” is broadly defined, and includes, by way of example, police officers applying for search warrants and amici curiae; (3) filers must maintain and make available unredacted copies of redacted documents (exhibits, but e.g.--not drafted motions, or other documents drafted specifically for filing with the courts, which documents should be drafted to avoid inclusion of complete personal identifying data sets); (4) the Guidelines introduce specific additional mandates for Appellate Court filings, since those documents become more widely available than trial court documents.

So, that’s not so terrible, right? And, if you think about it, it makes sense for a variety of reasons. Court documents are widely, and more widely so everyday, available, and are available online, to boot, which means that there is a large treasure trove of otherwise unprotected personal information available to the diligent identity sneak thief. My reading of the General Law Chapter 93H is that the court system is not required to comply with the law, as a department of the state government (if you disagree, just bear with me for a moment, it may become immaterial, our disagreement, that is) . . . but, that would represent a massive gap in the law, given the becoming public nature of court documents, and given the aforementioned loopholiness of the entire system design. If the courts were asked to comply with the statute, they could not make many existing court documents public, as they are required to do. If they were asked to redact documents on the order of the Guidelines produced, it would cripple the entire court system, which is already overburdened and underfunded. So, really, the only way to protect personal information/PID of residents (what have you) is to eventually make redaction (really reduction) of PID an affirmative duty of submitting filers/parties, mostly attorneys. (Let’s not fight anymore.) And, in any event, it’s likely best practice anyway: I was doing this myself in the drafting of documents, at least, in the long ago days of my practice. Besides, a savvy application of systems creations, the adaption of workflows and the adoption of appropriate technologies will make the bit of redacting just another minor matter that attaches to court filings, in the end. Applying electronic redactions is far easier than using the typewriter. (Get rid of it already!)

But, if you still and really, really hate these Guidelines, or even if you’d just like to see them tweaked, you can complain and cajole, as well as send, your comments and suggestions to PIDGuidelines@sjc.state.ma.us. Remember, these guidelines are just that at the moment, having not yet become effective requirements. They, or something like them, though, will become requirements, however; but, as of now, you still have the ability to affect the final form of rules by voicing for your changes.

. . .

That’ll be all for me, as I am off for a long weekend of my own making. But, when I return, you can be sure that I’ll be right back at the blog, carrying on the good work that’s always gone down here in #2.

But, for now, Let the wild rumpus start!

Jump Like Jack Flash: Get to Windows Folders Faster Using QuickJump (It’s Alright Now)

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 16:01:00 +0000

TechHit, inventor and purveyor of “Outlook utilities that save you time”, as well as other various and sundry utilities and add-ins for use with your email, social networking websites and operating systems, has recently released its QuickJump software, which is a way to “quickly” (now) navigate to Windows folders.

Sounds simple. Why is that important? Well, think of how many folders and subfolders you have on your computer. If, rather than clicking through/drilling down to subfolder number nine to get to the document you need, you could find that subfolder more immediately, by typing its name, or a form of its name, and by clicking on it first, rather than it ninth, so that it opens to reveal your document . . . wouldn’t that be easier? If you could do that, you’ve just added some typing, but have saved yourself, not only, 8 clicks, but also the time it takes to search among what may be a vast number of subfolders to get to the one you need, too. Wouldn’t that be nice? Well, that, in a nutshell, is what QuickJump does.

The term “in a nutshell” was practically invented for QuickJump--my apologies to those purveyors of same-named law school guides that I never bought. (“Look at the size of this bloody great big nutshell.”) The phrase, “So easy, a child can do it” (or, a caveman lawyer) was also invented for QuickJump. Once you have set up QuickJump (a download and adding directories to be searched as you wish) it is literally a three step process to get to any subfolder on your computer, as follows: (1) Hit Control + Shift + J to bring up the QuickJump menu; (2) Begin typing a folder name; (3) Click on the folder when it appears, to open it. That, my friends, is beautiful in its simplicity. Watch this video to get the Quick How-to. Now, if you can’t figure out how to use this product after watching the video I will contribute exactly $0 to your purchase of the product. People have told me that I’m crazy before. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last.

But, what I can do is give you 20% off the purchase of QuickJump through the end of October. Just go here to get the discount rate. That’s right. We know people. At least until Halloween, when we turn into pumpkin squash, or some other such flattened Gord.

Beyond the simplicity, there are a few other potential advantages related to the use of QuickJump. Obviously, it can be a real time saver, like flying through, your folders and subfolders, especially if you’ve adopted a complicated tiering pattern. This is an especially useful tool for attorneys who have many matters pending and closed and likely have all those matter files and matter subfiles organized ad infinitum on their computers. But, beyond the obvious uses, one further feature that I really like is that you can create a new folder or subfolder at the QuickJump dialog box. Another is that you can utilize QuickJump out of the “File Open” and “Save As” boxes in Windows applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.), so that you can find your documents and save your documents more quickly by navigating immediately to specific folders to do so. This sort of maneuverability is heartwarming, especially, to those of us who are anal retentive: Now, I can create as many tiered folders and subfolders as I want without spending a million clicks figuring out where I set myself up to have to go next . . . That is, if I wasn’t OCD, as well, and didn’t like counting the clicks so much . . . But, I’m learning that using QuickJump will allow me more time to count other things, like the minutes I’m saving using the product. And, beyond the ease of use and nifty, time-saving subfeatures, the price is right. Even without the LOMAP blog reader discount, you’re still paying only $29.95 for the download at full price.

The effectiveness of QuickJump is hard to argue against, if not impossible, to argue against. It does one thing, and does it well. It quite simply works. It truly saves time and effort. Unless you really love corn mazes (no, not maizes), you’ll really love QuickJump. My only quarrel is with what it does not do . . . yet. I’m sure the program developers are one and more steps ahead of me on these requests, but I make them nonetheless. It would be nice be able to drill down (search for, far) beyond folders and subfolders to documents within folders and subfolders. The program currently only works with Windows. So, at present, Mac and mobile users are largely out of luck. But, these are not reasons to avoid the program, if you are a Windows user: to say that a program could be improved is to say that a program exists. You’ll find QuickJump nonetheless helpful, even while waiting for the second iteration.

But, don’t take my word for it (God, I loved "Reading Rainbow"): see what these unpaid and unaffiliated commentators have to say!: here.

And, if you like QuickJump, you may like some other TechHit products, as well, including Outlook faves SimplyFile (for email categorization/folder management), EZDetach (automated email attachment removal and save) and MessageSave (email archiving).

Thanks to Andrew Gorman, the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Education Coordinator, for testing this product with me, and for relaying his impressions, which were useful in producing this blog posting.

Getting to No: Rejecting Opportunity as a Means for Expanding Potential

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 16:38:00 +0000

I Don’t Get No (ba da da) Re-ejection. I Don’t Get No Reject. Hell, no. Nah. Say Yes to the No. Well, then you’d know I’ve seen “Say Yes to the Dress”. No. Getting to No? A play on words. Better. Getting there. Okay.

Yes. However you caption it, the theory is the same: you can get as much, or more, out of saying “no”, as you can out of saying “yes”.

Lawyers’ time is the most precious commodity. Yet, lawyers rarely treat themselves to it; often, they’re too busy getting caught up in most, if not every one, of a number of daily distractions. Time management is essential to the efficient and effective practice of law, whether you are an hourly biller, or an alternative biller, which alternative billing is yet rooted in a consideration of time spent and output produced. And, a distinct part of time management, a measure of the value of your time, is to know when to say “yes” (this is meaningful and valuable to me and my practice) and when to say “no” (this is not meaningful or valuable to me or my practice, at this time, maybe ever). This is, I suppose a subspecies, perhaps, of knowing when to hold them, and when to fold them. Or something like that.

Especially when you are starting out, whether as an attorney generally, or as a solo, or as a small firm manager, it can be tempting to take on every assignment and every opportunity that comes your way. Remember, though, that doing so is a bad business decision. It means that others are controlling your schedule. It means that your time is not so valuable to you; and this will be reflected in your engagement with others. It means that you’re not properly vetting clients. It means that you’re a candidate for burnout. It means that your work-life balance tends to work. It means that you’re likely doing someone’s else work for them. Most importantly, it means that your time is not your own.

The next time you’re about to nod, but before you verbalize your commitment, consider, first, the folllwing:

To the Exclusion of Others. Since where you’re going, you need roads, you only have so much time. Twenty-four hours in a day is all that you’re allotted. You should sleep during some of those hours, of coure. But, you work hard, and you work much of the time, and, still, you never finish everything you planned when you plan to, and you never will. With this scheme prevailing, think of what effect that next commitment will have on your general availability, to practice, to market, to move your firm forward. Since our time is finite, every obligation you take on is time away from another obligation. Continual robbing of Peter to pay Paul will eventually mean that Peter calls his friends.

Work-Life Balance. Remember that there is life outside of the practice of law. I know. I know. It’s hard to believe. But, it’s true. So, make sure that you leave time available to introduce yourself to your children now and then. Every evening panel you speak on is a night away from home. Every article you agree to write is an evening or some weekend time take away from family and friends and some real fun. You need to get out there and show your expertise; but, measure the cost. Determine how much is too much. Lawyers work hard, and are prone to work too hard. You must set limits on yourself, on your time, and prepare to follow through with your directives. If what you’re being asked to do now is just too much, just say no. You’ll be fresher and more effective when you’re at work; you’ll get more done; and, you’ll have more time to spend at home.

Client Selection. Saying no also means rejecting representation of clients that you know will be trouble, from the outset. Taking on problem clients, when you just know it’s a bad idea, is, well . . . a bad idea. Don’t wear Bad Idea Jeans to work. It is difficult to tell people no, especially people who will potentially pay you cash money. However, you must resist the urge to take on problem clients, or clients whose cases are interesting, but which may not fall into your specialty, or intended specialty. I was watching MTV’s True Life: “I’m a Sports Addict” yesterday . . . well, I mean, my wife was, and, anyway: and this woman on the show was a model with a website at which she appeared in NFL licensed gear, without permission to use said gear. The woman received a letter from the NFL, basically telling her to cease and desist. The website being her only means of income, she did not wish to. So, she went to have a consultation with an intellectual property attorney, at which point, I turned to my wife, and said, “Watch this, he’s gonna take the case.” To my surprise, and delight, he reviewed her claims, paused for a moment, and said to her: “They’re right. You’re wrong. You’re screwed.” Now, that is saying no. Of course, there are certainly less crass methods to accomplish the same object; but, the point is: just don’t take cases that aren’t good for you. Tell your potential client, in no uncertain terms, that you will not take the case. Memorialize that decision in writing communicated to the client.

Technology. We talk a lot about technology at the LOMAP blog. We’re sort of into it, I guess you could say. But, having an appropriate technology base means that you must be considerate of your purchases. Don’t (1) buy every new gadget just because it’s new. Just because something came out brand new doesn’t mean you need it brand new. That’s a Ralphie mentality. Or, maybe it's a Ralphie’s Dad mentality. (Darren McGavin is the man, by the way.) You should only buy upgrades and upgraded products when the upgrading is useful to you, specifically. So, this is not just about researching a product, it is about determining your needs, and seeing if a product to be purchased truly matches your needs. Oh, and also, Don’t (2) buy more than one (2) of anything, if you don’t need more than one of something. Consider how many phones you have. How many laptops do you use? I visit with a number of attorneys who have different computers for different functions. Why is your accounting software on one computer while the bulk of the rest of your software is on another? Sure, you’re getting two screens, but the idea is to get those two screens tied to one machine. One of one device is easier to manage than two of one device.

Power Hour, OHIO and Hawaii. You can make yourself more efficient by saying no to distractions and to redundancy. Give yourself over to the Power Hour. Close your door. Turn off your email alarms. Turn the sound down on your computer. Put the DND function on on your office phone. And, work on something, solid and steady. You’ll be amazed what concentration can do for you. It’s a bit old-fashioned to stop multi-tasking, maybe even a little American gothic, but it works. I have recently adopted a version of the Power Hour in that I will leave my work computer on behind me, and physically turn around and work on a project on my personal laptop. (I know what you’re saying . . . But, Jared, you just said that you can’t have two computers. Well, I did qualify, as follows: if you don’t need more than one of something. And so, I need a personal computer, which personal computer I give over to work usage, from time to time.) It’s amazing how fast I become when I don’t have email, Twitter, the internet, etc., to distract me. I am quite literally shocked when I look up to see what time it is. It is as if time has slowed down. Try it some time, it will blow your mind. Just ask Alan Klevan. So, works for me. And, that’s part of the point here, too: Processes that you can apply to reduce distractions are not limited to those that people tell you about. Do what works for you even if what works for you is something of your own invention. Everybody talks about OHIO, the only-handle-it-once (at one time--there are stages for completion) principle, for clearing and managing your tasks. But, how you handle specific tasks using this principle is mostly up to you. Maybe your program is HAWAII. I don’t have a program called Hawaii. I just think that if you start to say no more, you’ll have more time, you’ll be more efficient, you’ll make more money, and maybe you can vacation there.

. . .

Liner Notes

Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service has teamed with Son Volt frontman Jay Farrar on the soundtrack for the Jack Kerouac documentary, “One Fast Move Or I’m Gone: Kerouac’s Big Sur”, soundtrack to be released October 20.

Speaking of Gibbard, I quite fancy “Little Bribes” from Death Cab’s new EP, “The Open Door". Cool lyrics.

My man Stephen Stills does a great acoustic version of the Manassas’ track “Johnny’s Garden” on “Later . . . with Jools Holland”, out of the BBC. (“Later . . . with Jools Holland”, by the way, is the best live music show you’ve never heard of.)

Here’s some sweet bluegrass to start your weekend. Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band. Together. That’s right. Drink it in. “Texas Eagle” is just a smokin’ bluegrass tune.

(If you can’t get enough of Del and the boys, here they are doing “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” and here they are jamming with Dierks Bentley.)

Signaling Mission Control: Practice Management Software for Your Firm; LOMAP Introduces Technology Center

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 17:08:00 +0000

For a recent presentation at the Massachusetts Bar Association covering the startup of an Immigration Law practice (which was, incidentally, really well done, covering, as it did, general, as well as immigration law-specific, topics of interest, this all being a credit to the speakers and to the program chairs, Roy Watson and LOMAP’s own Rodney Dowell), I was asked to consider the use of practice management software generally. Now, of course, I’ve considered this before, and the subject comes up in nearly every attorney consult-meeting we have; but, there’s something about putting it all down on paper, and outlining a subject. Immediately after my presentation piece ended, and just before I sat down to fill out an evaluation for the strikingly handsome speaker that had just finished, my first thought was: “Yes! My blog post for this week is nearly done.” And so it was.

We have written previously at the blog on the topic of practice management software, with Rodney (backed by a post and linked article emanating from David Bilinsky’s Thoughtful Legal Management blog) advising that the use of such software means that you’ll have more time, make more money and get more sleep. (All good things; but, let me know when someone comes up with a way to make more money while sleeping. You can wake me up for that. But, then, let me go back to sleep, again.) I intend to present more of a general overview of Law Practice Management Software with a handful, or two, or some, particular options. So, feel free to review both this post and that last post in companion; but, don’t miss this one: there’s a special announcement at the end. Shhhhh (for now).

. . .

The preliminary question, of course, is: What is Law Practice Management Software? (Of course Wikipedia would let me down this time, right? I guess I’ll have to field this one myself.) The easiest way to think about Law Practice Management Software is to think of it as a computer-based, or virtual law office management system. (Think about your client contacts, client info, email, files and file cabinets, the Redbook, your sticky notes, your research files, all neatly bundled, searchable, and prepared for your easy access. Too good to be true, you say! Nay.) It’s your one-stop management space. The aspects embraced, and alluded to before, include: client contact information, schedule and appointment management (with reminder options), deadline and task management (with reminder options), email archiving, document management and (if you choose to purchase an associated time and billing program) time and billing and financial accounting, including trust accounting. Now, that is a mouthful. Overwhelming? Nah. Law Practice Management Software makes it all easy. Here’s why: You’ll now have an accessible, single dashboard that provides you with a holistic view of your practice (all of your cases) as well as, at a secondary drillbit, a client-, or matter-, centric view (one case at a time), from where you can move down through files, like flipping pages, only easier, and with less walking, man. Plus, genuinely intuitive, tabbing functionality allows you to maneuver easily, in ways you recognize, and understand. And, you can sync Law Practice Management Software with your email calendar. Oh, and there are one-touch billing options and linking with your online accounts. (Damn, that’s sweet. (I know, that’s what I said!))

Alright . . . Bells. (Check.) Whistles. (Check.) Now, Why do you really need Law Practice Management Software? Well, two main reasons. And, these also happen to be the two main reasons that people get in trouble with the BBO (you remember the BBO). Hmmm, How ‘bout that? So, attorneys generally end up running afoul of the BBO because of: (1) lack of client contact (you never call your client; they’re angry; they call the BBO about you, saying you charge too much and never call; the BBO calls you; you shriek); (2) financial management missteps (you better watch out; you better not cry; you better not pout; you better have your reconciliations). What Law Practice Management Software does is provide you with (potentially synced) calendaring, task and deadlines options, including reminders (that’s 1) as well as (potentially synced) billing options, operating account and trust account management (and . . . that’s 2). Of course, there is always the potential for human error; and, although your Law Practice Management Software system will provide you the tools to manage your client contacts and financial accounts, you have to use those tools correctly, and you must stay on top of things, in order to truly keep yourself out of trouble. Add to the benefit of serving as an aid to keep you out of trouble the facts that Law Practice Management Software provides you those various levels of viewpoint, increased efficiency and integration.

If you’re already starting to whine now: Oh, but I haaaaate technology. Well, that’s cool, because I do, too. There’s nothing that pleases me more than logging off of a computer or shutting down a blackberry. However, since there’s no money in farming, we’ve all got a job to do, and I’ll be damned if I am going to avoid useful technology that makes me more efficient based upon some Amish philosophy that I’d like to apply to a perfect world. Waste your time, instead, mastering the technology, so you can get home and spend some time with your kids. And, if you’re not tech-savvy, take the time to analogize your way through it. There is an offline equivalent for everything you do online: Your Law Practice Management Software is your file cabinet. Your files are still your files. Your Redbook is your electronic calendar. Think of it in whatever way it takes to make it work.

