Posted by Anthony Cerminaro: “Brian Kim refers to Steve Jobs’ commencement speech at Stanford University, stating:
"In it, he says the advice we’ve all heard a thousand times:
'You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” '- Steve Jobs
Well then, the question naturally arises, how do you find what you love to do? It’s such a big question.
What absolutely boils my blood is that we hear we should be doing what we love to do all the time, but there’s not any step by step advice out there on how to find what you love to do."
Problem solved - as Brian lays it out step by step - in How to Find What You Love to Do, observing, as to why people don't just quit the jobs they hate and do what they love:
"Two Reasons.
Reason #1: They don’t know what they love to do.
Reason #2: Fear...
Conquer indecision in Reason #1 and act, and you will most definitely conquer all fear in Reason #2...
It is extremely important to answer the question on how to find what you love to do.
You must decide what destination to steer your life in. Otherwise, you leave yourself wide open for others to direct your life, as well as at the mercy of the winds and storms of life. If you know where your destination is, the rest is easy.
You will find once you know what you want to do, all uncertainty and burden will be lifted off your shoulders and you will have clear vision as to what your journey is and that journey will truly be joyful."
For the active link to the article, go to
Source: BizzBangBuzz, 26 July 2006
Posted by: John Jantsch: “As a rule, non-profit agencies can make great marketing partners.
Now, before I get too far into this, let me state, for the record that what I really talking about is lending help to one of the many worthy charitable organizations in the world that provide community and health services by forming a partner relationship that includes showing them how to better communicate their story.
To take full advantage of partnering with a non-profit group you should approach it as a formal relationship. While many consider writing a check to the organization to be such a relationship, I'm talking about something much deeper. I believe both parties can be big winners if find an organization whose mission motivate you and then you propose ways that you can contribute cash, products and services, volunteers, event management, promotions with incentives for the organization, marketing muscle to tell their story and maybe even creating online tools such as blog.
My experience is that many non-profits are hungry for this deeper form of relationship and would be more than happy to communicate your roll in creating this unique relationship to their staff, board, committees, volunteers, donors and constituents as well.
You can really kick this type of referral into high gear if you can create a promotion that generates dollars and exposure for your group when people participate.
I will warn you though that you must believe in the cause you partner with and pursue this path because of a desire to help. That's the only way everyone will win. But, I believe, and many non-profits know for a fact, that your company will be most prepared to provide the greatest level of help when everyone wins.
Any non-profit agency readers out there care to comment on how you would like to see organizations partner better with you?”
For more great marketing advice, visit John’s blog at
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 30 July 2006
Posted by Tom Collins: “The experience of a client or prospective talent when visiting or contacting a firm is extraordinarily important. But the humorous Sean Carter is on target in pointing out that you can go “too far”. Read his post, Opulence Avoidance in the ABA Journal E-Report. Through humor Carter gives you a view of the opulent law office as it might be seen through the eyes of the law firm’s client.
Here is a little example:
".........as a former corporate client, I can envision what they will be thinking on their office tour:
Tour guide: I’d like to point your attention to the granite countertop at our reception desk. It was hand-carved in a Tibetan monastery over a 300-year period. It is estimated that 20,000 man-hours went into producing this one slab of granite.
Client (thinking): Wow! That’s 10,000 less hours than you billed on the Mauserwitz case. Who knew we could have bought a countertop instead?"
For an active link to the article, go to
Source: morepartnerincome, 31 July 2006
In the news: “When lawyers open their own firms, they often underthink time-and-billing systems, which are central to a smooth transition when setting up shop. In the business of law, how will they manage timekeeping and accounting? How will their new employees react to new software and protocols? Storm Evans, a Philadelphia-based practice consultant, provides a step-by-step guide to get a new firm's accounting practices moving toward profitability.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 31 July 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Sue Altmeyer posted: “The budget bill, H.B. 66, Ohio Revised Code Section 120.36, permitted counties to charge fees to indigents for using public defender services. The counties were motivated to do so, because the state has decreased its funding of public defender offices. It is anticipated that the fee will be waived in most cases. Changes were made by the budget corrections bill, H.B. 530. In order to get a waiver, a person must aver his income is not more than 125% of the federal poverty level. Judges can not issue blanket waivers, and must report to the state on fees collected and waivers granted. See Ohio Enacts $25 Fee for Defendants Who Get Assigned Lawyers by Reginald Fields, The Plain Dealer, July 30, 2006”
For active links visit
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 30 July 2006
Tom Collins wrote a great post yesterday called "Law Firm Business Interruption" that is required reading. Tom sets out three principles that are essential elements of any disaster recovery plan:
1. Protect Personal Safety
2. Maintain Employee Contact
3. Protect Firm Survivability
If you start with this list, you will be well ahead of most other firms. Read Tom's post for more details.
