It’s time for our 4th annual Best Law Firm Websites. (Here are the results from 2010, 2011, and 2012.) Nominate your picks for best website right here, in the comments. All we need is a link to the website, although you’re welcome to add a note explaining why you think your law firm website nomination is the best (or explain why other nominations are the worst).

We will close nominations (and the comments) on June 15th. Our panel of experts will comb through the nominations to pick the 10 best, post them, and then you get to vote on the winner.

UPDATE: No nominating your own website, or websites you’ve designed. The goal is to find the best law firm websites, not to find the biggest self-promoter. If nobody is willing to nominate your website, we’re not going to consider it, either.

(image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jodimullen/7182159418/)

Nominate the Best Law Firm Websites (2013 Edition) [UPDATED] is a post from Lawyerist.com

I’m teaching a CLE with a colleague today, and I’m excited about both the topic and the presentation. Teaching a CLE, however, can be a lot of work. I have heard  more senior attorneys wonder if the non-billable work (creating the materials, the powerpoint, and the presentation) is worth it. Will the CLE help their reputation? Their business? I have no idea, but I can speak first hand to benefits new attorneys can reap when they jump into the CLE-teaching arena.

Learn a substantive area of the law

A senior partner in my firm taught me that one should always be on the lookout for CLE teaching opportunities that coincide with your current case load. Are you working on an excessive force case? Now is the time to sign up to teach a qualified immunity CLE. This method has the advantage of honing your skills in a necessary area as well as motivating you to create the best possible CLE materials (they can double as case research).

Of course, if opposing counsel case learns about your topical CLE, he or she may crash the party as well . . .

Get public speaking experience

I love talking to a crowd. In my fantasy life, I am a Broadway star. Since, however, I can neither sing nor dance,  the law seemed like a field where I could fulfill my showbiz tendencies without getting tomatoes thrown my way. That said, there still aren’t that many opportunities in our profession for new attorneys to take center stage and entertain the crowd. A CLE is a great way to gain public speaking experience while waiting your turn before a circuit court of appeals.

Build your Bio

I remember the first award I won in law school—it was for moot court. I didn’t think “how cool, I won an award.” Instead, I felt immense relief that when I worked for a law firm, I would have something to put on my bio page. It wouldn’t be blank.

As a newer attorney, it can be hard to think of legitimate-looking items to put on your bio page. And, after graduation, it starts to feel a little silly keeping old law school accomplishments up there (let alone college accomplishments). A CLE presents a nice way to define your bio. You get to pick the topics and, through your teaching, can establish yourself as a (rising) expert in particular fields of interest. Let’s face it: new attorneys may not have a lot of choice when it comes to selecting their own case load. But, you can control your destiny by offering yourself up to teach CLEs that will advance your desired practice (and your bio).

This point raises one additional advantage: younger attorneys often want to develop a practice area, but don’t have the substantive experience in that area to attract clients. Having written on a subject and then taught a few CLEs helps develop expertise before you go after your first client.  When you then speak expertly on the subject of patent damages, and someone asks “how do you know that?” you can glibly respond, “I just taught a CLE on the subject.”

That’s great Sybil, but how do I get CLE teaching experience as a new lawyer? Others have already provided advice on this front, but I will add my own story to the mix. Volunteer to partner with a senior attorney teaching a CLE. If you take on the task of writing the materials or creating the Powerpoint or Prezi, the senior attorney will likely invite you to give a bit of the presentation as well. If you’re entertaining and handed in the CLE materials by the deadline, you’ll likely get invited back.

As Woody Allen noted, 80% of life is just showing up.

 (image: The Audience Listens from Shutterstock)

A New Laywer’s Guide to Teaching a CLE is a post from Lawyerist.com

Last week I dispelled some prevalent myths about solo attorneys.

The Best Advice Can Be To Ignore Others is a post from Lawyerist.com

Can’t get enough of Lawyerist? Good news! You can find Lawyerist (and our contributors) on Twitter. We also hang out in a few places on Google+:

• SoloSmallTech
• Blawgging (make sure your law blog is in your G+ profile before you apply for membership)

Check out Niki’s Cloud Computing for Lawyers and Gyi’s Legal Marketing, too.

Also, please welcome Megan Zavieh to Lawyerist. She’s already written a few posts as a guest. They were pretty darn good, so we invited her to keep on writing. Megan handles ethics complaints for lawyers, and you’d probably call her practice a virtual one. So she’s got some interesting things to write about.

Megan’s posts will go up Wednesdays around 11, starting this week.

Follow Lawyerist (and its Newest Contributor, Megan Zavieh) is a post from Lawyerist.com

Having trouble organizing notes and to-do lists in a way that helps you complete tasks? Before you get another freaky tattoo, check out Workflowy.

It just may be the world’s best tool for taking notes and making lists.

Here’s why I believe WorkFlowy will soon be one of your favorite productivity tools too.

Workflowy?

I could try to explain how Workflowy works, but fortunately for us both, there are these videos:

If that wasn’t clear, head over to the Workflowy YouTube Channel to learn more about How to use WorkFlowy.

Getting Started With Workflowy

To me, the real “magic” of Workflowy is its simplicity in zooming in and out of different “pieces of work” and the ability to tag and filter.

Organizing Lists

Tagging & Filtering

Workflowy has a bunch of other basic commands including: search, move, complete, star and duplicate.

Workflowy Collaboration

Workflowy has recently added sharing and collaboration over any sublist. Violin teacher Paul Wood has shared an example Workflowy he uses to communicate with students on his blog.

How much does Workflowy Cost?

Currently, Workflowy is free. With the free account, you can create 500 WorkFlowy items per month. However, if you need more, there are two ways to get more.

For every person you tell about WorkFlowy, they’ll give you both 250 more monthly items.

You can also upgrade to WorkFlowy Pro which is $4.99 per month, or $49 if you pay for a year. A Pro account also includes some additional functionality:

Coming Soon to Workflowy

While Workflowy currently lacks some of the key-features that you find in other to-do list tools (i.e. dates, calendar view, reminders), like Remember the Milk, most of Workflowy’s major faults are on the roadmap:

What features are coming up for WorkFlowy?
The following are some of the features we plan on building into WorkFlowy. We’ll implement them with the standard WorkFlowy style and simplicity.

• Offline access
• Dates & reminders
• Better importing options
• Colors and formatting
• Collaboration improvements
• API

While Workflowy might not be the right fit in terms of comprehensive project management, I’ve found it ideal for organizing lists and notes.

Workflowy Review is a post from Lawyerist.com