You have two overarching choices to make before you select a Law Practice Management Software. The first choice in your legal Choose Your Own Adventure is whether you want to go with a software download or an SaaS (Software as a Service) model. Everybody knows what a software download is: you pop your CD into your computer, you download a program, and that program lives on your computer. SaaS, though, takes the software off of your computer, and makes the software accessible via someone else’s (the provider company’s) server. You log in to access your information that someone else stores, maintains and protects. Now, there are certainly advantages to using an SaaS model over a traditional, software model, not the least of which is the fact of increased mobility (anywhere you have an internet connection, you have access to your stored information and your program features). The SaaS model, also, does not use any space on your device(s), so you’ll have more memory for your massive iTunes library. (Oh, sorry, that’s me.) Of course, there are downsides to the SaaS model, as well, including perpetual monthly fees (for maintenance of the server you’re using), and the fact that your information is somewhere where you do not have essential control over it, somewhere on the computing cloud. The cloud computing issue also raises the specter of potential security breaches stemming from unauthorized access, especially relevant given the pending effectiveness of the Massachusetts statute on the subject. Despite the potential drawbacks, though, SaaS is the wave of the future. It just is. It’s easier. It’s less hassle for you. There’s the potential for more direct support and assistance. (Sure, at some points the service provider will need to access your information, but so does your IT guy when he troubleshoots. And, confidentiality and obligations to protect information can be memorialized by contract.) With more users coming in, costs can be decreased. And, with respect to the question of breach, I’d be more concerned in keeping my stuff on my computer, frankly. If you’re a solo attorney in Mendon (sorry, Mendon, I still love you), who do you think has better internet security: you or Apple? Law Practice Management Software delivered by Saas: Be here now, because it is. The key to the SaaS Law Practice Management Software option is that you choose a reputable company that will be around for a while. If you choose a fly-by-night operator, you risk that company’s shutdown and the loss of access to your information.

But, choice, choices, choices . . . What should you choose?

Here are some specific options, broken down by category:

Software

PracticeMaster is the system we use here at LOMAP because it is an affordable and robust option for solo and small firm attorneys. We have demo versions available upon request. (Starting at $150)

Amicus Attorney is a fulsome system with features that include team research sharing and template document (macro) creation options. (Starting at $499)

Time Matters is the LexisNexis entry in the field, with all of the LexisNexis bells and whistles and all of the LexisNexis pricing. Features include project management options. (Starting at around $1,200)

Abacus Law has specific practice area versions of its product, as well as a general version. Features include rules-based calendaring and specific sync and integration options. (Price via Quote)

Needles is highly customizable software popular with personal injury and worker’s compensation attorneys. (Starting at $1,000)

PCLaw is a very sophisticated time and billing program that has case management functionality, such that some attorneys use it as a practice management system. (Starting at around $1,200)

SaaS

Clio is an intuitive product, based on familiar interfaces, so that it can be used “out-of-the-box”. Features include a timer, for billing. ($49 per month)

Rocket Matter is another intuitive product (think Apple-style: you remember Apple, and you remember Jeep). ($60 per month)

The second overarching choice you’ll have to make is whether you are going to also purchase the time and billing add-on for your Law Practice Management Software. You’ll have four options: (1) buy the Law Practice Management Software; (2) buy the Law Practice Management Software and its Time and Billing Add-On; (3) Buy a Separate Time and Billing Program; or (4) buy a Separate Time and Billing Program, and try to sync it with your Law Practice Management Software. The obvious advantage to buying the add-on, is that there is an easy sync, and you get your easy integration. Of course, you may save money buying a separate time and billing program, or maybe you just like a certain time and billing program, and don’t want to give it up. If you don’t know which time and billing program you might like, look into these:

Times & Chaos ($45)

RTG Legal ($95)

BSA ($300)

Quickbooks ($320)

And, although Quickbooks is a general accounting software program, it can be turned to an attorney’s use, even for trust accounting. And, to that end, we have made a short PDF guide available as well as the “Maintaining a Trust Account Using Quickbooks” book (2004), the latter available for your checking out of our lending library for a limited time period, the former yours to keep, via email attachment.

Now (and this is at the end (yes, this is nearly the end) because it is the most important consideration), before you get into any Law Practice Management Software system, keep in mind that: it’s easy to get in, but it’s hard to get out. Law Practice Management Software programs are so useful, in large part, because of the mass of information accessible through them. Of course, all of this information is of your providing. If you have been using Law Practice Management Software for any length of time, you will have mass amounts of important information saved through the program. The obvious, thorny question, then, when contemplating a switch, involves how to extract (from your old program) and then import (into your new program) all of that information. Oftentimes, the answer is that you may be better off sticking with what you have, sticking with a program you’ve fallen out of like with, because the transfer of information is just too costly or too inefficient. So, put in your research time ahead of time, and your testing time as well, and choose a product intelligently.

If there is just far, far too much information to handle at one sitting here, I understand. It’s nearly too much information to draft at one setting. There are, however, two tools available for your aid, and for your learning pleasure:

Check out the ABA’s fine overview of Law Practice Management and time and billing Software options, here.

Or, come see us, and try-before-you-buy, with our Technology Center. LOMAP’s Technology Center is a dedicated computer terminal (if you’re Abe Vigoda, laptop if you’re Abe Vigoda’s grandkids, or something (Seriously . . . he’s known for “Good Burger”--what in the hell did Fish do to the guy who wrote his Wikipedia page?)) upon which we have downloaded software/provided web access (SaaS) to various Law Practice Management Software programs. We have several options available already, and will add further options as we receive latest versions of same. You might be asking now, Why would I come into your office to try these programs when I can just do the online demo? Well, the simple answer is that we know people. And, the versions that those people that we know have supplied us are more fulsome than the demo versions you’ll look at: you’ll have access to more features. So, stop asking your infernal questions, and just come on down! If you bring gummi worms (Sathers are best), I may even sit down and walk you through things . . .

Now, when you end up getting your Law Practice Management Software program, there’s no need to thank us . . . You’ll be too busy counting the ways you love it anyway.

. . .

Alright, I gotta run for now, in keeping on and keeping with keeping this one relatively short (haha, I know, I know). I’ve got to be well-rested enough for dinner Friday night at the in-laws. Don’t want to fall asleep in something au gratin, you know. (It started as dinner and then became Reno.)

The Thing is More Than Half Done Already: Economic Downturn Also Offers Unique Opportunities for Law Graduates

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:10:00 +0000

So, you went to law school. Now you’ve graduated, and you haven’t yet found a job. Or, you’re starting school again, entering your 3L year. Now you’re worried that you might not find a job. Well, as you know, you’re in it now. And the question is not whether to proceed, but, rather, how to proceed.

Of course, the sky is not cloudless. Anyone who says that the legal profession is not presently one in flux, and featuring large amounts of holes and its share of disjunctions, does not have his or her eyes open to the reality of the situation. Problems like: For one, most lawyers don’t make near as much as people think they do, including you. Oh, and then there’s your student loans. Don’t forget those. For another, there is the entrenched billable hours problem: the foisting of a twentieth century idea of charging upon the twenty-first century minds of your savvy clients. Oh, and everybody passes the bar now, too, which means it’s harder than ever to get a job, with all that mass of competition out there.

You have a stomachache yet? I do. And, I’ve even been out for a little while now.

But, it can’t be that bad, right? As bad as everyone says it is, right? Well, it’s pretty bad. The economy sucks for everybody right now. But, this is not to say that there is no hope. I believe that, despite the dragging of the general economy, and despite the dragging along of the legal profession, that unique opportunities are now being presented to diligent law students turning attorneys. And, I intend below to present selections tending to four categories. I’m not attempting a magic, fix-all elixir here (nobody has that), but what I am saying is that, for those willing to hustle, a passable existence can still be scratched out while you wait out the improvement of the general economy in your foxhole of some kind of security. As you consider that, that the creation of a reputation is not a one day, or a one year, process, consider also that this too shall pass, as all things will, and do. You must not only keep in mind keeping yourself afloat for now, but you must also determine how what are you able to do, especially in light of the circumstances of today, will begin to look five, ten, twenty years down the road.

Engage in Social Media. You know, just because you don’t have a ton of experience doesn’t mean that you can’t engage in the discussion. A learning experience on social media sites can become the seedlings for your own growth of reputation in a field. There is still a cultural disconnect with respect to the use of social media and new technology as between older generations and younger generations: older generations, who’ve never had Facebook, think Twitter is, like, the most awesome thing ever, and is a great business tool, to boot; younger generations have been using social media for quite some time, and began that use for strictly social purposes, and tend to wonder why Twitter is so popular, as it is not robust at all in comparison to Facebook. In this scenario, you, as recent law graduate, or late law student, have the advantage. You know how to use all of this stuff, and feel comfortable doing it. Now your task is to turn the fun into a business endeavor that can help you to get a job, not a social endeavor that can hurt your chances of getting a job. You have, in the modern world, unprecedented, and easy, access to those masters of the legal realm that you could never have gotten to before. Become part of the conversation, broadcast your questions, but also your ideas, thoughts and interesting points. Market yourself for reputation in support of your job search, or market your reputation in the advancing of the cause of your new law firm. If you’re marketing your firm, or yourself, as a solo, be careful to stay within the strictures of the Massachusetts Rules of Professional Conduct, which are extrapolated for new media. But, don’t be overfearful: jump into the cultural lag-breach, and make a name for yourself.

Check out a few of these law students/new lawyers, who have already done so: the Twitter monster known as Rex7; social media maven Leora Maccabee; the LinkedIn Lawyer, David Barrett; and, king of all media, Gabriel Cheong.

Work Pro Bono. You’ve always talked about working pro bono, knowing it’s a good thing to do. And, if you’re not working now, well, now’s the time to do it. You likely won’t get paid, and, yes, it is increasingly difficult to find pro bono volunteer positions in such a fierce job market, so it may be tough to land a gig; but, keep pushing, and don’t be afraid to cobble a couple of opportunities together, to create a volunteering segment of your resume. It’s always better to do something, even something for free, than to do nothing. Potential employers favor industriousness, especially if that industrious is exercised within the realm of the field you intend to enter. And, if you have immense trouble finding a paying position to supplement your pro bono efforts, think outside the legal field. I don’t care what anybody says, over-excessive pride is not a good thing in this status quo. If you have to get a job at Stoppie’s, work at Stoppie’s. It’s not the end of the world. You’ll only be as embarrassed as you feel. And, there are plenty of good people who work hourly wage jobs; and, remarkably, I know, they’re good people despite the fact that that they aren’t lawyers. You see some sucky jobs moving up the ladder, and you have to put in your time sometimes. That’s just the way it is. Everybody goes through it. Don’t let your preconceived notions and hubris get in the way of your ultimate success. Mark Twain was penniless many times over; Ulysses S. Grant was classed a degenerate drunkard; Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman were, at times, viewed as failed, or failing, politicians.

Raise the Bar for Small Firms. So, you can’t get that job at a large firm. You’re probably better off, frankly. Oftentimes, the large firm lifestyle is a glorified version of wage slave. Sure, you’ll be paid well (although those big salaries are definitely going to experience a "market correction", in the legal sense, and very soon), but what does money mean when you can’t enjoy any of it? You’ve been paid handsomely to sit at a desk while your life departs from you at breakneck speed. Great. That’s not my style. Now, some people can apparently make the large firm gig work; but, it takes a specialized personality: one that absolutely and unequivocally loves the law. And, there will be sacrifices, and serious ones, regardless of how well you turn the script. One potential positive stemming from this current economic disaster is that there is likely to be a trickle-down effect: wherein the best and better candidates take “lesser” positions than they otherwise would have, in a better economy. (Not every better candidate is taking Ropes and Gray money to work pro bono.) This may be your unique opportunity to become a more vibrant and integral contributor to a smaller firm than you would have ever had the chance to be before. Your voice is more likely to heard (and social media and marketing may be your “in” to responsibility, as most smaller firms will ask for your heavy hand in marketing) now, more than ever. Faster track yourself; look at the small(er) firm option.

Or, Start Your Own Firm. Starting your own law firm is a serious endeavor; but, if you think well about it, and determine that it is your course, it is certainly not impossible to make a go of it, if you are willing to hustle. Hell, that’s why we’re (LOMAP’s) here: to aid in the process of discovering whether it is your thing, what you want to do, and, if so, how to go about it. Younger lawyers are more willing to try and apply new things, and this can be an advantage. Technology, and the efficiency it brings, can grant you massive time savings over your letter-writing competitors. The application of alternative billing philosophies can give you a marketplace edge. An aggressive nature and deep-felt work ethic applied at the outset of your practice can help to make your reputation for years to come. The most difficult aspect of starting a firm from scratch is in the development of a client base. Of course, on the other hand, it is easier and cheaper to market yourself now than ever before, when you use social media marketing, and other new technology, to promote yourself, and your firm. Most disadvantages can be turned to potential advantages with a little creative thinking and hard work, unless you’re Eric Gagne on the 2007 Red Sox. That’s just an irredeemable situation there. (Don’t buy these.) In any event, starting a law firm, and gestating a successful law firm, is often what you make it. Of course, this is not to say that you should leave Grandpa entirely in the dust, trailing you in his Rascal. That is, because, finding a mentor to lead you through the steps for creating and for maintaining the successful law firm, and to run questions by, can be essential . . . you just don’t have to listen to everything you’re told.

Perhaps some of your butterflies have now flown, in your consideration that you may not end up in the breadline after all. (And, in all honesty, with the institution and entrenchment of New Deal and New Deal-style social programs, it is very difficult to become abandoned by modern society, unless you fall on the wrong side of the unofficial war on drugs.) Sure, things are difficult, but not impossible. You should be proud of your achieving your juris doctor and bar passage, as you make those steps. Just make sure that you recognize, that your hard work is far from over: it is only just beginning.

. . .

Alright now, while all the grandfathers and grandmothers are trailing us, let’s talk seriously. I figure I’ve got about a decade left of remaining somewhat cool and relevant, the end of which time will likely coincide with the falling out of the greater part of my head (not ear-cruel fate!!!) hair. (For those of you who have seen me this past week, this process has been abetted by a razor clip mistake that has resulted in a strip of my hair becoming missing.)

So, I discovered a new musician the other day, courtesy of my 17-year-old sister-in-law, Sarah, who, in return for my finding some sweet old school jams, like James Taylor’s “Nothing Like a Hundred Miles” (that’s right, you won’t find that on YouTube), keeps me up to date on new artists through the use of the iTrip on long car rides. (I swear to God, without Sarah and my wife Jessica, my music knowledge would have ended at roughly 1993, with a gaping blackhole appearing thereafter.) This is how I first learned of Wyclef Jean’s “Sweetest Girl”, and so verily impressed my co-workers.

So: Who’s the latest, you ask? So, there’s this dude named Adam Young, who has formed a one man band, initially starting in his parents’ basement, because he is an insomniac, and apparently had nothing better to do. Tell me about it. Anyway, I thought it was trippy because he sounds JUST LIKE the guy who is the lead singer for Death Cab for Cutie (Benjamin Gibbard); anyway, I like Death Cab, so I liked the sound to begin with. But, as I’ve listened to more tracks, I started to like Owl City in its own right. People are calling this eletronica, and, yeah, it looks like this dude strictly uses a synthesizer, but this is far closer to straight pop than to electronica (and, we all, by now, know of my genetic addiction to bubblegum pop); but, I would never tell you to take my final word for it. Check out some of these songs, and I think you’ll be impressed: “Vanilla Twilight”, “Fireflies”, “Hello Seattle” and “Hot Air Balloon”, the last of which kind of sounds to me like a combination of Death Cab, POTUSA and Nena. Another good track is “The Saltwater Room”, which Mr. Young performs with Breanne Duren, another MySpace-generated singer, who also appears (in the role of Ronnie Spector) on Jamestown Story’s remake of Eddie Money’s “Take Me Home Tonight”, which sucks, by the way, in comparison to the original version. That’s right, I said it.

(By the way, there’s absolutely no way Eddie Money is really playing that sax. Maybe my musical knowledge actually stops at 1986. Damn, Wasn’t that the year Genesis hit with “Invisible Touch” . . .)

Facing Financial Reality: Tools to Create a Personal Budget

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney Dowell, Esq.) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:40:00 +0000

Clearly one of the most stressful issues that attorneys face day-to-day is financial uncertainty. A large percentage of attorneys operate in solo and small firms which, like many American families, operate from paycheck to paycheck. The only difference is that the paychecks come from clients who are often slow in paying. Therefore, cash flow is inconsistent and stress rises as mortgage payments come due. Rather than using this as a motivator for financial planning, I find many attorneys simply throw up their arms saying that financial planning is impossible. In truth, financial planning is not impossible; it is simply more difficult where the income stream is inconsistent. To meet this challenge and reduce the stress attorneys must recognize that financial planning using a real budget is of critical importance.

A good starting point for any attorney is to develop a personal home budget based upon actual income and expenses. This personal budget will provide a key tool for evaluating both your bottom line income needs, and also will help you identify excess spending. A key to developing a successful budget is accurate information that reflects the economic reality based on a careful analysis of historic spending and income. This is critical because we all tend to underestimate our spending and overestimate our income. Here are several tools for creating a realistic budget.

A first option is to use Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet program which all have free templates which can be used to create a personal budget. For example, Microsoft personal budget templates may be found at the Microsoft site. To populate the critical information you will do an analysis of your bank account, bills, credit cards, etc., to determine your spending and income for the last six months.

A second option is to purchase personal finance software like Quicken or Moneydance. These are relatively cheap (less than $40.00), support on-line banking and bill payment, and help manage your budget. These programs require less input then a spreadsheet template, but will require some input and analysis by you.

The third option is sign up for free internet based software vendors such as mint.com, intuit.com (free Quicken on-line), or yodlee.com, that provide personal budget programs. These sites will do a complete analysis of your spending and income, help you set spending and saving goals, track how you are doing, and help find ways to save more money. For example, mint.com will suggest where you can improve on interest rates on loans and credit cards, help you prepare for tax season, and will provide helpful advice on how to achieve your goals. A word of caution: to effectively use the on-line service providers you will need to provide them some access to your financial information so look at technology reviews, user agreements, and exercise caution about the security used by the site to ensure that site is keeping your information as safe as possible.

Once you have gained control of your household budget you can easily implement the same financial controls in your firm. There are excellent programs that will allow you to get the same financial control of your law office as you will have in your personal life. These software programs will track and reconcile your operating accounts, IOLTA and trust accounts, and provide real time financial reports to determine cash flow, budget projections, and profit/loss statements. Contact Mass.LOMAP to get a list of available programs. You can also set up an appointment to use our technology center and demo a number of programs.

The KGB is After Us: Think in the Black, Not in the Red

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:44:00 +0000

I enjoy Jay Shepherd’s blog postings at both Gruntled Employees and at The Client Revolution. I think that his posts are pithy, witty and urbane. It’s his method, though, that I find to be the most interesting aspect of his production. I often wonder: What does Jay do to find his object lessons, his apt, everyday examples that help explain more complex legal and business concepts? Is he sitting in the barbershop getting a fresh ‘do when old Ralph says something that moves him to construct a blog? Is he watching Top Chef on Bravo when Tom Colicchio dresses some contestant down for a mistake that is like to one that big law might make? Is he rolling down the highway with the moon roof opened listening to Willie Nelson when the way the sun is striking upon the passenger’s side visor moves him toward writing? No, that’s crazy. Jay Shepherd wouldn’t listen to Willie Nelson. I see him as more of a Son Volt guy.