I would add a fourth key principle: "No disaster recovery plan will survive intact after its first contact with a real disaster."
This point was hammered home again during the recent mass electrical outages in St. Louis (the stories are now that at one point there were more than 1 million outages (out of a potential 2.4 million) in the St. Louis area).
For what it's worth, I've found that the points I've made in the presentations and materials I've written on disaster recovery have stood up very well in the face of my own experiences. I'd now add that even with a good disaster recovery plan, you should not expect to have an easy or fun time.”
For active links, go to
Source: Dennis Kennedy.blog, 27 July 2006
Ernie Svenson posted: “I bought an Apple Cinema screen display the other day (I work from home and am on the computer all day and I figured out that a large screen is a worthwhile investment). Anyway, I took it home and set it up and it worked great, for about 4 hours. Then the screen went blank suddenly. At first I thought it was the laptop that was connected to it, but it turned out to be the screen. Time to troubleshoot.
There's not much to troubleshoot on a display screen. The screen was working fine, so I figured it was a power problem. I tried unplugging the power and waiting for a few minutes. When I plugged it back in nothing happened. I called Applecare (1-800-275-2273) and navigated to the right place, waited about 10 minutes to get to a service rep. I explained the problem and he gave me my options: (1) I could take the whole thing back to CompUSA; (2) I could send the whole thing back to Apple directly, or (3) I could have Apple send me a new power brick. I opted for #3, because I was pretty sure that was the problem.
The service rep said he'd send me a new power brick and the cord that goes with it. Of course, I'll have to return the defective one (assuming that turns out to be the problem) once I get the new power brick. So today I got a box from Apple. I was excited, but when I opened it I found that it was only the power cord. There was no power brick with it. I didn't know if the two things were supposed to arrive together and so I called Apple to see about the status, navigating the menus and then selecting the option to "check on order status." The automatic voice told me to wait a few minutes for a service representative. But after about 30 seconds an automated voice came on and said the following:
Based on the phone number that you are calling from our records show that you have a pending service order. We have shipped two items separately and you should be receiving them shortly, along with instructions on how to repair your item. If you have any questions...."
I didn't have any other questions, so I hung up. Then I thought "that totally rocks!" I've dealt with Apple support many times, which sounds strange since I'm such an Apple afficianado. But here's why: My experiences with Apple support are always positive and so I never hesitate to call them. I almost always get someone knowledgeable and friendly, and I don't get the sense that they have to read from a script (although I'm sure they often do).
Here's the sad truth: all technology fails in some way, or at some point. Apple is no different than any other technology company that is pushing the envelope and trying to develop innovative products. But a good company knows that the solution to this situation is to create the best possible customer experience, from sale to service. Apple does that as well as any company I've ever dealt with.
My experiences with Dell are another story altogether. I once tried to get them to fix a modem problem and when I called in and gave them the service tag number they claimed my computer didn't have a modem (this was three years ago). I explained to the script-reading service rep that Dell probably didn't even sell computers without modems. Then I offered to send him a PDF copy of my original order sheet which showed that I had a modem. He told me I couldn't do that. Why? Because Dell didn't allow their representatives to receive emails with attachments, not even PDFs. Other people have complained about Dell's poor service too, like Jeff Jarvis for example.
Anyway, I'll keep waiting for Apple to send me the power supply, which I'm sure will solve the problem. If it doesn't then I'll at least I won't feel stressed about having to call Apple again. I don't like stress, especially if I can avoid it. One way I avoid it in the realm of computer technology is to buy from companies like Apple, and not from companies like Dell.”
[I HATE Dell’s oursourced service center. I recently sent 2 and a half hours trying to decipher what this guy was trying to tell me to do and never did fix the problem – I unplugged everything and took the tower to Best Buy who fixed my problem in 15 minutes for $15.00! Although I was thrilled with the simple fix, I was secretly hoping for a total meltdown so I could indulge in a new MAC!!]
Source: Ernie the Attorney, 27 July 2006
Sabrina posted: “Press release: "The Federal Trade Commission today issued a new “Facts for Consumers” on over-the-counter genetic tests. According to the FTC, some companies claim that their tests can help consumers screen for diseases, evaluate health risks, or suggest treatments."