But, now I know. I had a Jay Shepherd moment yesterday, at the gym, on the treadclimber, watching the Red Sox (on commercial break).

(Explanatory: Don’t worry, Jay, I’m not stealing your schtick: this is a one-time only thing for me. Besides, I like to write blog posts that are about 9,000 words longer than this one will be. Blovels, macroblogging: may be outside the client revolution, ya dig.)

. . .

Strangely absent from the general web, but ubiquitous lately, during the commercial breaks from Red Sox telecasts, has been a commercial for the paid-text-for-answers provider, KGB, the "Knowledge Generation Bureau", which features the protagonists conversing over baseball signs respecting the last Red Sox no-hitter: Jon Lester; May 19, 2008, in case you were wondering--here’s an extremely illegal reproduction.

But lo, here is the exact same commercial, with the exact same protagonists, only this one features the Yankee version of something of the same discussion respecting the last Yankees perfect game: David Cone; July 18, 1999.

So what? You ask. So what? Well, what it is is that this is a fairly ingenious piece of marketing. First, it’s a fun concept; but, that’s nothing earth-shattering. People are funny. Second, though, is that the characters are not speaking to each other: they are using baseball signs to communicate, and what they are saying is expressed in subtitles. This means that the subtitles can answer for the same general question (last no-hitter/perfect game by home team) in any American baseball city, assuming that team’s city has a no-hitter or perfect game to its credit. The only spoken word segment represents the punchline to the joke (“Your fly is down.”), which is generic, and could be generally applied for an ad in any city. KGB, then, has produced one ad, which can be easily repurposed for use in any city in America with a professional baseball team. In fact, the ad is so generic that any sports-related, or other, subject matter, for that matter, could be covered, as long as it comes to meet the extended punchline. KGB was able to produce a winning advertisement that could be easily repurposed, and that could still appear unique to various viewers. Plus, they saved a bunch of money filming one ad, rather than thirty or so.

If you can think outside the batter’s box, and can apply this same sort of cost-effective, but effective, application to your advertising, you’ll be hitting a home run.

(Postscript: Of course, the one question I can’t answer is why on Earth anyone would use a service like KGB, when there is already a free alternative out there. IT’S CALLED GOOGLE.)

Risk Reward: Effective Date for Massachusetts Data Privacy Law Moved Out (Again); Regulations Revised

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:26:00 +0000

Perhaps not surprisingly (conventional wisdom having been very sage, if hopeful, in this particular case), the effective date for the Massachusetts data privacy law has once again been pushed out (the fourth such extension is this; representing a total push of 15 months out of time): from January 1, 2010 to March 1, 2010. (It’s okay to jump up and down now.)

But, wait . . . There’s more. In once again pushing back the effective date for the application of the Massachusetts General Law Chapter 93H omnibus security breach/data privacy/identity theft regime, the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation has also extensively revised its identity theft regulations, at 201 CMR 17.01, et seq. (You can stop jumping up and down now.)

The announcement of these changes, made via an August 17 press release by the OCABR, takes the form of four official state documents, including said press release, as well as the revised regulations (an available redlined version being particularly helpful), a new set of FAQs on the changes made to the CMRs and a notice of public hearing concerning the revised regulations.

Each of these various documents offer important guidance, even though the regulations represent the only one of the documents having the force of law. So, then . . . Let’s Review:

(That’s right, I am going to attempt a straight review, without much of my rhetorical flourish . . . much.)

The 8/17 Press Release. The press release announces the new effective date (3/1/10), for the revised regulations, as well as the date (9/22/09) for a public hearing on the revised regulations. More broadly, the release seeks to define the new tenor of the law, including the notion of its enforcement. According to the release, the changes to the regulations seek to more favorably balance the interests of consumers with those of the small businesses that must comply with the law. The revised regulations are said to represent a new, risk-based approach, that will provide businesses more flexibility in creating unique WISPs, that will more accurately reflect the realities of their particular business situations, the regulations then becoming “risk-based in implementation, not just enforcement”. The new regulations also represent an acknowledgment that technological feasibility (read (really): how-much-a-business-can-afford-to-pay-for-certain-technology) plays a part in what businesses, especially small businesses, can do to comply with the law. The regulations, then, have become technology-neutral, with a new focus on feasibility. Overall, the regulations are said to now be more consistent with federal law.

The Revised Regulations. The redlined version of the regulations is the best place to get a look at what has been struck, what has stuck and what’s new. Now, these regulations are not set in stone (neither was the last set, of course), especially as changes may be in the offing following the September 22 public hearing; but, this is the most recent edition we have to work with, and is certainly the first look into the government’s state of mind respecting the purposes of these changes.

17.01 In running down the regulation, the first thing you’ll notice is that there has been a subtle shift made to the purposes of the regulation. One purpose is no longer to establish minimum standards for compliance (plus the statutory purposes adopted). Although the regulations do still establish minimum standards for compliance, it is no longer one of the purposes of the regulations. Theoretically, this provides businesses a bit more freedom, and flexibility, in the designing of their information security protocols. The new purposes same as the old purposes, then, are those adopted from the statutory language of chapter 93H, but more directly. The former regulation had changed the statutory language respecting protection against unauthorized access or use that “may result in substantial harm or inconvenience to any consumer” to protection against unauthorized access or use that “creates a substantial risk of identity theft or fraud against . . . residents.” The statutory language has now been adopted directly, so creating, indirectly, a more difficult charge for businesses affected, which, under the terms of the statutory language, have more to look after. The OCABR giveth, and the OCABR taketh away.

The OCABR has also removed the “store/maintain” category of information holders; the “own/license” category remains. Given that no one really had any idea what these categories meant before, or what the difference between them was, there is really no great change, I suppose. And, this point underlines one of the main issues with the prior regulation: that none of these four terms, neither the two groups of terms, were ever defined.

17.02 Thoughtfully, “own/license” has now been defined, albeit so broadly that anyone having “access to [protected] personal information” is an owner/licensor. Or, not so thoughtfully. This is patently ridiculous, of course. Practically, “own/license” can have no meaning when defined so broadly. So, suffice is to say that “anyone” and “everyone” who has access to protected personal information must care for it after the terms of the company WISP. And, certainly, this is the way that smart businesses have approached this issue from the very beginning: that an appropriate WISP must be created and diligently enforced, as applicable to every person employee.

The existing definition for “encrypted” has been tweaked, in keeping with the new approach that the regulation be technology neutral. The requirement for the use of an algorithmic process for encrypting has been removed; the only remaining requirement is that a confidential process or key is required to break whatever encryption method is used, essentially freeing the encryption type choice.

Helpfully, a definition for “service provider” has been added. The “service provider” is a person, broadly defined, who is permitted access to protected personal information by another person, broadly defined, subject to the Massachusetts data privacy law, for the purpose of providing direct provision of services to that another person, broadly defined, subject to the Massachusetts data privacy law. Someone, then, or some company, to whom you permit access to your stored information, so that they may perform a service for you, is a service provider. Fair enough; and, the fact of your granting them permission separates them out from those breachers who access your stored information without permission. Service providers are more like vampires, invited into your home. But, the real question respecting service providers has never really been who they are, or what they, generally, do. The point has always been the determination of what, exactly, businesses must do to vet and/or monitor their service providers. The revised regulations come closer to answering that question. And, we get closer to covering that answer.

17.03 Most of the red ink in the revising of these regulations has been spilt for changes made to this section. The changes appear, then, at first blush, sweeping. But, only one section of changes really represents a dramatic maneuver, and not the one you’d think. The requirements for a WISP have become less stringent, or, at least, the intention was to make them less stringent. The change to the WISP requirements more directly implicates what I have called the “totality of (most of) the circumstances” test for determining what a business is truly capable of pulling off with respect to the protection of personal information that it stores; thus, a WISP must now contain “administrative, technical, and physical safeguards that are appropriate to (a) the size, scope and type of business of the person obligated to safeguard the personal information under such comprehensive information security program; (b) the amount of resources available to such person; (c) the amount of stored data; and (d) the need for security and confidentiality of both consumer and employee information.” And, there are your four circumstances for the consideration of whether or not your WISP is compliant. Of course, those considerations were present in the prior version of the regulations. Practically speaking, then, the only real change here is that the command that the WISP shall be “reasonably consistent with industry standards” has been removed. Aside from that, though, this looks awfully similar to the prior version. And, in the end, it seems that whatever leniency ends up being applied will be supplied via court decisions, with reasoning based on much the same language that has appeared here before.

Following down the page, there is a smart grammatical change at 2(c) as well as the deletion of the requirement to immediately terminate terminated employees’ access to protected records at 2(e). But, beginning at the new section 2(f), is where the largest changes occur. Although section 2(f) contains the term “oversee”, which may end up being an onerous burden for small business, the further descriptive subparts imply that that should not be the case. Now, reasonable steps are required to “select and retain”--inartfully applying a continuing obligation to continually vet/monitor service providers--service providers who can maintain “appropriate security measures” to safeguard protected personal information. Appropriate security measures are those that are consistent with the regulations and with federal requirements. This language now closely tracks the new formulation for the creation and maintenance of a WISP, where the appropriateness of measures likely reflects the sort of business engaged in, and the resources available to that sort of business. The second subpart requires that businesses bind service providers by contract to the implementation and maintenance of appropriate security measures for the protection of personal information. This appears a much more useful directive than the prior, general admonition for the vetting of service providers. Now, there are two steps: (1) verify capability of service provider to protect personal information; (2) sign service provider to contract memorializing their ability and willingness to meet legal requirements for protection of personal information--which seems to reduce or eliminate the need to monitor, breach of service = breach of contract, and a remedy for business and consumer affected, right . . . Now, although there is still little guidance as to what those “reasonable steps” for verification might be, there is now a contract backup, to determine the agreement entered into. Not that I would be disposing of my records respecting my questions to and answers from a service provider representing the reasonable steps I have taken to vet my service providers. There is also, note, an inducement here to engage service providers before the new effective date of the regulations, since contracts entered into before March 1 will be deemed to be in compliance with the regulations, even without the explicit provision for the maintenance of protective security measures. Here’s hoping that service providers will add such terms to their existing contracts, thereby removing the burden from consumers/business owners; but, why they would want to so bind themselves, I do not know, and likely would not do, unless I had to, or if it were easy for me to comply, if I were in their positions.

The revised regulations also feature the removal of other, prior mandates. The former section 2(g), requiring the limiting of the amount of information kept, for how long and for whose eyes, has been eliminated. Likewise, the former section 2(h), requiring the pinpointing of electronic and paper records containing protected personal information and the storage units for same, if all records were not protected under the terms of a WISP, has been dumped. Finally, the requirement to provide a written procedure for the accessing of paper records, as it appeared in the former section 2(i), has been removed.

17.04 Only two changes are made to this section of the regulations, which section covers much of the discrete technology-based requirements. The over-arching revision adds the language “to the extent technically feasible” in describing the application of elements of computer system security to the WISP and to the practice. This is consistent, necessarily emanating from, really, the revisions made to 17.01, which point to a looser interpretation of compliance, one more directly based on the needs and limitations of particular companies. The revision means that every subpart here is now read differently, in light of the particular circumstances of individual businesses. The only other change in this part is the removal of the “to the extent technically feasible” language formerly attached to the (3) encryption subpart, that removal being required to check a created redundancy, since the whole part is now governed by the question of whether what is to be done is or is not technically feasible.

17.05 There is a removal of the store/maintain classification, as there has now been throughout. The effective date of the regulations is moved to March 1, 2010, from January 1, 2010.

The New FAQs. The added Frequently Asked Questions primer may, in fact, have even more subtle goodies in it than the revised regulations. After you’ve read through the revised regulations, these FAQs’ll sort of appear like an Easter egg found about Memorial Day. Take that as you will.

Some of the notions for your attention (that is, if you got the notion):

The revised regulations, conforming to the new risk-based approach to information security, is consistent with federal law, especially the FTC’s Safeguards Rule. Hint: Check the safeguards rule. Looks as though this is a direction for finding out what the precedent might be, before the precedent becomes handed down. The Safeguards Rule also contains third party vendor provisions, which are the model for the third party vendor provisions in the revised CMR regulations.

There is more specific, albeit, still nearly wide-open, “guidance” with respect to the encryption of PDAs: Not all portable devices have to be encrypted. (Makes sense. Not all portable devices will have protected personal information stored on them anyway.) Since there is not a generally accepted encryption method, just do what is “technically feasible” (there’s that term again--but what does it mean?), and if you can’t encrypt your PDA, safeguard the protected personal information on it to the extent possible. (Meaning: If you can’t encrypt, manage the risk. That’s as catchy as “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit”, no?) This segment ends by stating, rather matter-of-factly, that encryption technology is generally available for laptops. (i.e.--If you have protected personal information on your laptop, encrypt the device.)

The FAQs also provide some specific guidance on the protection of personal information on backup tapes, which has been a cloudy question to this point. There are several interesting points here: Going forward (so starting on March 1, 2010, I would imagine) backup tapes must be encrypted. However, if you are moving old backup tapes from storage, you must encrypt those tapes . . . if it’s technically feasible, of course. If it’s not technically feasible, you should take steps to protect the information contained on the backup tapes (so the backup tapes). The FAQs provide the oddly extreme example of using an armored vehicle and guards for the transfer of a “large” amount of sensitive personal information. Certainly an option for large companies; but, for smaller companies (and there is no further definition of what a “large” amount might be), likely not probable. What is this, Thailand?

A definition of “technically feasible” (= technologically feasible, what with all the context clues) is presented in the FAQs. Why the definition is presented in the FAQs and not within the regulation is sort of beyond me, but it is what it is, I suppose. The definition of “technically feasible”, then, as it appears, is really just a question of reasonableness, that old-timey standard.

Also welcome is some guidance specific to the encryption of email containing personal information, as this has been one or the major areas of concern for those seeking to comply with the regulations. Quite obviously now, under this new regime, you need only encrypt if it is technically feasible. If email encryption generally is not technically feasible, the best practice is not to send unencrypted personal information via email. The alternative suggestion is transfer of and communication relating to protected personal information via the establishment of an encrypted website with username and password access. Of course, that seems rather cumbersome, in some cases. For example, I’d rather just encrypt a PDF or Word document, and call the person I emailing with the password. The secure website is a good idea for collaboration, but not for simple transfer.

If you swipe credit cards and debit cards, and only use swipe technology, but do not have custody or control over the information swiped and batch out the data in accordance with the payment card industry standards, then you are not an owner or licensor of personal information, and that information is not your obligation to protect under the data privacy regime. Apparently, there are special considerations if you “have employees”; and, reference, for that scenario, is made to a prior hypothetical, in which no mention is made of debit or credit card swiping procedures.

To compensate for the removal of language in the original regulations respecting the limiting of the amount of personal information collected, the length of time it is retained for and the limitation to a legitimate purpose for collection, the question of length of retention is addressed now in the FAQs. There is no maximum amount of time that a business can hold onto protected personal information; the timing question is a business decision. However, the suggested best practice is to consider what is essentially the former mandate of the relevant deleted portion of the regulations, the former 17.03(2)(g) reiterated.

With the deletion of the former 17.03(2)(h), you no longer need to make an inventory of your records, to determine which of those records contain protected personal information . . . but you should. Despite the deletion of this section and the above-referenced section, the suggestion here is that, although, those segments of the regulation have now been removed, it is still best practice to make an inventory of your client records and information and to include within your planning for the creation of your WISP concepts concerning the purpose of your maintaining records.

How much employee training do you need to do, with respect to the Massachusetts data privacy regime? “Enough.” Oh, well, that’s helpful. Thank you.

In addition to the definition of “technically feasible”, there also appears in the FAQs another, less explicit definition, this one for “financial account”. “Financial account number” has previously been defined in the statute and remains defined in the regulation; but, a definition for “financial account” seems to be attempted here in order to provide further examples of financial accounts (some of which examples appear in the statute and still appear in the regulation), as well as to provide context for what sort of things hackers or other illegitimate persons can do when they get access to financial accounts. It strikes me as tortuous, and unhelpful, however, to define a financial account in the context of what certain persons can do to other persons once they have gained access to those other persons’ financial accounts.

Incidentally, an insurance policy number is a financial account number (important more for insurance carriers and resellers than lawyers, but still likely account information accessible and maintained by some lawyers, in certain cases), with certain conditions: IF “it grants access to a person’s finances” or IF it “results in an increase of financial burden, or a misappropriation of money, credit or other assets”. Certainly, this second option is just another definition by extrapolation, and as unhelpful to persons attempting to comply with this regulation as the above type definition; the first option--granting access to finances--is a much better definition, and measure.

The attorney-client privilege does not immunize you from compliance with the data privacy regulations--seems rather obvious, but someone must have asked.

Additionally, you must comply with the CMR even if you already comply with HIPAA. These are distinct obligations, even though there may be overlap, in certain places, and at certain points.

With respect to the general monitoring of your safeguards for your maintaining protected personal information, you should adopt a system that is “reasonably likely to reveal unauthorized access or use”. This guidance is generally consistent with the new tenor of the regulations, that businesses, especially smaller businesses, will be given more leeway in applying protocols consistent with the revised regulations and the statute. Likely obviously, standards for monitoring paper records versus electronic records should take into account the differences between those records.

The FAQs end on what is, really, a summation point: that compliance will be judged on a case-by-case basis, with the relevant totality of (most of) the circumstances (business size; business resources; amount of data stored; need for confidentiality) considered.

. . .

So, Where do we stand now? A little further away from the cliff face.

The most important change to the regulations is the leeway now provided to smaller businesses with respect to the actual implementation of technical security safeguards. The regulations are now technology neutral and grounded in the nature of a business for specific application of measures. The third party provider requirement changes are also significant; however, those are still not entirely clear as to what reasonable steps businesses must take in vetting service providers and as to whether and to what extent there is a continuing monitoring requirement, or if the new mandated contract term weds third party providers to liability. The FAQs are full of the right questions, with most of the right answers; and, some of those answers should have made it into the final version of the regulations. Overall, though, there is more bark than bite here, and the changes to the WISP requirement are not really staggering, or major. We’re getting closer, but not quite there yet. Perhaps another extension is in the offing?

Complaints? Is it all too much for you to take? Attend the public hearing relating to the changes to the regulations on September 22, 2009, and voice your disgruntlement.

(Yes, I know. Disgruntlement is not a word.)

Guest Post: Kick-Start Your Practice: Join a Lawyer Referral Service

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:51:00 +0000

This post represents the second, and final, guest appearance by LOMAP summer intern, Michael Pirrello. Mike is done carrying this program, and has returned to school as of this past Monday. Mike begins his third year at Suffolk University Law School, and is ready (and well-prepared, incidentally) to move onto bigger and better things. We have very much enjoyed having Mike here this summer, and appreciate all his help. We wish him the best of luck in all of his future endeavors. And, now, for his final gift to you, Mike writes on Lawyer Referral Services:

Over the past few months here at LOMAP, I have had the privilege of meeting with a number of solo attorneys and small firm lawyers. These meetings have given me a better understanding of the amount of work that goes into running a law practice. Solo and small firm lawyers have to manage not only the legal aspects of a case (going to court, drafting motions, researching, holding client meetings, etc.), but must also manage the administrative aspects of running a law practice (scheduling appointments, billing clients, answering clients’ emails, returning phone calls, etc.), as well. Solo/small firm attorneys are required to handle all of this while, of course, trying to find the time to market themselves. I am continually impressed by how well these attorneys manage to juggle all the demands that their jobs place upon them.

One common question posed to us is: How can a busy lawyer reach out to more clients? Most practicing attorneys, particularly in this economy, would undoubtedly benefit from having more clients. In order to get more clients, then, you should consider joining a bar-associated lawyer referral service, or two. There are many bar-affiliated lawyer referral services right here in Massachusetts; in fact, I was pleasantly surprised by just how many local, regional, and state bar-affiliated lawyer referral services there are. And, what that means is that we, as attorneys, have more options, and opportunities for reaching new clients.

A lawyer referral service is an organization that is designed to match up clients with attorneys. The services market themselves to clients as middlemen for the finding of lawyers. Have you ever seen this ad? Some of your potential clients probably have. When a potential client calls the lawyer referral service, the lawyer referral service then performs a basic inquiry about the client and what the case is about. Using this information, the lawyer referral service refers the case to a lawyer on their list who practices in the appropriate field.

There are several advantages to becoming a member of a lawyer referral service. First, by joining, you have found another means by which you can obtain more clients. By getting more clients, you will earn more money. Additionally, by joining a lawyer referral service, you may reduce some of your own marketing efforts (or at least feel less marketing pressure), so that you will have more time available to address the administrative requirements of running your law firm. The lawyer referral service will also save you time because they will usually perform a basic client intake for you (so that you don't have to). That intake will lead to your ultimate referral out, when you come up on the list within your speciality. And, increasing client intake for your specialty will allow you to gain valuable experience within your specialty, so that you will better be able to market yourself as a niche practitioner, and so grow your brand. Finally, joining a lawyer referral service may be particularly beneficial for those of you who are opening up a new practice and, as a consequence, have not yet established a firm client base.

Of course, one must always take into account the drawbacks and limitations of lawyer referral services, as well. The first thing you must remember is that, even though you have been referred a case and a client intake had been performed, you must still vet your clients for quality, and refuse a referral, if you know that you will be taking on a serious problem client. New attorneys may not feel as though they have the luxury of refusing any client, but a bad client is a bad client; and, the time you will lose on a bad client is real, and will affect your ability to invest in marketing yourself appropriately, in order to get the good clients within your specialty that you really want. Keep in mind that clients calling a lawyer referral service have sometimes been through several attorneys before you, and sometimes because they are so difficult to handle. The second drawback to these services is that you must be a member of the bar association with which the lawyer referral service is affiliated; that membership will cost you money. On top of the bar association membership fees, the lawyer referral service itself will usually charge a fee, too. Oftentimes, you must also sign an agreement in order to join one of these services. That agreement may limit how you may handle the case and bill the client. Most agreements also include a fee remittance provision, whereby you will return a portion of your collected fee to the lawyer referral service, for their referral fee. Make sure that you read the agreement that you sign carefully, and that you know exactly what it is that you are agreeing to.

If you want to join a lawyer referral service, or two, after taking stock of both the benefits and the drawbacks, you may click here for a list that I have compiled of all of the bar-affiliated lawyer referral services in Massachusetts, and that includes contact and other general information for each service. Whatever you decide, thanks for reading. And, best of luck to you all!

RECAPture the Public Domain: Access PACER Documents for Free

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 21:35:00 +0000

Accessing appellate, district and bankruptcy court records via the Federal Judiciary’s PACER system is clunky, to the point that it gets difficult to determine whether this PACER or this Pacer is the more inefficient use. Plus, PACER charges for documents: 8 cents per page accessed; there's even an 8 cent charge for a search that yields no results! Now, while 8 cents per page appears cheap on face, and is less than what many law libraries charge for copying, the fact is that multiples of searches add up, especially for attorneys who frequently use PACER. But, if you’re hungry for a break, there is some relief available, if not for the clunkiness, at least for the pricing.

There is a new web plug-in that can get you most of your PACER documents for free.

The system, known as RECAP (“pacer” reversed), was created under the auspices of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy by Harlan Yu, Steve Schultze and Timothy B. Lee, under the supervision of Professor Edward W. Felten. Aside from the fact that it was co-created by someone named Harlan (likely the first “Harlan”d in popular circulation since the immortal Colonel Sanders himself, whose Wikipedia page is criminally brief), RECAP has much to recommend it.

Here’s how it works: PACER users operating the RECAP add-on will have each document they access downloaded to an online repository. Each document so accessed and archived will then be free to every other PACER/RECAP user, via RECAP’s repository, rather than through PACER’s paywall.

The Washington Post has put together a decently bite-sized, informative article on the RECAP system, if you want a quick read. But, if you’d like to Discover Further, the best place to do so, at this point, really, is the source. Our friend Harlan(d) Yu, friend of the little man, has posted, at the Freedom to Tinker blog, one of the better introductions to the service. And, the RECAP homepage has a great deal of information on it, which information is really quite straightforward and easy to follow. There’s a sharp, quick video tutorial (“Watch RECAP in Action”) on the use of the product at the frontpage. And, in addition to basic descriptions covering how the product works, and why the product works, and a link for installing, there is a series of blog-style posts covering discrete topics relating to the RECAP program.

I have found the debate respecting RECAP to be interesting, and have discovered some good back and forth in the comments to blog posts on the topic, especially at Yu’s post. I have, also, found the creators of the system, as represented by their blog posts at the RECAP homepage, and elsewhere, to be refreshingly honest and open with respect not only to the advantages of RECAP, but also with respect to its disadvantages, and potential problems.

What are those, you may ask? Well, here is a list (not exhaustive):

Plug-in. The RECAP system operates by use of a plug-in; but, that plug-in is only available through the Firexfox browser. So you’ll need to use Firefox to access RECAP. Of course, that’s probably for the best, anyway. Firefox is the best browser.

Ex PACER Access. Although you don’t have to log-in to PACER to access RECAP, other access points are, at this point, cumbersome, and intentionally so, due to a desire on the part of the creators of RECAP to protect the privacy of litigants. So, you’ll have to wait until the RECAP team feels as though its security house is in order before you can expect to find an officially supported mechanism for browsing RECAP’s repository.

Is it legal? This is an open question; but, it appears to be. Now, I am not an intellectual property attorney. And, I don’t even practice anymore, at all, for that matter. But, the PACER website itself indicates toward the obvious conclusion that the government works within the PACER database are public record and not copyrighted, and so may be reproduced without permission, which, one could argue, is just what the RECAP program does: reproduces the documents at an alternate archive, for access . . . Of course, one could also argue that, nevertheless, the judiciary/government could prosecute for data collection that avoids billing, based on another indication upon their site; but, that part sounds to me more like the presaging of a crackdown on RECAP (the use of “collect data” rather than ”access data”, whispering so to me), rather than a potential crackdown on users of RECAP, who I think would be safe, under such a scenario. And, although this is likely not the end of the story, the judiciary has released an initial response to RECAP, emanating out of the District of New Mexico Bankruptcy Court (yes, certainly, this is only one district), stating that users, save for exempt users, cannot be prohibited from using RECAP, which does not, as the RECAP site assumes, mean that the use of RECAP is consistent with the law, but which really means that there is nothing the courts can do about it, or are willing to do about it, for now. Implicitly, then, users seem to be protected, for now; of course, the release is silent on whether or not the creators of RECAP have done anything which, to the minds of the judiciary, is untoward; but, that's not your problem. Although the court warns users rather generically that they may be "posting" private information, like social security numbers, to the web, this seems like tortured logic, and not likely to stand: (1) providing documents to the court, which the court then posts on PACER, is not generally releasing private information to the web--if anyone is posting private information to the web, then, it's the court; (2) most RECAP users (save for, potentially, those first ones, who have accessed materials that they have, in essence, "donated" to the free archive) are not posting anything to the internet; those users are merely accessing information from the internet; and, (3) it would seem to be difficult to say that even those initial donating users are posting anything to the web; they are merely accessing documents: RECAP takes those documents and reposts them. So, again, this appears as a RECAP challenge, not a user challenge. I don't think that this saber rattling over data privacy concerns will come to anything, or long stand. In any event, I don't see it as a winning argument against the users of RECAP, at least.

Certainly, then, but in any event, really, the government could seek to shut RECAP down. So, the question of Whether RECAP will remain apparently legal or viable?, is another question, all together. Unless or until then, I’ll say, it appears safe enough to use, so: use it until you lose it, and don’t worry about the popo for now.

Beyond the question of whether the use of RECAP is legal, Is the question of whether RECAP can be trusted. To the extent that the RECAP program derives its archive directly from PACER, the answer is "yes". To the extent that RECAP is open source, and to the extent that the key to the kingdom lays exposed, there is the potential for malicious persons to add to RECAP's archive unofficial documents purporting to be official documents; so, the answer then becomes, "probably". The issue is raised, but not effectively addressed, at a RECAP blog post, where it is classified only as a challenge that the RECAP team will have to deal with. Well, that's not exactly stirring. In the blog, however, a couple of quoted solutions are applied, one user-based (download important files direct from PACER), the other government-based (the courts should employ government signatures--probably a good idea anyway). Although I'd like to see a more aggressive response here, because the issue could become a large one (wait for the first malpractice claim against an attorney who downloaded a false document purporting to be official from the RECAP archive), I do think that this issues is resolvable, and likely will be resolved. The RECAP team, being led by eminent computer scientist Ed Felten, likely understands that pulling documents is not enough, that their repository must also represent a true collection of official documents to be really usable. My guess, given the RECAP team's obvious interest in privacy and security, and their other responses to those questions, is that this issue, if it ever comes up, is resolved in the short term. And, in an age when more and more, and already most, people place ever-increasing amounts of private information out on the cloud, archived to some server somewhere, there must be some level of trust between the people and the internet (as represented by vetted, reputable, certifiable programmers with apparent integrity, like Ed Felten and his team). The method to salve the madness is to use your head. You'll go crazy worrying over what is truly protected and what is not, and, especially, how; and, you'll be driven to distraction once you realize that every system, no matter how secure, or seemingly unsinkable, can be compromised or breached: see Titanic. But, at some point, you will have done your discovery and due diligence to the best of your ability; and, if you're then satisfied, you have done all that you can do, and you just have to let it go. My impression remains that there is greater folly in not using RECAP based on this concern than in using it.

Will the free access that RECAP offers and the consequent reduction in PACER revenues end up killing the PACER system? I don’t think anyone can rightly say for sure, and there are vociferous arguments on both sides. Turning to the comments for Harlan Yu’s introductory blog post, there appears some evidence that the judiciary takes in more revenue from PACER than it needs to run PACER, such that, a decrease in revenue, to a certain level, could be handled, PACER then running on a not-for-profit basis. Even if PACER begins to run at a loss, though, the judiciary could still support it by allocating affirmative funding (and, yes, I understand that the courts may use that money in other, perhaps more important, ways, but here I am only discussing the continuing viability of PACER, not the efficacy of that continuing existence), if it determines the program is important enough to maintain. If the government should shut down PACER because it has become too costly to maintain, then there’ll be the RECAP archive for the then-existing documents, and the judiciary would likely still find it an important objective to publish PACER-style documents (especially with government transparency being today’s watchword), and will probably farm out the publication to a third party . . . like RECAP. I guess that, in the final analysis, I can’t see access disappearing, just the mode of access changing, and changing, if it does, to one that is less costly for attorneys, and that’s a good thing. But, RECAP, through Timothy Lee, has answered most of this question already, and in its own way.

Will RECAP always remain free? Maybe not. Maybe RECAP goes to a per page charge (less than what PACER charges if PACER is still around; some other, settled number if PACER dies). But, for now, Who cares? It’s a forward-looking argument, and one that would have ramifications for attorneys down the line who come to rely on RECAP; but, this program will move forward regardless of those folks attempting to stopper the dike with their fingers. “Free” (even if just "free for now") is too hard to resist. Making a theoretical argument, and griping upon the conclusions of same is one thing; not using the program based on that argument will just be an added business cost for you that your competitors are not accruing. And, they’d say go-ahead. This is sort of like refusing to purchase $5 footlongs from Subway based on the fact that they may raise the price one day. I don’t know; I’ll save money today, though.

So, go ahead, take the top down, and try out RECAP. It’s party time. Like it’s 1975. Excellent.

It may not make this PACER that Pacer, but RECAP is a great way to keep pace, while keeping expenses down.

P.S.--There are so many great AMC Pacer pictures on Google images, it’s redonculous.

. . .

Johnny Cash probably would have used a program like RECAP if he were a lawyer without a second thought. But, fortunately, Johnny Cash wasn’t a lawyer. He was the man (in black) instead. My affinity for Johnny Cash is well-known; just ask the Mass Bar’s Joe Caci.

Now, when you’re talking J.R. Cash, you’re talking just a mammoth corpus, including 96 albums, 153 singles, one feature length biopic (with an award-winning performance by the brilliant Reese Witherspoon (and by “brilliant”, I mean, just outrageously hot)) and one famous photo that I can’t rightly link off this blog, but which an industrious Google search will yield for the curious and curioser.

Johnny Cash is an American icon, and his songs are iconic. “I Walk the Line”, “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues” are parts of the very stitching of the large quilt of Americana including apple pie. And, there are so many other Cash hits and history that I could go on and on . . . but I won’t, I’ll just go on, and leave a large amount of stuff out in the process. Suffice it to say that Cash was probably the coolest musician ever, and the fact that he’s getting posthumous shout outs from Snoop Dogg as “a real American gangsta”, as part of Snoop’s country foray, just sort of seals the deal.

Cash’s recording career covered almost 50 years of continuous production from Sun Records to American Recordings to sunset. The breadth of his catalogue is staggering. And, I like to wander around, about it, to pick up some of my favorites from time to time, like “Wanted Man”, At San Quentin, co-written with Bob Dylan, “Cocaine Blues”, At Folsom, “The One on the Right is on the Left”, “Jackson” (the movie version’s pretty darn good, too; and, yes, that is really Joaquin Phoenix, one of my all-time favorite actors, singing with Reese) and “Long-Legged Guitar Pickin’ Man” the last two with wife June Carter Cash, and “Committed to Parkview” (that one’s for you, Lottie--should you ever walk by the LCL-LOMAP offices, only to hear the strains of Johnny Cash, you'll know it's just me and Lottie in the office).

Particularly stunning, I think, though, is the depth of feeling present (whether in rockabilly numbers or on more morbid fare) on the American Recordings (isn’t that appropriate) Cash made near the end of his life. His “Hurt” cover is well-known. But, there are lesser-known treasures, also, including a duet with Carl Perkins on a sweet, re-done version of Brown-Eyed Handsome Man", a strange, wild duet with Fiona Apple on Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son”, with Tom Petty on Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” (Petty on background vocals), covering Neil Young‘s “Heart of Gold” with Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist, John Frusciante, and Johnny solo on “The Man Comes Around”, “Solitary Man”, “Like the 309”, and others.

And, How about Eric Clapton, Cash and Perkins doing “Matchbox” together! Yeah, here it is. Alright, I have to stop, otherwise I’ll be watching clips from The Johnny Cash Show until 2 am.

You might think I’d feel bad about using an ostensibly legal blog to pawn off upon you my thoughts on music from time to time; but, I really don’t. And neither would Johnny Cash.

P.S.--Merry Christmas from Johnny Cash.

Get Buy-In Before You Buy In: Build Consensus for Internal Change

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:10:00 +0000

Whether attempting to break in new software, instituting a new protocol or changing an existing office arrangement, you’re almost guaranteed to find that not everyone is immediately on the same page.

A familiar chorus may repeat itself, in internal discussions:

“Well, Phyllis has done it this way forever, and she’s been our office manager for forever, and we can’t really get her to change.”

“Bob’s been with us for over twenty years, he still bills a ton of hours, and he just doesn’t like technology. We won’t be able to get him to come around.”

The problem is symptomatic of attorney management generally: there is an avoidance of potential confrontation, before the point is even addressed, for fear of what might occur; there is very little in the way of proactive consensus building, or effort made towards that end, in the application of an important change. If a plan settled on is adopted, it is often done without consultation of the majority of effected parties, such that, rather than providing an opportunity for discussion and intelligent amalgamation, an email broadcast is the first, and often only, shot across the bow, producing the result that everyone is now even more entrenched in their views than ever before. Those unsympathetic then become only more unsympathetic, and those inclined to be sympathetic will now begin to doubt your motives, stemming from your methods.

It has been a shared point of common human knowledge for the better part of several thousand years that others are more likely to show you respect when you show them respect. So, when you have determined to institute a new product, service or method, be certain to share with your co-workers and colleagues, not just the decision, but the decisionmaking process.

In order for your new system to become the efficient improvement you hope it will be, you will need investment from others, as well as from yourself. Multiple systems for multiple persons is per se inefficient; and, you’re much more likely to achieve full participation, i.e.--full buy-in, if you have previously empowered your staffpersons and co-workers by introducing them into the embrace of your formerly private decisionmaking process. It might even happen that your initial idea was not the best method, but that meetings involving your co-workers led you in a more fruitful direction.

Of course, you may never be able to achieve full and complete buy-in from your employees and co-workers; but, by meaningfully involving them in the decisionmaking process, you have done all that you can do; and, for the implementation of a particular program or process, you have the final trump card: you’re the boss. Such that, in the end, your staff serves at your pleasure, and must, eventually, conform to the practices of your firm, or risk the penalties of intransigence. An employee flatly refusing and absolutely unwilling to comport with a final decision has the opportunity of seeking work elsewhere, or may be told to do so.