• At-Home Genetic Tests: A Healthy Dose of Skepticism May Be the Best Prescription"
Active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 28 July 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
David Swanner posts: “In a recent discussion on scanning and going paperless, John Powers of Powers & Santola in Albany, had such terrific input that I had to share it. Take it away, John:
We’ve been paperless for nearly three years, using TrialWorks as our case management system. The keys to going paperless are having a dependable HIGH SPEED scanner and a plan to make certain that everything gets scanned before it gets into the hands of a lawyer.
With 7 lawyers in the firm we are using the Canon 9080C scanner, which has color capability and scans at 90 pages per minute (180 pages per minute in duplex) in black and white and 50 pages per minute (100 ppm in duplex) in color. We started with one scanner and subsequently added a second 9080C scanner to alleviate the frustration that occasionally arose when someone was “waiting for the scanner to be free”. We also have three Canon 2080C portable scanners for use in court, at depositions or for gathering records outside of the office. The Canon 9080C retails for around $10,000 but can be purchased on-line for approximately $5,500.
No lawyer or paralegal in the office is allowed to receive any paper relating to a case until it has been scanned. In the case of emergency faxes that come in after the secretaries have gone home, the original goes to the secretary for scanning the next day and a photocopy is delivered to the lawyer immediately. We have one person in our medical records department whose job it is to scan in all medical records as they are received, thereby freeing the secretaries to actively work on the files. The secretary on a file is responsible for scanning and emailing all other materials.
Each secretary scans the mail for her files to a file bearing her name. She then uses “File It” to transfer the documents to the appropriate client file and tab. An email is then generated automatically sending an attached copy of the document to anyone who should see it. While we still retain hard copies of incoming materials in a client’s file (just in case someone wants to look at an original signature, etc. at a later date) the secretaries no longer spend time “filing” the materials in sub-files. When the case closes, only the TrialWorks version of the file is retained.
We’ve generally found that scanning in a .tif format is faster for both scanning and printing. If we need to OCR a document or electronically file a document with a court (usually only in federal court here in NY) we convert the document to a .pdf format at that time, using Acrobat 7.0 Professional. My overall impression is that the technology works wonderfully!
It sounds like you approached this in a manner similar to the way that we have. That is, by getting your staff used to using TrialWorks first, before proceeding to scanning. If so, you will probably revisit some of the same issues that you went through when you first started using TrialWorks, such as: do you scan all existing materials into TW?; do we hire an outside company to scan the old documents or do we find a way to have our already overburdened staff do it?; etc. Your answers will probably depend upon the specifics of your practice and your staff.
We decided to do all of the scanning of existing documents “in-house”. We didn’t bother to scan any files that were going to be tried in the next 6 months, nor did we scan any new documents that we received in those files. For other existing files, our staff set aside approximately one hour per day to scan all of the materials in those cases, starting with the most recent files and progressively moving backward. Using that method, everything was scanned into TW in less than 30 days without any significant disruption of work.
We expected “some” resistance from our staff to scanning as a result of the natural tendency of many people to resist change and related tendency of many overextended people to look at this type of change as “just one more thing that I have to do”. Instead, everyone on our staff embraced the concept, realizing that it made their jobs easier because they didn’t have to go and find all of the parts of a paper file in order to get their work accomplished and were no longer being bothered by attorneys asking them to find something in a paper file.
It also increased efficiency by having everyone who needed to see correspondence or documents to simultaneously receive them by email, rather than waiting for documents to circulate from one person to the next. Because the volume of material that you are going to be storing on your system is going to increase dramatically and the size of the digital file is generally going to be much larger than the size of document file in Word, make certain that you have a system that is big enough and fast enough to handle the change.
Thanks for the input John. Hopefully, this will make people’s lives easier. I’ve reviewed TrialWorks and have been very impressed with it.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: South Carolina Trial Law Blog, 27 July 2006
Posted by Tom Collins: “I would be remiss if I didn’t add my drum beat to Dennis Kennedy's post Lawyers Continue to Move Toward the “Papermore” office. Dennis notes the following comment from the ABA: “According to the 2006 Legal Technology Survey Report, 61% of attorneys save email related to a case or client matter by printing out a hard copy."
When you start digging into it, you will find law firms keep paper copies of bills even when their accounting system automatically archives those bills electronically. States mandate the retention of paper copies of trust ledgers. Not only do most law firms keep documents in their original paper form, some actually take the time to convert electronic documents into paper for “retention” purposes.
This fetish for paper runs against technology and business trends. It places law firms and clients at an unnecessary risk. Paper was yesterday’s president, but that is changing. It is not the most efficient mode of communication, and it is no longer the most secure method of retaining information. As I noted in a prior post discussing the lessons learned by law firms in Katrina’s eye and in the post about the fire that destroyed 170,000 files, you cannot protect paper! You can replace office space, equipment, phones, etc., but without your “client and case stuff,” you are out of business.