Gauging Your Efforts for Effect: Return to the Nature of Your Investments, in Reviewing Your Marketing Plan(ning)

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:56:00 +0000

The last session of the LOMAP Marketing Group was held just under a month ago, giving rise to the occasion of the writing of this, the second to last post in the LOMAP Marketing Group Marketing series, from the Department of Redundancy Department. I say that this is the second to last post, because we will be holding a class reunion, of sorts, sometime this fall, for the LOMAP Marketing Group, Class of ’09. At that event, I am certain of gleaning some and enlightening, further marketing tips, which I will, then, faithfully, pass along to you. Because that’s what I do.

The topic of our final Marketing Group session was “Putting Your Marketing Plan to Work for You”, the thesis being that it is not good enough to draft a marketing plan, and to let it sit. You’ll have wasted your time unless you make your marketing plan work for you, monitoring it for current effectiveness, from time to time.

If you’ve been following along with the group here (perhaps you have worked up your own marketing plan along the way), you know the importance of crafting clear, measurable, realistic objectives, for the guidance of your marketing efforts, through your marketing plan. You’ve also learned the importance of tying deadlines, and unique time pressers and pressures, to your marketing plan. Asserting real (yet manageable) deadlines under your marketing plan will help you to know when you are off task, and so will help you figure out why you got off track, such that you can determine how to get back on task. Deadlines also help you to answer questions relating to your progress from time to time. An appropriately-established tracking system will allow you to reach for the answer to the question of what you are doing today, and how you are doing so, one month from now, or three months or six months from now, or even a year from now. One helpful way to stay on track is to put pen to paper (or, finger to keystroke) again, and to use your marketing deadlines to create a marketing calendar, at the beginning of each new calendar or fiscal year. This will force you to calendar reminders, adding to them heft; for, it is far easier to ignore unreminded deadlines--and then there’s the fact that you could have a massive construction paper sort of marketing calendar hanging above your desk everyday, like some perverse modern-day version of a Damoclean Sword, that is, if you truly fear the crush of such deadlines, which you should not, but which you should view as yet another opportunity for growth.

Besides calendaring for completion and review, another way to make sure that your marketing plan is working is to stay with it, to keep your nose to the grindstone, and to make your illustrated efforts happen, in point of actual fact. On an associated note, you should be certain to allow your marketing efforts some ample time to breathe, to determine whether or not they are really working (more on this later). Part of staying the course is realizing that you do not live, or work, in a vacuum. You should endeavor to create accountability for yourself, to motivate yourself forward. Beyond your calendaring of deadlines, and establishing of sometime pressures, you should consider other factors that might motivate you. We work for money; but, we also work for other people. Who can you answer to? Who do you endeavor to support? Your children? Your life partner? Your law partner? Your poker buddies? Your networking friends? Determine who it is that you “answer” to, and who it is that you really work for, and find motivation for your efforts in some of these other, less usual, or less easily discoverable, ways. In addition to providing a nitro boost of motivation, your family, friends and colleagues are not just some abstraction, existing spectral, as some signposts for your aspiration. If you engage your family, friends and colleagues, you will likely find renewed (and renewing) focus, fresh ideas and an important, added drop of humility, like Alice’s small potion, from time to time. Most of my good ideas I steal from my wife.

Once you have decided that you are pretty well keeping your marketing endeavors on tracks, rails one and two, and now that you feel sufficiently motivated, the most important remaining, and continuing, task is to make certain that you are monitoring your marketing plan for success. The true success of your marketing efforts will be determined by your return on investment, whether you track what your return on investment is or not. But, it is far better to track your return. If you do not, you’re operating blind, and will have no idea whether your particular marketing efforts are working as you think they are, or as you hope they will. The only way you can truly know whether your efforts are worth your time is to determine that you will track your time and efforts against whatever measurable return you seek. And, unless you determine to make regular checks on your return on investment, that that will be something you stick to doing, as a recurring task, there is no point to go wringing your hands over how to collect your return.

But, if you do decide that you will track your return on investment, the primary concern will be just how to do it. As we’ve gone over many times, in many ways, this becomes a difficult problem for attorneys who have had no formal marketing training. At base, though, the concept is simple enough that you can format it for your purposes without major difficulty. Running a return on investment is really just figuring out what your “cost” is, and measuring that derived cost against that what your return is. Your cost includes not only the traditional factoring of money. Your cost also includes, for example, time spent (time away from billing, that is). You should endeavor to watch soft costs, little demands on your time, which can add up, if you do not manage your time well, and put caps upon time spent. Soft time costs can include a number of things that, if not checked, or reduced to processes, can serve to greatly slow you--administrative tasks, like non-essential follow-up, initial client interviews and file closing opportunities (which double as marketing forays) and social networking and social media promotion can eat up your time just as easily as more defined costs, which is why you have to define each cost, in some intelligible way. Your return is most often reduced to money, some dollar figure arrived at. But, your return can also be viewed as a conversion, in which X efforts may lead to Y numbers of clients or client or attorney referrals.

Figuring out exactly how to calculate your return on investment, though, is up to you. And, it is mostly a question of what you value. As long as cost and return is the base comparison, you will find what you need in the end when you apply your value ranking. There are even return on investment calculators available online, with some of the work having been done for you. And, you could certainly create your own system, including your own calculator, chart or graphic representation of what you see. For my money, though, and we are talking business, I think that the best and easiest conversion is based on money outputs and returns. Advertising costs money; so, that’s an easy one. You paid $50 for a telephone book ad. The drafting of the ad, the design of same and editing and tweaking, if you are a solo, are likely all attributable to you, your hours spent. And, the good thing about time is that time is pliable. There’s an easy conversion to money. You bill your hours all day. Keep track, also, of the hours you spend marketing, then. Figure out how many hours you miss out on billing, and multiply that number by your hourly rate. That’s the money cost of your soft time, and other, marketing efforts. Now you have a direct comparison of your return on investment, which is now not just how-many-prospects-came-through-the-door, but how many hours were billed to those prospects who became paying clients. You have achieved a direct comparison. Now, the trick is a little, um, tricki-er, when you use alternative billing. Of course, that’s just another challenge to overcome; but, the key to making these sorts of comparisons is to develop a one-to-one, apple-to-apple relationship to be analyzed. And, once you have figured out your formula, you’ll never have to do it again, unless you decide to tweak it.

Regardless of the particular formula you choose, the key is that you choose one, and apply it. Just (make sure that you) do it. The only way that you will know whether and which of your marketing endeavors are working is by determining the true measure of their effectiveness. The true measure of the effectiveness of marketing advances is return on investment.

For Further Reading. There are a couple of resources, discovered, once again, by LOMAP summer intern Michael Pirello, and consulted by me, for the creation of this blog post. Those resources are as follows:

For more on creating a calendar and timeline, see this Canadian article, eh, from Susan Ward, and this article from Website Marketing Plan, by Bobette Kelly. I don’t think enough people are named Bobette.

. . .

I generally use this blog for the purposes of maintaining a long-running secret tribute to Nelson and Spike Wilbury. Oh, yes. And, I also dispense law practice management advice from time to time. In any event, I thought I might move slightly off-topic for the finishing stroke for this post, and offer up some weekending footage of Sir Paul McCartney, in honor of his recent concert performance at Boston’s historic Fenway Park. Of course, there are already a plethora of bootleg videos on YouTube, until, that is, MPL Communications has same removed for copyright violations. And, that wasn’t the footage I was referring to anyway; far be it from me to aid in any copyright infringements; and, besides, I am still trying to figure out how I feel about the current tour, since CitiField is certainly not Shea Stadium. Now, everybody knows Lennon-McCartney; but, McCartney’s solo career might be viewed merely as the retelling of the same silly love songs over and over again. McCartney, although an excellent one, has not been solely a balladeer since he left the Beatles, though; and, the really impressive work he has done as the second best solo Beatle is too often ignored in favor of his Beatles output, and in the fear of finding just another one of those silly love songs. But, lest we forget: the walrus was Paul; and, the walrus is good.

Although less primal, certainly, than Lennon’s screaming and avant garde productions, Paul’s solo efforts could be brilliant. From his tremendous solo debut, “McCartney”, which included the big hit “Maybe I’m Amazed”, and other extremely cool tunes like “The Lovely Linda” (in the tradition of “Her Majesty”), “Oo You” and “That Would Be Something”, there have been a string of great solo and Wings songs that rival some of the Beatles’ best stuff. Some obvious inclusions to that catalogue are the sublime “Band on the Run” and “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, as well as the epic “Jet” and “Live and Let Die” (you know you did/you know you did/you know you diiid); but, there are some lesser known gems that are just as good, like my treadmill songs “Venus and Mars” and “Rock Show”, and “Another Day” (Jeff Dino's jam), “Let Me Roll It”, “Helen Wheels” and "Daytime Nighttime Suffering". Also, McCartney’s 1997 album, “Flaming Pie”, is (although it was a commercial and critical success), still, exceedingly underrated, including, as it does, a great duet with Steve Miller, a Ringo collaboration, “Beautiful Night” (one of my Dad's favorite songs), “Calico Skies” and “Great Day” (Jeff Dino's other jam), now featured in the new movie “Funny People”, which doesn’t look funny at all, but which soundtrack also features James Taylor, John Lennon and Warren Zevon, as well--so that part of it is good. All this, and people forget that, although the Beatles had some great beards, Paul’s, in all its flowing glory and sheer ridiculousness, may have been the best, as it was exhibited on the rooftop. Get back indeed. And, stay back.

Web Address, In a Larger Sense

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:05:00 +0000

Are you tired of paying beaucoup bucks to have someone else create and maintain your website for you? Perhaps you have tried to design and maintain your own website, but have instead only learned to hate html, or a clunky production and maintenance program, with the fire of a thousand suns? Or, maybe you just won’t meet your kid’s allowance increase demands were he to create your website for you. If you have experienced these, or other similar frustrations, maybe it’s time for a change. Reconsider what your online presence means.

Rather than aiming for the creation, or purchase, of the top-shelf law firm website, featuring all of the information, pages and expense you can cram, try an alternative course. Instead of optimizing your website, optimize your online presence across websites. Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a website, or that your website shouldn’t be nice, nor, even, am I saying that you should endeavor to design a website without having in mind the goal of producing the “best” (the strictest meaning for “optimized”) website that you can produce. Nay, I am only saying that, when creating your website, you should consider what the best website is for your firm, in the context of what you wish to achieve through your online marketing. Your website may still serve as the anchor of your online presence; however, it should not represent the entirety of your online presence. And, those who seek to optimize “the firm website” too often see the achievement of that elusive goal as the end of the line, with respect to their online marketing efforts; but, in 2009, the trick is to continually add new content, to remain relevant and to get as viral as possible, in getting your message out, in as many unique ways as you can. One of the dirty little secrets is that website editing is difficult; that’s why people get paid so much to do it. But, how easy is it to update your Facebook page, or your LinkedIn account? C’mon. Everybody does it.

Alright, though, now. I’m giving myself away, the farm. Before we get too far ahead here, before I too swiftly reveal my conclusions, and end some of the suspense, let’s reconsider what a website does for you, again, in 2009. For, to understand the utility of optimizing a web presence, rather than a website, we must understand what the purpose of a firm website is, or should be, to begin with. A website serves a two-fold purpose: to give you an online profile (some marker that you are, indeed, on the web, and so have arrived, and are reputable) and to get you noticed through the search engine (really, these days, Google, despite the encroaching, best efforts of Bing) rankings (such that your website will have been designed with higher result rankings in mind, so that people, clients or referrers, I mean, will find you). Yet, both of these objects can be achieved through the use of a well-constructed, simple placeholder (which serves to claim an important url, as well) website (that acts as your online business card) coupled with the use of social media marketing.

The social media toolbox is rather vast; and, you can certainly lose yourself in looking after the numbers and numbers of options available for the promotion of your firm and for the challenge to your time management skills. But, there are some proven winners that you may exploit, like these: Blogs and blogging; Twitter and tweeting; the use of LinkedIn and Facebook for the creation of alternate, additional firm or individual attorney pages; video posting with YouTube and claiming your profile on Avvo. You may never move beyond activity on these websites; yet, if these are the only social media websites that you come to use, you will find, if you have promoted yourself professionally and effectively, that, in time, you will have developed a rich web presence, without having had to hire anyone to create it for you, using solely your own initiative, unique, specialized legal knowledge and mix of savvy and wit.

The use of all of these available resources (and other available resources that you may choose to fit into your marketing schedule) can create for you an online presence across several platforms, increase your visibility on search services, help (you) to target your marketing, give you access to a thriving online community of attorneys flocking to these same websites and give you some incentive to update and add content consistently, to keep yourself top of mind.

Now, if this all feels overwhelmingly, and you feel, too, like you’re a DOS disciple living in a Windows world, fear not. I assure you. Scout’s Honor. These websites are easy to use, and sometimes, yes, fun, too. That’s why so many people use them. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, and close study being the prerequisite of imitation, should you have difficulty respecting the understanding of the concept of a particular site, or should you just want some ideas on how to post, and what to post, your best bet is to look after the people who do it well. To that end, some exemplars are as follows:

For a good example of a Blog (well, really, a blog/website), check Leanna Hamill’s.

I’ve included a listing of some prolific legal Twitterers in a prior post.

Check the LinkedIn Lawyer, David Barrett, for a good example of the set up of a LinkedIn profile.

For a Facebook page template, check The Lanier Law Firm’s. (Also first in the Google rankings (of firm pages) for “facebook law firms”).

And, How would you use YouTube to promote your practice? Watch Gabriel Cheong do it at his Infinity Law TV Channel.

Your complete and robust Avvo profile could one day look something like Marc Breakstone’s perfect 10.

All of this may seem like a tremendous amount of work; and, absolutely, as in any endeavor, you must work exceptionally hard to achieve exceptional results. However, accessing and assessing these sites and establishing your profiles will be easier tasks than you think. And, adding to your profiles, and growing your profiles, and therefore your reputation, over time, is merely a matter of stick-to-it-iveness, rather than the application of any specific computer skill set (remember, these sites are easy to use). But, the first step is always: to get started.

Now, for the best part (which is why I have saved it for the end): all of these web resources that I reference above (and many others, too) are free to use. That’s right, free. And, if you’re too cheap, even, to buy a placeholding website, allow your blog to double as your internet business card, as Leanna does, by adding your contact and other important information to the static background site. And, that makes a good, final tip, to leave you with: It is a good idea, with any of these websites, to include as much relevant contact information and background information as possible (without overcrowding) on the static profile pages that many sites offer. (When I say “static profile page”, I mean that, although your tweets roll as do your Facebook wall posts, the background remains static: your personal or professional information, so arrayed.) In this way, potential clients and referrers will always have additional ways and means to contact you, no matter where they happen to find you.

Now, just make sure that you keep this all underneath your respective chapeaus: After all, you wouldn’t want your competition to find out . . .

Guest Post: Technically Speaking, A Great Read for Any Attorney: the 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 03:20:00 +0000

This summer, at LOMAP, we have been fortunate in that we have had the continuing assistance of two excellent interns, one of whom is the author of this blog post. Michael Pirrello will be entering his third year at Suffolk University Law School in the late summer. He has been indispensable to nearly everything that we have accomplished at LOMAP this summer. We are grateful for his remaining service with us, and wish him luck in his legal career from here. Michael provides below a review of the ABA’s “2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide”:

Over the past decade, our society has seen exponential growth in the technology industry. Everyone knows that recent advances in the field of technology have made, for the most part, a positive impact on our personal lives. As most simple examples: we’ve all used email to stay in better touch with our friends and family; and, we’ve all used the web to access information more quickly. Not everybody knows, however, that technology can have a positive impact on our professional lives, as well. By simply adding a new piece of software to one’s work computer, for example, one’s law practice can be run far more efficiently. But, with all the choices out there, it is easy to become lost, if you do not have some guidance. You would be well-served, then, to adopt “The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide” as your own guide to the many uses of technology within your law office. The Guide will show you how to take advantage of available technology, in order to achieve ever-increasing business efficiency.

“The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide” is the latest edition in a series of books published by the ABA and authored by Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., John W. Simek and Michael C. Maschke. As a second-year law student, I was drawn to this book immediately, because it was a technology text written specifically for attorneys; most of the textbooks that I run across are case primers. I took the reading of this book as a unique experience for a law student: to learn about technology used in practice as an outsider first, before the question is to be thrust upon me directly. The Guide covers the practical question of how the attorney can most effectively introduce technology into his law practice, and continue to use technologies implemented to the fullest extent possible, even as those technologies are updated.

To help lawyers to achieve these ends, the authors begin by introducing readers to different types of technology available for the law office. The authors explain, generally, what products are out there, what they do, how much they cost, and who sells them, so that readers can make informed (and quick) decisions on whether or not their firms need the products described. Then, the authors make special recommendations for certain, exceptional products. They recommend, for one, that attorneys install dual monitors to increase productivity. The authors also recommend that readers try Dragon Naturally Speaking. Dragon is a voice recognition software that is calibrated to recognize your voice. When used correctly, Dragon can save you time and energy, because it will write down everything you say for you. Emails, letters, and documents can be written as fast as you can speak. The authors also tackle a number of discrete technology issues with which a legal audience may not be very familiar, including: servers, case management systems and collaboration tools. In 22 well-written chapters, the Guide offers clear and comprehensive coverage of all of these topics, and more.

After reading this book myself, I must say that I highly recommend it as a technology guide for attorneys, for a number of reasons. First, as I mentioned earlier, the subject is of great importance to attorneys, and becoming more important each year, as law office technology becomes more sophisticated. When used properly, legal technology will allow a firm to run far more efficiently. A lawyer must be informed on this subject, and this book will provide the information that lawyers need to become so informed. Some attorneys may be afraid of the topic, because they are unfamiliar with, what can be, difficult technical language and concepts. If that is a concern of yours, you needn’t worry, because the Guide is easy to read. The Guide was written for attorneys, rather than for “techies”. Better still, the Guide also contains a glossary, just in case the reader is unfamiliar with certain technical words used. I also like this book because it contains no filler. This is important because time is money, especially for an attorney. The book gets to the point, and tells you what you need to know. Finally, the book is well-organized. Each chapter covers an individual type of software or hardware that an attorney can use in his practice. The organized structure of the book is important because it enables the reader to find the information he or she needs quickly. One does not have to read the book cover-to-cover in order to improve a law practice; if you already have a scanner, for example, you can skip over that chapter and learn more about smartphones instead.

Although this book is very well-done, and useful, to boot, it is not perfect. There are a few weaknesses, as well. As I mentioned, the glossary of terms is very helpful. However, it is hidden in the back of the book, without enough signposts to indicate its existence before you get to it. It would have been more helpful if the authors had placed the glossary at the beginning of each chapter in which the listed words would be used. (To get around this shortcoming, incidentally, I recommend that you skim through the glossary before reading the book. That way, you can gain some currency with the technical terms that will be used, and won’t waste time flipping through the pages later on.) Also, due to the dry subject matter, the book is not the most entertaining piece of literature out there. The few attempts at humor in the book fall flat. But, then again, you’re not buying this book to get a laugh; and, even though the subject matter may not interest us intrinsically, the information provided is still very important to attorneys. If used properly, the Guide will improve your practice and make your professional life easier, a byproduct of which will be the finding of more time in your personal life, for you and your family.

For these reasons, I do heartily recommend “The 2009 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide” to all solo attorneys and small firm practitioners.

It is Time to Listen: Podcasts That Help Your Practice

noreply@blogger.com (Rodney Dowell, Esq.) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:28:00 +0000

Attorneys often complain to me that they simply do not have time to read about new technology and keep up with the latest law practice management tips. I understand these time demands. However, there is little basis for that excuse anymore because there is a wealth of very informative free educational audio podcasts which you can listen to while you are on the road, working out, or while waiting for your child's race at the swim meet. My three favorite podcasts are The Digital Edge featuring Jim Calloway and Sharon Nelson, the Kennedy-Mighell Report featuring none other than Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell, and Lawyer2Lawyer featuring Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams.

As many of you know, Bob Ambrogi is a Massachusetts based attorney, blogger, and legal commentator. Lawyer2Lawyer is always excellent as it talks about topics ranging from "Chinese Drywall Litigation" to "Lawyers Advertising on Craigslist". When you want to learn, or listen, about law practice management, I turn to The Digital Edge produced by the American Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section. Jim Calloway, directs that Management Assistance Program for the Oklahoma Bar Association and writes Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog, where he always gives good advice for solo and small firm attorneys. Sharon Nelson founded a computer forensic and information technology company, Sensei Enterprises, Inc., and brings a wealth of technology knowledge to the podcast. The practical aspect of this podcast is displayed by the recent releases on finance, How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times, marketing, How to Select an S.E.O. Company, and law office management, Guide to Practice Management Software. Find all of these programs at The Digital Edge home page. For pure technology I like to listen to the Kennedy Mighell Report on LegalTalkNetwork (the same network that hosts Lawyer2Lawyer). Again, this is a podcast that actually talks about issues that face practicing attorneys. Recently, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell have spoken about Email Etiquette 2.0, What Technology is Dead Today? (and what is best for your firm), and
Lawyers and Smartphones.

I am looking forward to yet another program coming to LegalTalkNetwork from Adrianna Linares and Debbie Foster who will be discussing technology and tips that help the law practice. I have seen both give technology presentations and they are excellent. I am sure the podcast will also be excellent.

Just as an aside, while I dithered writing this blog several other folks have reviewed or listed favorite blogs. You can see that KCLL Klues also likes Lawyer2Lawyer and Kennedy-Mighell Report, and at The Legal Connection there is a review: LegalTypist Review: LawTalkNetwork podcast Lawyers and Smartphones .

Reduced Rate and Freight: Discounts for Attorneys on the Web

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:46:00 +0000

It used to be that frugality was a personality trait, sometimes much maligned, and looked down upon, better described as an unfortunate quirk. Listing as a worthwhile maxim was a shade above the derogatory, and tended toward characterization as a good. But, that’s all history now. In the depths of our current version of a great depression, frugality has become a necessity, even fashionable attire. The only way to get along in a new world in which wages are static, or lowering, while prices continue to rise, is to seek out bargains and discounts at all events, everywhere.

But, where is everywhere? Well, increasingly, “everywhere” becomes the world wide web. So, it will be my endeavor, herein, to provide you with a significant number of “bargain” and “discount” sites from across the web. Of course, my field is limited, since I could never, possibly, comb the entirety of the internet, as one person; but, I have had some help here, and I intend to provide as fulsome a review of discount and bargain sites, across several categories, as I can--let’s call it a start. Now, I have labeled these, in my title, discount websites “for attorneys”, and I have attempted to select websites offering discounts on products and services that are useful to attorneys. But, in point of fact, these websites are useful for all businesspersons, and, any persons, in fact, my love for “quotemarks”, this time around, notwithstanding.

But, as a solo or small firm attorney, in particular, with so many technology and business office supply needs, you must seek out, to find every available discount and price reduction that you can. (Do be careful, though, not to sacrifice quality. The goal here is to buy good stuff at a discount, not to buy cheap crap. You buy cheap, you buy twice.) In this economy, it is an extremely difficult endeavor to start a small business, especially to start a small law office, given all of the ethical and other special requirements bundled up within the establishment of the latter. But, smart attorneys will look for reduced rates whenever and wherever they can, because it is hard enough to start a law office as it is, and it’s only harder when you’re paying top shelf pricing at every instance.

Without further ado, then, let’s hit these categories running:

General Discounts. Let’s use the inverted pyramid method here, and start with the widest category of discounts, that being general product discounts, or general discounts. Ben ’s Bargains provides lots of primary searching options (types of deals, merchants, product categories, etc.) and even has a forums page, allowing for a bit of interactivity, and something like a viral vibe. The aptly-named Buy.com adds to the dealmania product news and reviews, offers the companion site BuyTV.com and has inexplicably hired noted germophobe Howie Mandel as pitchman, which I think counts as a blackmark, until I remember the genius that lay behind Bobby’s World. Dealighted.com provides forums, as well, a nifty price comparison tool and a “fresh deals” drop at the bottom of the homepage, which scrolls the newest deals added to the website. In addition to the previously mentioned sites, whereat you buy discounted products directly, there are also a couple of cool sites where you can print coupons or gain coupon codes, for check out from various stores or their websites. Try, for example, RetailMeNot.com and DealCoupon.com. In a similar coupon-y sort of vein, if you hate to pay for shipping, try FreeShippingOn.com, and never pay for shipping again. (That’s right, Shipping! How you like us now!! That’s what I thought.) Everybody knows about EBay.com: bidding for products and services posted by selling users as against purchasing users. Consider EBay a sort of sneaky way to get prices slashed on products you’d otherwise buy at full price, or at a lesser discount. Let me explain: in many cases, it’s much cheaper to buy a CD on EBay and burn it to your iTunes library than buying that album directly from iTunes or from a record store, if those still exist. And, if your tastes run to the obscure, as mine often do, you may pay less for an album on EBay than you would pay to buy a song or two from that album on iTunes. (Now I sort of feel like I’m giving away all my secrets; but, I guess I can’t stop now. I’m locked in . . . After all, we’ve only just begun.) Finally, with respect to these general discounts, note that you will (likely only for a limited time) be able to take advantage of Bill Gates’ generosity through Microsoft’s Cashback program by using Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine challenge to Google. Shopping through Bing will get you 1% to 5% off on specified purchases for as long as Microsoft continues to feel the need to bribe you to use Bing, over Google. (For more on Bing versus Google check out David Pogue’s excellent article on the topic in the New York Times and Bing versus Google: The Website, for a cool side-by-side comparison, and useful, new research technique.)

Technology. Thomas Edison had made certain that life in 2009 begins and ends with electrical cords. Gadgets for business and pleasure are all aimed after speed: increases in efficiency, meaning. Of course, all of this technology costs money (mostly because everybody really, really wants it, and thinks that they need it), and the question is how to get it cheaply. For mostly hardware, and some software, try CTIStore.com, which we frequently talk up here on the LOMAP side of town, especially so as the host of the perpetual Fujitsu ScanSnap discount. NewEgg.com, which could become a little bit like DeviledEgg.com if you don’t well control your technology shopping bug), provides hardware discounts, and nifty above-the-fold features, like the current “Shell Shocker”, and "What's Crackin'", like you’re talking to Little John or something. Geeks.com, short for ComputerGeeks.com, presents discounts on systems, hardware and software. They’re currently rocking a thirteenth anniversary sale. So, be there, or be square. For technology and office accessories, your discount source is Meritline.com, which features top products at reduced rates appearing on the stage of a non-nonsense interface. I mean, can you really say you’re getting the most out of your iPhone, if you can’t listen to your downloaded music in any car or spaceship in which you travel?

Business Printing. For your business printing needs, try VistaPrint.com, which offers free and premium (read: you gots to pay) business printing services. In addition to standard print service, VistaPrint also provides signage, creative and marketing services and business accessories. Foffi.com offers discount business card and other business printing. Foffi also provides web and graphic design services and marketing pieces as well as custom-made websites. There is some debate over which website is the cheaper one, but the answer to the question depends upon what you want to do and how you want to accomplish it. Price it out yourself, and see for yourself.

Design Projects. To connect directly with graphic designers, to pitch and price your graphic design project, try 99Designs.com or CrowdSpring.com. By establishing the price for your project, you’ll know exactly what you will end up paying for in the end. Plus, both sites give you full intellectual property rights in the final design.

Telephony. Kall8.com provides toll-free telephone service (800 and other such numbers) at a nominal monthly fee, with pay-as-you-go options for any minutes used. Kall8 combines traditional toll-free telephone service with online and online management features, and tracking tools. If you have too many phones ringing in too many places, take advantage of the free (for national calls) Google Voice service, which is the offspring of the former Grand Central service. Google Voice does more than just route numbers, however, as exhibited by an extensive list of features. For another option for free nationwide and inexpensive international calls, try the popular Skype.com, which also uses VoIP technology and available video features.

Travel. And, no, you shouldn’t pay the freight when you have to travel, either. For shorter trips, try Zipcar, for car sharing, representing an alternative to traditional rental car agreements. Zipcar’ll also cover your gas, and tolls, too; it’s all included. (Often, there's even an available iPod jack, as well.) For general travel deals try Orbitz.com (with price assurance and hovercraftiness), Hotwire.com and Expedia.com. These websites are, of course, pretty well known. For my money, though--keeping it in my pocket, that is, there are three surefire discount travel websites that my wife and I use (in combination) every time we travel. Captain James Tiberius Kirk has finally convinced me: not really negotiating, but naming your price, at Priceline.com, and seeing whether it takes, is a great way to get deep travel discounts, especially as you can categorize for classes (number of “stars” given) for services. Kayak.com, in addition to being an inexpensive way to travel in its own right, allows you to search the Kayak site for travel deals directly, or to use the Kayak site to aggregate results from Priceline, Hotwire, Expedia, Airfare.com and Travelocity.com, so that you can sift for the best deal across no less than six platforms. When you decide where you’re going and how you’re going to get there, the next step is making sure that you don’t get ripped off once you are there. The best way to assure that you are getting the most for your travel dollar, once you are traveling, is to see what those who have gone before you have to say. Visit TripAdvisor.com to get first hand accounts of trips past. TripAdvisor very rarely steers one wrong. I swear by it, never at it. Using these websites, my wife and I just booked an 8-day trip to Maui; and, no, I didn’t think I could afford it, either . . . I mean, these websites are great for business travel. Remember, too, to try your AAA discount for hotels, airfare and rentals. It’s likely the steepest, further discount available to you. I am always surprised by the fact that I very rarely do better than my AAA discount. All that, and they come find me when I run out of gas, too.

Health Insurance. The Massachusetts requirement is that all residents must have health insurance, or experience further unpleasantness upon taxing time; but, this is no magic wand waved. There are still many residents who cannot afford health insurance, as well as many business owners who cannot afford to pay for health insurance for their employees. The commonwealth intends to provide aid for both qualified employers and employees through its Insurance Partnership, an initiative to make health insurance more affordable for residents and resident businesses.

Member Benefits. Remember, finally, that membership has it privileges, even if you might have misplaced your Members Only jacket. You likely still belong to a bar association, or two or more. In addition to all of the value that a bar association membership carries with it (networking, CLE, leadership opportunities), all bar associations invariably try to draw members with packages of member benefits, that represent discounts on products and services across a spectrum of the useful for attorneys. Locally, check out the member benefits available through the Massachusetts Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association as well as through other local bar associations. Nationally, the American Bar Association makes available to its members a prodigious collection of specialty, discounted resources. Take advantage of everything that your bar association membership offers you. I bet that, in your review of the member benefits pages linked above, you will find a number of available benefits of which you were not yet aware.

. . .

I’m pretty proud, I must say, of keeping this one fairly short, what with all the information to be covered . . . Nah, just kidding. I know that I’m not your typical blogger (is this "macroblogging"?), and that I don’t really care about word counts. But, I defy you to tell me that you do not at least get your bang for your buck stopping here! In any event, there are far more online discounts and discount websites for attorneys and for the general public than I can ever hope to cover in this small sampling. For my part, I am sort of feeling like I am marking twain against this vast globe wide web, as innocent abroad.

Fortunately, I am not alone. Three gentlemen deserve a writing credit here, for the vast respective quantities of information they sent along in contribution to this post. Attorney Gabriel Cheong of Infinity Law Group (yes--the same Gabriel Cheong who just released his new prenuptial agreements website) and Attorney James Baron, through various emailed lists, provided me with most of the websites listed in this post. Thank you both very much, I am exceeding grateful. Once again, as well, I must also thank LOMAP Summer Intern Michael Pirrello for his research assistance.

I guess one lesson that we can take from all of this is that lawyers are cheap, but they can always be cheaper.

Two Market: More Marketing Plan Tips, from the Group

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 03:59:00 +0000

At my last post referencing topics covered during LOMAP’s inaugural Marketing Group, we reviewed some tips and tricks for the drafting of your marketing plan. This week, the LOMAP Marketing Group met to discuss marketing plan drafts that each member had derived. This being the anchor session of the first group of classes, we were fortunate to receive several thoughtful and well-constructed marketing plans. The discussion on plans presented, as well as on some more general marketing plan matters, was quite vibrant. So, piggiebacking on our last post in this vein, I thought it appropriate to add some quick pointers that were made during our last meeting, and that were not covered in my last post on this topic. Thanks for the substance of this post goes to the LOMAP Marketing Group members, who really came across with some excellent ideas and suggestions for attorneys seeking to draft their own marketing plans.

In the fashion of braindroppings, then:

--When doing your “Market Analysis”, look beyond your town, region and county. Great ideas and solutions don’t stop for manmade borders. The further out you look, the better sample you’ll get. This may allow you to jump your local competitors on trends that they may not know about yet. It will also give you a more holistic view respecting billing rates within your practice area(s). This will be especially important insight if you are one of few practitioners in your area specializing in a certain type of law. Your local sample size may be too small to give you a good read.

One important question respecting your marketing plan crafting, is “for whom” are you writing it:

--One group for which you are writing your marketing plan (as included within your business plan) are investors, the persons who can provide capital for your firm’s (initial) operations. The investor version of your marketing plan should focus on your current financial picture, and anticipated costs, which your hoped-for benefactor might fill. But, to think that you’re only drafting your marketing plan for investors is too limiting. You are also drafting your marketing plan for your clients and for your referral sources. Your elevator speech enters into your marketing plan as your objective section; so, it is easily drawn out again as your pitch. Your branding efforts are guided by your strategies, as outlined in your marketing plan. Reviewing and refreshing your marketing plan serves to refresh your elevator speech and brand, and vice versa. This is a collaborative-based relationship here, such that your marketing plan becomes a series of moving parts, that you may move in and move out, as you need them. Your marketing plan is, also, most obviously, drafted for you, as your planning document. Your attached goals and deadlines keep you on task, and on time. Thinking of your marketing plan as a one-use document will limit the effect that you get out of it; and, having worked hard to draft a compelling marketing plan, you should get everything that you can in return from it.

--It is also important to determine, through your marketing plan’s directives, who your good clients are and will be, and who your good referrers are and will be. If you have a specific target person, or group, in mind, it will allow you to refine your objective client beyond the conception of just aiming after some amorphous target market. The creation of a “client profile” (age, income status, location, needs, etc.) will help you to better determine who it is that fits your services and who it is that does not. This exercise will allow you to better understand exactly who it is that you are going after, adding some flesh to bones. Not only will this create some of that refinement within your direct marketing efforts; but, this exercise will also allow you to more finely craft your acceptable client description for your referral sources, whom you are training to send you the type of clients that you want. It can be useful, as well, to create a client profile, or profiles, for those types of clients that you do not want.

--An important question to ask yourself, in crafting your objectives, and in tweaking your elevator speech and presentation mode is: How do you pitch to non-legal crowds? While you cannot assume a lack of intelligence just because people are not attorneys, you must, nevertheless, think about ratcheting down your service descriptions, to make them understandable to the general public. Every profession has terms of art, and the law has quite a few, including some in Latin. So, you must be careful that, when you are speaking to those that do not have your professional experience, that you can make your professional experience understandable to the average person, or that you can communicate across professions, relaying similarities between your skill sets, and smoothing over differences, so that a connection may be built.

--The creation of a marketing plan may be more important for partnerships than for individual attorneys. If each partner is on the same page, and has helped in the creation of that page, it can only strengthen the partnership. An early allocation of responsibilities and expectations will serve to decrease disagreements and disfunction later. It is easy, over the course of time, for partners to lose sight of a common goal, in the onrush of day-to-day business activity. It is important, then, that partners attempt, at all events, to create a marketing plan early on in their partnership, when they do have the time to do so, before the workload ramps up. It is equally important that partners continue to review their marketing goals, not only to refresh their marketing platforms, but also to take the pulse on the state of their relationship. A partnership is much like a marriage, and can be equally emotional; the key to establishing a solid partnership, then, is much like the key to establishing a solid marriage: honest communication of expectations up front, and continuing, open communication throughout the relationship. Address contentious issues early on, and compromise now, instead of getting sucked into a stalemate later.

--The best marketing strategy may be: to do with your referral sources what you would do with your friends. Other attorneys are likely to refer you cases when they respect your acumen and understand exactly the sorts of services you provide, so that they can be sure that they are matching their referee’s needs. But, they’re more likely to refer you cases when they like you. Being informal, then, should not always be equated with being unprofessional. Sometimes, it is in the professional’s best interest to loosen up a bit. So, try a poker night, order pizza and have people over for the game, throw a Pampered Chef party. You’ll be surprised how many referrals develop when your referrers become your friends. Now, this does not mean that you should be fake about it. If you really don’t like someone, don’t force it. But, in time, professional associates often become friends. You’ll just be massaging the relationship is all.

These are certainly some excellent marketing/marketing plan tips from our Marketing Group. If you have any further tips that you’d like to share, please don’t hesitate to comment on this post.

In Memoriam. I’d be remiss if I did not pause for a moment to pay tribute to the musical career of the recently deceased Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson certainly had lingering issues from a difficult childhood that never dissipated, and that he could never quite outrun; but, whatever your feelings for Michael Jackson, the person, Jackson was, nevertheless, a gifted and brilliant performer. His death, at only 50 years old, represents the most shocking music-related passing since Kurt Cobain’s suicide, and ranks there alongside the assassination of John Lennon, the death of Elvis Presley, the death of Hank Williams and the plane crashes and car crashes involving Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (and almost Waylon Jennings) and Harry Chapin and Jim Croce.