The only way to protect the contents of paper is to convert it to electronic digits and images. Once you have done that, you have the ability to apply the same safeguards available to you to secure your computer records.
In his post, Dennis credited Ross Kodner for championing the cause of the "Paper LESS" for years. There has been progress. Unfortunately, rather than becoming less dependent on insecure paper, many appear to be going in the opposite direction, converting electronic content into paper document.
Old ways die hard!”
For active links, go to
Source: morepartnerincome, 28 July 2006
In the news: “Carter R. Todd, GC of Gaylord Entertainment Co., professes that his job at times reminds him "a little bit of being a hamster on a wheel who is always running." If you're tired of running from crisis to crisis, then stop long enough to review this roundtable discussion. Three GCs speak about specific preventive measures they've instituted at their companies, and how "selling" those ideas to their corporate management is half the battle. Get some tips for your own company, and get yourself off the wheel.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 28 July 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
By Eric Sinrod: “Employers are so concerned about their legal and financial risks caused by inappropriate employee electronic communications, they are terminating employees who violate workplace computer policies.
http://technology.findlaw.com/articles/00006/010182.html
See Eric Sinrod's Previous FindLaw Columns”
Source: FindLaw’s MODERN PRACTICE. 27 July 2006. Copyright © 2006 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Blackouts: Safety Information for Short-Term Power Outages or "Rolling Blackouts"
From the e-newsletter: “Tips on how to prepare for a blackout and what actions to take when one occurs. Emphasizes supply and safety tips, including some for people with disabilities. Provides energy conservation recommendations and information on heat waves, using generators, and food safety. Contains safety fact sheets (in PDF files) in English and Spanish. From the American National Red Cross.”
URL: http://www.redcross.org/services/disaster/0,1082,0_133_,00.html
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/8437
Source: LII Librarians' Index to the Internet. NEW THIS WEEK for 27 July 2006. Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII. Subscribe <http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist>.
From the e-newsletter: "This site allows users to "quickly and easily find targeted news on the Internet" with the aid of "artificial intelligence algorithms that continuously monitor breaking news from over 10,000 sources, 24 hours a day" and cluster news stories by subject and geography. Search by topic, city, or ZIP code; or view news in categories such as sports, entertainment, business, technology, and "offbeat."
URL: http://www.topix.net
LII Item: http://lii.org/cs/lii/view/item/21583
Source: LII Librarians' Index to the Internet. NEW THIS WEEK for 27 July 2006. Copyright 2006 by Librarians' Index to the Internet, LII. Subscribe <http://lii.org/search/file/mailinglist>.
In the news: “If you or someone you know has been victimized by domestic violence, understanding both the problem and your legal rights can be the first step toward getting help. FindLaw for the Public offers informative articles on detecting and preventing domestic violence, tips on taking action against abusers, and links to resources that can help with a domestic violence situation. Learn more:
http://family.findlaw.com/divorce/divorce-more/domestic-violence-top.html
Crimes A to Z: Domestic Violence
State-by-State Domestic Violence Information”
Source: FindLaw’s PUBLIC ADVISOR. 27 July 2006. Copyright © 2006 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
From the Associated Press: “Q. Can I get in trouble for gambling on the Internet?
A. Despite the recent high-profile indictments of the founder and CEO of Internet gambling company BetOnSports PLC, it does not appear that online gamblers in most U.S. states have any reason to fear prosecution - at least not by the federal government. . . “
http://public.findlaw.com/pnews/news/ap/f/63/07-25-2006/3a0900241aed4536.html
Source: FindLaw’s PUBLIC ADVISOR. 27 July 2006. Copyright © 2006 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Ken Kozlowski posted: “In a 58-page unanimous opinion, the Supreme Court of Ohio has decided against eminent domain for purely economic benefit absent another public benefit.
Cite as Norwood v. Horney, ___ Ohio St.3d ___, 2006-Ohio-3799.]
(Nos. 2005-0227 and 2005-0228 — Submitted September 28, 2005 — Decided
July 26, 2006.)
(Nos. 2005-1210 and 2005-1211 — Submitted January 11, 2006 — Decided July
26, 2006.)
APPEALS from the Court of Appeals for Hamilton County,
Nos. C-040683 and C-040783 (January 19, 2005).
APPEALS from the Court of Appeals for Hamilton County, Nos. C-040683 and C-
040783 (May 20, 2005), 161 Ohio App.3d 316, 2005-Ohio-2448.