From the 1979 release of “Off the Wall” through the 1991 release "Dangerous”, Jackson marshaled an unprecedented string of hits, revolutionized music video and became the most widely recognized performer in the world, before his career was effectively destroyed amid child sexual abuse allegations. For all his personal problems, Jackson’s legacy remains in the music for which he was responsible. I can honestly tell you that I listened to my Thriller cassette so often when I was a kid that I snapped the tape.

Michael Jackson had been a featured performer since the age of 8, singing lead for the Jackson 5 on such hits as “ABC”, “I Want You Back”, “Going Back to Indiana” and “Dancing Machine”. Jackson was a star in the Motown constellation, and moved from there to create his own pop revolution. His first several solo albums were produced on Motown, but it was after Jackson left the Motown label that he became a superduperstar. From “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough” and “Rock With You” to “Thriller” and “Beat It” to "We Are the World" to “Bad” and “The Way You Make Me Feel” to “Black or White” and “Remember the Time” to duets with Paul McCartney, to punk remakes of his hits, and parodies, too, to his ownership of the Beatles catalogue, Jackson’s influence on popular music cannot be understated.

Jackson’s relevance had been continually sliding for the better part of two decades. Yet, his death, although a truly sad event, does place in stark relief the tremendous importance and vaulting majesty of his music.

OMG! This is Gr8!!: Predictive Texting

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 13:28:00 +0000

Even here in 2009, not everyone has a PDA. And, until PDAs are shrunk to nanochippy size, and embedded in our skulls, not everyone with a PDA will have access to their PDAs all of the time. Some folks, even, have, and prefer to have, in some cases, those old-fashioned cell phones with the 12-digit keypads. Remember those? I do. And, I remember Zack Morris, too. Do you?

Despite the ubiquity of internet email access and QWERTY keyboards, either on-device or on screen, there are times when a full keyboard is not available for mobile access. And, What do you do then? Using traditional multi-tap systems to toggle through the number pad options to type out messages can sink your speed. Is there a way to approximate the speed with which you type on a QWERTY keyboard using text, and be faster than everyone?

There sure is. Predictive texting is a method for text that allows you to type full words without toggling through each of the letter choices represented by each number. For example, instead of hitting 2 twice, then 8 twice, then 7 three times, then 6 twice, in order to spell “burn”, instead use predictive text, and hit 2-8-7-6; if “burn” does not appear following your typing (although it should), toggle through the word options until you find it. Reducing your number of keystrokes reduces the amount of time you spend tapping and texting. Predictive text basically works by making educated guesses as to the word that you are intending to type, while still allowing you the option to find or to spell alternate options, such that you are not confined to the system’s best guess. The principle, of course, is that the best guess will be the right guess, most of the time. If you add a word completion function to the predictive text format, the system will attempt to guess the word that you are spelling before you have completed entering all of your letter keys. If the system has correctly guessed your word before you complete it, you may move immediately to your next word. If there are several words that could be formed from your keystroke entry, the predictions will begin, in alphabetical order, for your scrolling; but, the more you text, the more the system will know about you, such that, if there is a word that you frequently use, it will default to that word as your first option, rather than the first word appearing in alphabetical order. Some systems even include a next word completion feature, wherein, if, in your writing, one word typically follows another word, the predictive text system will automatically predict your first word, and the following word, or the remainder of your sentence. Doesn’t this make you want to turn your cellphone into a little pocket Nostradamus, too.

Of course, predictive texting is not perfect. There is the issue of “textonyms”, subtly referenced above, which textonyms occur when two or more words will fit into a completed number set entry. This forces you to toggle through a series of potentially fitting words, until you find the one that you really wish to use, if the system has not immediately guessed your intent. And, on occasion, gibberish finds its way into the associated program dictionaries (although not every program uses an associated dictionary), so that misspellings become acceptable (i.e.--guessable) terms. However, these issues are merely nuisances, which may easily be fixed. If you find a gibberish term or a misspelling as an accepted form, you need only choose the “spell” option, and return to multi-tap usage, in order to complete your word. And, as with email, you should make sure, anyway, that you proofread any text before you send it, so that you can replace misspelled words or gibberish, and so that you are not broadcasting a misunderstanding.

In general, though, predictive texting is easy to use, and many newer keypad cellphones default to the option. If you haven’t used predictive text before, turn the option on, or try it for the first time. A few run-throughs should be all that you need to get it down. And, if you have a deeper interest in the concept of predictive text, check out the Wikipedia article, covering the topic, and which I’ve referenced here and there above. Man, I love Wikipedia. I swear, God created Wikipedia and the History Channel so that men could have something to do when they aren’t watching sporting events.

Whether you’re texting your kids to find out when they’ll be getting out of soccer practice, or texting your secretary to let her know that you are running late for a client meeting, predictive text can speed your process and save you time.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must reveal something further of my motivation for the drafting of this post . . . Certainly, I wish to help you to become more efficient, so that you can save time and money and so that you can spend more time with your family, and all that good stuff. But, in point of fact, I am here trading on the knowledge of my 17-year-old sister-in-law. And, this is why, when people complain to me of the cost of IT, I tell them that they can rid themselves of a lot of the soft costs for technology by stopping their reliance upon training and support, and by trying to figure things out for themselves first, or asking a high schooler that they know if they can’t figure it out on their own. Most of this stuff is intuitive nowadays, and it’s just a matter of practice and familiarity to get it. So, How did I find out about the predictive text feature on my cellphone? Father’s Day, I was sitting with my sister-in-law, who turned to me and said, “How is it possible that you text so slowly?”

Ever since I’ve been using this predictive text, though, strange things have started happening to me. I mean, I downloaded the new Jonas Brothers song yesterday. (It’s about time they let Nick carry lead vocals. He’s the real talent in the band.) And, I think my dad may be a werewolf, too.

Marshalling a Plan: Creating Your Marketing Plan for Action and Follow-Through

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:16:00 +0000

In this, our third of six installments covering the series of topics generated for, and expanded upon during, LOMAP’s very first Marketing Group sessions, we’ll review some tips and considerations for the drafting of a marketing plan.

And, as the title of this post might suggest, this is not just about drafting a marketing plan, and putting it into a lockbox somewhere, never to be addressed again. This post will underscore the importance of creating a finely-tailored, well-researched, living, breathing marketing plan. Now, what those categorizations come to mean will be laid out more fully below; but, suffice it to say, for now, that if you slap together a marketing plan without deviating overmuch from a template, don’t do any market research and then never look at your draft again until it is covered in dust, or when you’re moving your office, or when you retire, you haven’t quite done enough. So, let’s figure out, together, how you can create a great marketing plan, that is continually usable, and that can drive your practice forward.

Previously, in this series, we’ve covered the importance of developing a pitch-perfect elevator speech. And, this was not by accident. We have processed chronologically here on purpose, because each of our prior project topics will help you in some way/will allow you to save yourself some time, in the creation of your marketing plan. Your elevator speech is not just another brick (actually, it is a cornerstone, I should say; but, that doesn’t involve a cool link out) in the construction of your marketing plan. Your elevator speech is not just a truncated selling tool for quick uses; its effectiveness is also judged through its repurposing, via your marketing plan. Your elevator speech, if constructed properly, defines what you do and defines the services that your business provides. It allows you to trace the purposes of your business, and to define its meanings. Tweaked slightly, it becomes the objective section of your business plan, and so guides what you set down as your intentions for your firm. Your elevator speech, reconstructed, then, also becomes the rudder for your marketing plan, as well, and provides anchored guidance for all of your marketing efforts. Repurposed, it provides a generalization of your marketing focus, so that everything you do returns you to what the point was to begin with, once more.

Likewise, your brand research, and brand creation, which topic we addressed at our last writing in this series, inure further to your benefit at the time of the creation of your marketing plan. We are talking more repurposing here, such that you can save yourself heaps of time in drafting your marketing plan, if you have done your due diligence, and if you have appropriately put in your time, ahead of time. When you set about creating your brand, you determined what is/what would be your target market. This is also a substantial step for creating your marketing plan; but, since you have already done the work in preparing your brand, you need not do it again, unless you want to take the time to take a look at refreshing, or resetting, a pre-existing, older brand. Your marketing plan should also include within it your conception of the perception of your services; and, that perception should not only match what you believe that it is that you present of your services to the public, but it should also match the actual perception of the public, as to their belief in what your firm does, and can do, as well as how it does it. You must be careful, in the creation and maintenance of your brand, that you not only have a clear understanding of what your brand is, but that your clients are also getting the message: that your perception of your brand matches their perception of your brand. If you have done your market research, and have been precise in the creation of your brand, you won’t need to reinvent the wheel when grafting a description of an understanding of your services onto your marketing plan; and, the stated perception you choose then should match what your clients see.

So, this is much less daunting now, no? If you’ve followed these posts chronologically, and have done what may have appeared to be disparate tasks as you went along, you’ll have finished off a good deal of your marketing plan requirements by taking the time to fine-tune your elevator speech, and to define your brand.

But, there is a threshold question here, as well; and, that is: Why even create a marketing plan in the first place? Why is it so important? Well, I’m glad you asked. The creation of a marketing plan is important for a number of reasons, which are to be described below. First, your marketing plan will allow you to integrate your total marketing efforts. If you are without a plan, your marketing efforts are likely to be sporadic and disjointed. A football team would not enter a game without a playbook; neither should you enter the market without a marketing plan. Your marketing plan will allow you to, and, in some cases, will force you to, take a systematic approach, which sort of approach is essential if you wish to promote yourself in a consistent and coherent way. Second, your marketing plan will require you to act. Establish time frames and deadlines for your marketing forays. Calendar deadlines, marketing events, release dates and review dates. Not only will this force you to act upon your goals in a timely fashion; but, it can also serve to create staggered, periodic review sessions for your individual marketing platforms. Is your yellow pages ad getting you your required return on investment? Schedule for yourself a review of the effectiveness of that strategy before you have to renew. Lawyers function under deadline; it is the nature of the profession. As a solo or small firm attorney, you must add to your stream of deadlines administrative matters, like the review of your marketing position. Third, the creation of your marketing plan will force you to establish clear goals and objectives for your marketing platform. A clear plan has an end at its beginning; as the saying goes, plan with the end in mind. People generally work best when they are working toward specific goals; and, lawyers are generally more goal-oriented, and goal-driven, than most people are. If you establish your goals at the outset, and provide yourself a schemata under which to work forward, you are much more likely to achieve what you set out to achieve. Your marketing plan, like your resume before and your business plan after, must contemplate an “Objectives” section. Fourth, your marketing plan will allow you to control costs. Certain methods of advertising are expensive, and your outlays can quickly get out of hand if you do not tie your marketing plan to a specific and separate budget. Limit what you can spend, to limit what you will spend. Even if you make adjustments to ratchet up your marketing spending, you will nonetheless be working from a cap, which is more likely to keep you in line, or closer to the line, than would be the case if you had not established some level to begin with. Fifth, your marketing plan will allow you to vet your clientele. If you create a marketing plan that establishes, and aims for, a clear target, you are more likely to hit that target. You will find that, if your perception of your services and your clients’ perception of your services match, that you will be seeing more of the clients that you want, and less of the clients that you don’t. If your marketing plan truly reflects your business, your clients will be filtered naturally, and you will have to waste less time vetting clients on the back end, and listening to stories that you really can’t help in writing. And, this is true of both direct clients and referred clients; referring attorneys are more likely to send you the sorts of clients that you want if they happen to know the sorts of clients that you want. Sixth, and this bears repeating, a marketing plan will provide you with instances for periodic effectiveness reviews, and not only with respect to the calendaring of deadlines, including quality check opportunities. Since your marketing plan is a written document, the establishing of revision deadlines can be a beneficial way to move your plan forward. The process of providing critical commentary, the dropping of ineffective promotion methods, the adding of potentially effective promotion methods and the general review of the holistic scheme, to determine its general effectiveness, and to get after your return on investment, may all be substantial goals accomplished through a redraft of your marketing plan. You change, the world changes and technology changes; your marketing plan should change also, along with them all.

When you determine that yes, you do need a marketing plan; and, when you begrudgingly determine that yes, you must take the time to draft said marketing plan, you’ll need to consider how to put it all together. So, to that end, we’ll move here toward a discussion of, first, what you should consider before you draft a marketing plan, and, second, what you should include within your marketing plan.

Before you draft a marketing plan, you must have some idea of what it is that you are marketing and how it will be that you will market it. So, sit down and brainstorm. Determine what your services are, and how you will communicate to your clients and to your referral sources what it is that you do, and how you do it. (Again, if you’ve already created an elevator speech and a brand, you’ll have an easier time, because you know what your services are, how you see them and how everybody else sees them. If not, you have a bit more work to do.) The second piece of brainstorming should strike how you will go about getting the word out. Will you be using more traditional forms of marketing, or more modern, more viral formats? How much time will you spend networking and how will you network (online or face-to-face, or a hybrid of both)? In which marketing and networking options will you choose to invest your time? How will you manage your time, such that you will not become overwhelmed by the choices available to you, and such that you will have enough remaining time for your various other duties? These are threshold determinations that will affect your time management until such time as you get back around to reviewing your initial marketing plan. So, take the time to consider your options fully, at first, so that you do not quickly become overwhelmed. To provide a construct, or returning point, for your initial considerings, keep before your mind the Four “P”s. This concept of the Four “P”s was introduced in this thoughtful article; and, although I am generally repulsed by cutesy things like this, keeping in mind your Ps (save your Qs) will provide you with continual reference to four of the most important marketing plan concepts. The first “P” stands for “product”: What are your (legal) services, that you provide? The second “P” stands for “price”: Is your price competitive in the market, relative to your experience? Have you established a price ceiling and a price floor, rather than a stricter, or one-price-fits-all model? Do you attempt, to the extent possible, to determine your clients’ ability and willingness to pay prior to commencing representation? The third “P” stands for “place”: Where are you? Where are your clients? Does your Boston office put off your suburban clientele? Where do you advertise? Does your ad in the Newton Tab reach your clients in Salisbury? The fourth “P” stands for “promotion”, of your services: What methods, or advertising strategies, will you use to reach your market? Beyond the Ps and questions, there are several more quick pointers that will be useful for your consideration as you move to your first draft of your marketing plan: Make sure that your plan is a living document. Establish daily review of your plan’s effectiveness, or, at least, review upon intervals, and at material changes to business. In this way, your document will live, in that it will evolve with you and your firm, such that, at any point, your marketing plan will reflect the current needs of your firm. The only way you can make your marketing plan so effective is by paying attention to its relevance, continually. Tie your marketing plan to your business plan. Your marketing strategy, and implementation of that strategy, is an integral part of the running of your business; make it officially so, by grafting your marketing plan upon your business plan. Establish time frames and deadlines within your marketing plan, and carry that concept over to your business plan, such that you are continually working toward your goals, and are continually motivated to do so, by those pleasant reminders. Finally, remember that your elaborate marketing plans will not all find success, neither will all of your grand schemes work overnight. Give your plan some time to work, and stick with your promotional choices until it becomes obvious that certain options are not working. Give yourself and your plan some time to work things out.

This has all been a long, long, long introduction to putting pen to paper, or keystroke to computer screen. Now, when you have done all your homework, like good boys and good girls, and are ready to sit down and put this sucker together, there is the question of what inclusions are absolutely necessary to carry off the successful drafting of a marketing plan. As we’ve hinted at throughout this piece, it is essential that you commit to writing Clear Objectives and Goals: provide yourself something to work toward. If you are fortunate enough to be able to hire marketing personnel, or if you have administrative staff, or partners, consider parsing responsibility, and allocating specific duties to specific persons, preferably duties that are within the peculiar skill sets of the assignees. Several heads being better than one, if you assign correctly, you should be able to accomplish severalfold more work together than separately. In addition to establishing goals, consider how those goals will be achieved: What will be your Specific Strategies? Include within your marketing plan a key, or essential, strategies section. What marketing tools will you use to achieve your objectives? There are several categories of marketing and networking tools. To get you started, I have derived five general options (not an exhaustive list), for which subcategories may gather under. Those general, strategic propositions are, as follows: paid advertising (print and online), publicity (interviews given; articles written about; referrals made to, etc.), direct mail/direct email (targeted mailing; Constant Contact or iContact, for email), other internet/web marketing (for free or cheap: website; blogging; social media marketing) and community involvement (or, targeted volunteerism; for lawyers’ groups and for the general public). Regardless of how well your objective is formed and despite how well-crafted your strategic initiatives are, neither will mean a thing unless you reach your potential clients and your potential referral sources. But, to reach your target market, you must find out, first, who they are, and, only second, how to reach them. If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound? If your message reaches the wrong market, is it heard? And, you can’t expect your target market to find you. So, your marketing plan must include a Market Analysis. Your assignment in finding your target market is grounded in research, research and more research. Google competitors. Talk to friends. Attend CLEs and other events. Talk to your family. Gather disparate pieces of information, and find the common threads. Only with hard work will you be able to determine who your potential clients and referral sources are, and where they hang out. When you are researching your market, take into account, as well, your competition. There are two sorts of competitors to watch out for: direct competitors and indirect competitors. Direct competitors provide the same service that you do, in the same market and in the same place. Indirect competitors provide the same services, but in a different market, or in a different place. The main reason for researching competitors to begin with (and another good reason to keep tabs on them going forward) is to allow you to make a determination respecting the reasonability of your pricing structure. If you’re too high, you’ll price yourself out of the market; if you’re too low, you’ll never be respected as a legitimate service provider. The only way that you find that range that becomes your own moving target is by keeping tabs on what others are doing. You should also review the processes and methods of your competitors in order to determine, by comparison, the general effectiveness of your own. You may check your competitors, as well, to make sure that you are offering the full range of services available in your industry, or field. Keeping an eye on your competitors may also mean that you spot market trends that you might have missed the first time around. More generally speaking, keeping tabs on business innovation and industry trends across markets can provide you a competitive advantage, in that you may discover and apply the next buzzword generating process before others of your direct competitors, which application may resonate deeply with clients and potential clients, as you are painted as innovative entrepreneur. But, you can’t do everything that you want to do. Regardless of the numerosity of your great ideas, you will always be constrained by resources, both money and personnel. Therefore, it is essential that you attach to your marketing plan a Marketing Budget. Overruning wildly on marketing expenses, especially for a small, or start-up, firm can be hemlock. This is not some wild rumpus; there must be a cost-benefit analysis made, and determined, initially, as a proposed budget-educated guess, which will be refined and sharpened over time. Neither is this whittling or fishing. You must continue to push effective ideas, pull ineffective strategies and endeavor to discover new effective and innovative strategies. But, a bad idea is not going to tug at your shirtsleeve, and be like, “Hey, Um . . . I suck.” No. You’ve got to establish Time Tables and Deadlines for your marketing endeavors. And this means, as we’ve touched upon previously, that you must schedule time to review the effectiveness of your strategies, to determine whether what you are doing is working, which, meaningfully, means that you look to scrap what is not working, keep or refine what is working and add what should be working, for you. The creation of deadlines will also force your action. So, calendar your reviews, and treat them as true milestone pillars. Refresh your marketing plan from time to time. In this way, it will truly become a living document, and will move fluidly, as your business does. The only way that you can create a truly flexible marketing plan is by rigorously applying your time standards and review deadlines. And, bear in mind that your initial timing decision may be one of your most important. The determination to enter the marketplace as a going concern, as a competitive business entrant, must be grounded in your preparation, such that you can hit the ground running, and express your confidence and ability to those persons to whom you must sell your services.

Keeping in mind the importance of an entrance, and understanding that we must plan to begin with the end in mind, some hybrid of that combination means that it is important to know where to end; and so, our formal discussion covering the how-to’s of drafting a marketing plan terminates here.

If you like what you’ve seen here, and you’ve found this discussion valuable to your practice, you may also wish to access some of the resources that I have referenced in order to construct this post:

A short(er) and sweet list from the Australian government is, nevertheless, quite effective in getting some excellent marketing plan drafting tips across, which just goes to show that you don’t have to write a 4,000 word blog to make a point. A fulsome post by John Remsen, of the Remsen Group, represents a high level discussion of marketing plans for attorneys. Paula Black’s “Every Attorney Needs a Marketing Plan” just about says it all, and provides seven tips for getting started. Susan Ward of the Great White North, eh, provides some excellent general marketing plan advice in this article, which features many valuable links out; and, while this article features general business advice, the tips can easily be turned to a lawyer’s use. As I mentioned above, I totally stole the “Four Ps” from Laura Lake, which is not a place, but who is a person, a person who is a guide up the marketing plan mountain. Laura talks about the Four Ps, and other marketing Ps (pointers), in this article.

I am, once again, indebted to LOMAP Summer Intern Michael Pirrello, for his research assistance. I don’t do any of my own research anymore. God. September is going to suuuuck.
If you’ve read down this far, I feel sort of obligated to produce some sage advice of some kind to wrap things up, or to unwrap things apart, in this case . . . As a wise man once said: “If you don’t know where you’re goin’, any road’ll take you there.” Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.

LOMAP Offers Free Online CLE Covering Compliance with Massachusetts Data Privacy Act

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:11:00 +0000

LOMAP, the Massachusetts Bar Association and Catuogno Court Reporting have made available a free set of videos covering compliance with the Massachusetts Data Privacy Act, which will take effect on January 1, 2010.

The videos, available here, feature LOMAP Director Rodney Dowell’s review of the regulations and HyTech Management President and CTO Mark Kupsc on compliance with the new requirements. The tandem presentation provides a look at overview and implementation through the unique perspectives of a practice management expert and an IT professional.

The program was originally recorded on March 20, 2009, as the “Compliance with the New Privacy Regulations” session of the MBA’s Legal Technology Expo.

LOMAP would like to thank Catuogno Court Reporting, especially founder and CEO Ray Catuogno and Director of Legal Division & Sales Dean Whalen, for funding the recording, editing and hosting of these videos, which have been made available for free as a service to Massachusetts attorneys. LOMAP also wishes to thank Wayne Martin and his staff, from National Video Reporters, Inc., who actually accomplished the filming and post-production of the videos.

After watching the videos, you’ll likely feel a whole lot better about the new data privacy regulations. Well, you’ll feel a little bit better. . . . Well, you’ll understand them better. Hopefully.

And, if you can’t quite get enough of the regulations, and this has only whet your appetite for more, well, you’ll be pleased to know that there is, yes . . . more, as follows: If you want to download the Powerpoint presentations you see on the screen during the videos, head over to this site, which includes downloadable versions of those presentations, as well as all of the other materials submitted for the MBA’s Legal Technology Expo, held this immediate March. If you’re looking for the source: check the text of the act itself; the relevant statutes: here and here; the Code of Massachusetts Regulations section; and, further guidance from the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation. In addition to the state laws and produced guidance, we have made several compliance-based posts at the LOMAP blog; and, those posts are available here, here, here and here. For a revised version of our original Powerpoint covering the regulations, and created for a recent presentation at the Plymouth County Bar Association, visit this website. Finally, for compliance updates, check Mark Kupsc’s blog and Massachusetts compliance center.

And, I know, I know, the effective date for the regulations has been pushed back before. But, even if they’re pushed back again, isn’t it better to know them now, and to begin to comply. These regulations will not be put off forever, and it’s a sight better to comply now, than to scramble, in complying later, under the heat of a shortening deadline. But, if all this stuff is making your head spin, stop and think on it for awhile. And, if you’re still stuck, give us a call.

Brand Oh!: Making a Stellar Name for Yourself, or Your Firm

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:30:00 +0000

For the second of our envisioned six installments in our marketing series, that will track the topics and developments of LOMAP’s inaugural marketing group, we present, for your enjoyment, a discussion of law firm branding.

Branding is as important for law firms (small firms and solo attorneys included) as it is for any other business. When it’s a hot summer day, and you’re thirsty, and you walk into a 7-Eleven, with that prominent 7 intersecting Eleven logo on the sign, and you’re checking out the cooler, which soda are you most likely to buy? Chances are you’re reaching for the Coca-Cola before you grasp after the Royal Crown Cola, or any of these. I know I am. There is nothing quite like a Coke. I still get excited when I am in the Midwest, and can find Coke in bottles. I am guaranteed to overpay for them. Guar-own-teed.

And the reason I buy a Coke is not that Coke necessarily tastes better than other soda; and neither is it because I necessarily prefer Coke to any other soda. No. It’s because Coke has become synonymous with soda, globally. In fact, in some parts of the South, the term “Coke” is used for soda, such that you could order a 7Up Coke, if you wanted a 7Up. Sounds crazy, I know; but, it’s true. I still haven’t figured the popularity for “tonic” over soda in certain parts of the Summaville, though.

And, although Coke has a checkered past (cocaine being prominently featured in the original recipe; helping to make sulry, ol’ misanthropic Ty Cobb rich; New Coke, the soft drink equivalent of the Edsel), Coca-Cola has done a lot of things right, not the least of which is that bringing to our minds of the image of a bottle of Coca-Cola whenever we hear the word soda.

This blog post is not all about Coke, I promise you; but, the example of Coca-Cola is instructive for attorneys: being the most recognizable brand in a field (in the world) is some kind of aspirational goal; and, through the strength of the example, it is one that persons can easily grasp and understand the application of. If you practice family law, with a concentration in divorce, be the Coca-Cola of divorce attorneys, as crass as it sounds. You want to make as certain as possible that attorneys referring cases and clients thinking of divorce find their immediate way to a picture of you appearing in their minds. Although there is no substitute for a global enterprise, and for the truckloads of cash that come with it, that the Coca-Cola company has access to, you can still map the Coke pattern for success, while remembering that even Coca-Cola had to start somewhere. So, brand yourself the way Coke does: define your service; define the client perception of your service; produce a consistent message; use constant reinforcement to, um, reinforce your message.

Now, a brand does not pop out of thin air. Neither the familiar Coke logo, with script letters and streaking flourish, nor the Nike swish, was dropped from the heavens, like manna. And, furthermore, the gaining of the additional heft those brands have taken on within the public imagination meant additional, and hard, work. So, there are some preliminaries here, even before you start marketing your brand. Before you create a brand, you have to know what you have/what you do/what you offer. You can’t intelligibly relay your services in a meaningful way to your potential clients, and.the public at large, and referring attorneys, if you don’t yourself know what your services are. (Incidentally, this is one of the reasons why it is so important to create a thoughtful business-teamed-with-marketing-plan, and to craft and perfect a winning elevator speech. The exercise and application of these tools will create much of the background that you will require for determining your brand.) Figure out what it is that you are known for: What is the matter of your renown? Determine your services, determine how you will uniquely offer your services and determine to whom you will offer your services/who has interest in your services. The word “determination” is used intentionally, with a couple senses of its meaning intact: you must determine how your business will proceed, and you must be determined in applying your business decisions. Many attorneys starting out solo or starting out small may feel overwhelmed and underqualified; but, these attorneys must, at all costs, and nonetheless, avoid the appearance of a lack of confidence, as this will permeate everything that they do, and as this will be apparent to observers, like clients, potential clients and referring attorneys. After about the first year of law school, you know the law, and you know how to write and talk like a lawyer. Don’t let your self-perceived lack of experience drag you down. You will grow in competency; your confidence should always be with you. And, part of that confident manner must attach to the selling of specific and unique services, if you have your own firm.

Once you have established your niche, and have become aware of the unique services that you provide, the next step is to create your brand, which will be, in essence, the public perception of what you do/what your firm is, as those considerations may meld, and become synonymous, over time. Branding is all about perception. So, to begin the process of creating your brand, you must figure out what the public perception of your services is. Once you determine what the existing perception is, consider whether it is line with what you think your services mean. If your perception of what your business is and the public’s perception of what your business is are out of wack, you have some work to do. If you are starting out, you are in a position to create a perception to relay to the public. This is a unique opportunity. It is much easier to spend the time and energy creating a brand before your client load becomes heavy enough that marketing and brand creation may appear as uniquely disquieting 800 pound gorilla s sitting in your office chairs, staring at you across the desk, unshakeable annoyances, necessary for your firm’s growth, yet near impossible for the finding of the appropriate amount of time for devotion.

In either case, whichever scenario you find yourself presently attached to, your marketing efforts must be grounded in planning. Your brand creation, as part of your marketing plan, as part of your business plan, should be an intentional, logical strategy. Your brand creation process should begin, and should be grounded in, market research. Create some branding options (descriptions, logos, elevator speeches) and query friends, colleagues, more senior attorneys, current clients, potential clients. Survey your support system and your market (your market includes current clients (some of your best referrers), potential clients and colleagues (who will refer cases to you)) in order to determine which brand options create client perceptions that match what your own perceptions of your business are, or what your own perceptions are of what your business should be, and should offer. (For free and easy online survey creation and results aggregation, check Survey Monkey.) Once you have collected your survey results, use those, as well as a dose of your good common sense, to select the brand components that fit you best, and that will be your best relay for your public perception.

Once you’ve settled upon a brand, the fun part becomes the dropping of that brand upon the wider world. This is what you have been waiting for. By now, you’ll have your firm name, logo, tagline and marketing statements, including your elevator speech, in place. (If you are to art what Billy Carter was to first brothers, you may want to stick to homebrewing, and farm out your logo design. A great place to get a good logo on the cheap is through CrowdSpring.com.) But, since you’ve done all this hard work, there’s no sense in wasting it, by misusing it; and, the trick to implementing and developing a successful brand is maintaining your consistent use of that brand teamed with repetition of your brand components. In the small words, your brand should be the same and your brand should be here, there and everywhere. So, place consistent and repetitive brand markings on your website, stationery, business cards, email signatures, voicemail recordings and shave your firm logo into your dog. (That last one was just a test, your dog doesn’t want to market for you. Trust me.) If your research was dead-on, your potential clients’ and referral sources’ perception of your services should be the same as your own. You’ve eliminated confusion, and replaced it with precision.

Having a brand is nice, and displaying that brand for the world to see is nice, too. But, you must not forget that the development of that brand is the integral part of gathering success. You must work to promote your brand, and put the time and effort necessary into the development and use of a continuing pitch. But, be patient, if your efforts do not pay off immediately. This is a growth business. Let your brand breathe, let it grow. Whenever and wherever you are marketing yourself, carry your brand with you. Wear it on your chest as a sheriff’s badge, as it can serve much the same function: people will understand that you mean business, that this is what you do, that this is how you do it and that you do it well. There should be the same immediacy and recognition emanating from both presentation scenarios. When you walk into a room, your potential clients and potential referral sources must know that the sheriff is near. And, on that score, of doing it well: your brand can only really be as successful as the service you provide behind it, that you back it up with. You must build your clients’ confidence in your service, such that your brand becomes synonymous with that confidence. It is essential, then, that you don’t overpromise, and that you follow through on what it is that you do promise. You must make your brand a true service mark, if you wish for it to carry real meaning.

When you begin to consider the making of your, or your firm, brand, you need not reinvent the wheel, entirely; perhaps you’ll only need to place a new, shiny hubcap. To that end, there are a number of good examples of firms that have created successful brands, and that you may view as templates for creating your own brand. Some exemplars are as follows: Lubin & Meyer, P.C., for medical malpractice; Joel H. Schwartz, P.C., for personal injury; Lando & Anastasi, LLP, for patent/intellectual property; Breakstone, White & Gluck, P.C., for personal injury/medical malpractice; and, Kelsey & Trask, P.C., for family law/bankruptcy.

In addition to the sampling of sites above, there are also a number of general online resources available covering the topic of law firm branding. A Google search will likely reveal more than you can handle. And, if you don’t want to trouble yourself, check the following resources: this 2003 article from Dennis Kennedy contains a number of valuable links, many of which are still active, over five years later; Terry Isner provides a thoughtful take on brand creation; Bob Weiss covers the importance of the firm logo in a recent article; this decade-old review of the effectiveness of law firm branding, from Altman Weil, Inc., is nonetheless still relevant; this article presents a take on law firm branding from a marketing professional; here’s a modern take on law firm branding, including a bit on the intersection of law firm branding and the elevator speech; this transcript of a roundtable on law firm branding is great, and includes a bunch of excellent web resources; the ABA’s tome on “How to Build a Law Firm Brand” is available as a PDF for a reasonable outlay at the ABA’s webstore; and, the Brand Channel is a great, general resource, for lawyers, and everybody else, too.

Another brand I like is the brand of southern rock that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, as well as Tom Petty sans the Heartbreakers, have been providing to good Americans everywhere since 1976. Petty and the band have been doing it since before I was born; and, just when you think they’ve had it, there’s another great album in the offing, like 2006’s "Highway Companion". Only the waiting, for the next one, is the hardest part. Most everyone knows the hits; but, there are so many great Tom Petty songs that have flown under the radar, that might have made the greatest hits albums of lesser artists. A generous sampling of undercover gems include: “California”, “You Wreck Me”, “All the Wrong Reasons” and “Zombie Zoo”. If you want a real treat, grab 1995’s “Playback” box set, containing unreleased songs and rarities, like the great acoustic live version of ”King’s Highway”, the demo version of “The Apartment Song” (featuring Stevie Nicks) and the delightful “Heartbreaker’s Beach Party”. Yeah. And, don’t forget about “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”, a greatest hits inclusion (exclusive to the greatest hits album), and one of the best videos ever, incidentally. Mr. Lewchik loves Tom Petty; and, if it’s good enough for Mr. Lewchik, it’s good enough for you. O K.

Great thanks goes to LOMAP’s Summer Intern, Michael Pirrello, who compiled research for just about every section of this post, save for the Tom Petty paragraph, which research I have been compiling for over twenty years.

iGoogle, You Google, We All Scream for Google: Open Your Google Toolbox

noreply@blogger.com (Jared Correia) — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:25:00 +0000

Seriously. Everybody uses Google, to the point that the verb “Google” has entered the lexicon as modern slang for performing an online search. But, there are far more Google Tools available than just the search website.

If you only use Google for search, you’ll be stunned, amazed and impressed (too over-the-top a description?--well, you may be the judge) over the amount of the robust Google tools available to you. Not only are most of these tools free, and generally useful, but it is not hard to make the imaginative leap as to how many of these resources can be made applicable to your practice life.

The College@Home Blog has a really tremendous post on 57 must-have Google tools.

If you have a short attention span, some of the highlights (as well as some additions), are as follows:

GMail. GMail is Google email. There are a ton of helpful features on GMail that allow you to use the program as a primary or secondary email account. GMail has tons of storage space: unless you’re scanning and attaching to emails the collections of the Library of Congress, you should be good. Conversation aggregation allows you to more easily track email threads. GMail also offers a robust search feature for finding lost or mislaid emails and email topics. GMail can also be integrated with the Google calendaring system, which comes complete with reminder options.

iGoogle. iGoogle allows you to create, in no time flat, your own Google homepage. You can send to this page, for your easy access, your GMail account, your Calendar and your favorite blog feeds. iGoogle is a great way (and an alternative to another Google product, the Google Reader) to organize your favorite blawgs, and to read new posts on your time, and at your leisure.

Google Maps. Google Maps is the website for accessing driving directions. Never visited a certain Registry of Deeds and need to find the quickest route from your office? All you need is a beginning and ending address to check Google Maps. It also works great on the run as an iPhone or as a Blackberry app. Never be lost . . . or be lost less.

GOOG-411. Don’t waste money dialing 411 anymore. Instead, dial GOOG-411. Google’s by-phone information service is free, and saves the nickel-and-diming expense of calling traditional 411. Google’s system is “manned” entirely by automated operators; and, if the automated operators just can’t make out what you’re saying (it’s only happened to me once, in a crowded and loud restaurant), you can still call the old school 411, and you’re still saving, based on all those other calls to GOOG-411 that are picked up.

Google Groups. Google Groups allow you to create private or open access points for sharing ideas and information, and for generating discussion. You can modify your page, add pages, tweak the settings and invite or add new group members. Document upload is also available.

Blogger. Blogger is Google’s free blogging platform; and, it’s what you’re using to read this very blog.

YouTube. Lest ye forget, Google owns YouTube, as well. YouTube is where I get most of my sweet music links. But, it’s also a great marketing opportunity for savvy attorneys who are seeking a direct client impression. Check out what Massachusetts attorney Gabriel Cheong does with YouTube: InfinityLawTV.

Postini. Google even offers web and email security through its paid service, Postini. Postini offers hosted security and archiving services for business. Like YouTube, this is another Google product purchase, that has made some company founder ridiculously, fabulously wealthy.

Google Earth. Download Google Earth for a free trip to anywhere on the globe. It’ll be the cheapest vacation you ever take. And, if you’re ever looking for lost relatives from Atlantis, Google Earth is available with Google Ocean. Don’t forget, either, about Google’s space options . . . if you wish to boldy go . . .

The Google universe is vast, and, apparently, ever-expanding. So, if anyone wishes to add any nifty Google tools I have left out (perhaps on purpose . . . perhaps), please feel free to use the comment space. You may also feel free to add, through the comments, some other good and useful, free or cheap online tools.

As Boston’s endlessly entertaining Mayor Menino famously (well, in a provincial sort of way) said, in paraphrasing Winston Churchill, “Give us the tools, and we will do the job.” Well, Google is your whole dang toolbox.