In the absence of other public benefit, the fact that an appropriation of property
will provide an economic benefit to the community does not satisfy the
public-use requirement of Section 19, Article I of the Ohio Constitution —
The void-for-vagueness doctrine applies to statutes that regulate the use of
eminent-domain powers — Courts shall apply heightened scrutiny when
reviewing statutes that regulate the use of eminent-domain powers — The
term “deteriorating area” as a standard for an appropriation of property
is unconstitutional — R.C. 163.19 is unconstitutional in part.”
The active link to the opinion is located at
Source: Ohio Law, 26 July 2006
In the news: “Even the most naive of witnesses typically understands that lying to a prosecutor, FBI agent or regulator is a crime. What even sophisticated witnesses don't tend to know, however, is that false statements to private attorneys can also lead to criminal prosecution. Recent developments confirm that the U.S. Justice Department views the obstruction of justice laws as including conduct that many had considered to be without criminal consequence: lying to either in-house or outside counsel.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 27 July 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Justin Patten posts: "An interesting article within last week's Law Society Gazette by Sue Stapely highlights some of the issues relating to PR communication and the danger of a firm losing its reputation very quickly.
She highlights some of the fundamental problems which lawyers face with media communication with words like:
“Lawyers’ risk-averse nature means firms are full of ostriches that prefer to go to ground when uncomfortable issues surface…..”
and
“The approach of reputation management specialists and lawyers is often diametrically opposed. Good communication involves speaking up fast, filling the information vacuum, taking ownership of the issue and, if necessary, apologising......This is essential if the situation is to be contained and the organisation under scrutiny is to recover. Most lawyers – media-averse, detail-oriented and cautious ever to admit liability – find this approach counter-cultural.....Dangerously, many lawyers also believe that if they are able advocates and successful practitioners their skills will transfer seamlessly to media interviews and areas of law in which they have no real expertise.”
Sue Stapely does not refer to the blogosphere but clearly the issues covered by her are relevant there.”
For the active link to the article go to
Source: Human Law, 27 July 2006
Posted by StephanieWestAllen:
People who fail to couch what they have to say in memorable stories will have their rules fall on deaf ears despite their best intentions and despite the best intentions of their listeners.
--Roger C. Shank, Tell Me a Story: Narrative and Intelligence
I have wondered before here at idealawg how many law firms are using the powerful tool of storytelling. Storytelling is a critical part of the practice of law, can be a dynamic and time-saving strategy in law firm management and leadership, and seems to be an often-shunned way of communicating. Using storytelling when acting as an advocate, perhaps even as an advisor, is probably more accepted than utilizing it in the non-billable hours of a lawyer's day. In activities such as firm management, to quote Stephen Denning, "Real leaders don't tell stories, just as real men don't eat quiche." (This quote is taken from his thoughts on why storytelling is resisted in work organizations; more about what he says below.)
Active links and the rest of this interesting post are available at the source site.
Source: idealawg, 22 July 2006
From the site: “Victims of personal injury have unique current and future needs resulting from their injuries. And as plaintiffs in a lawsuit, who may receive large settlements, they soon become a unique investor class facing important financial decisions. Join Ringler Radio host, Larry Cohen and co-host Bill Wakelee from Ringler Associates as they discuss the topic from the perspective of risk and investment strategies with well-known expert, Christopher Coyne, Associate Professor at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. Hear about wealth accumulation and preservation of capital among other important issues personal injury victims AND their lawyers should know about!"
Click the play button (or choose another way to listen).
>>Play in Windows Media Player
>>Download the MP3 (right click, "save target as")
Active links to listen to this podcast are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Legal Talk Network, 24 July 2006
From the Wall Street Journal Law Blog: “You are taking a three-hour plane trip from Miami to New York to conduct a deposition in a matter involving client A. While on the plane, you spend the whole trip reviewing materials for a brief you will be filing for client B the following week. You normally bill clients for your time spent traveling on their behalf. Can you bill each client for three hours?”
Read full text
Source: FindLaw’s PRACTICE PAPER. 26 July 2006. Copyright © 2006 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Larry Bodine writes: “My esteemed colleague Ed Poll of Venice, CA, author of the LawBiz Blog, calculated what may be the true cost of a lawyer writing a blog: $20K a year in time. Here's his [analysis] from his June 2006 monthly Ezine, reprinted with permission:
Blogging Revisited - A Note of Caution on the Tail Wagging the Dog
"Regular readers know that I am a dedicated blogger, and that blogging has been a highly effective marketing tool for the services I provide. The premise of effective blogging is easily stated: Target your market, be specific in your blog postings, be frequent and your market will learn what your value to them can be and why they need you and your services.
"It's easy, however, to get enamored of blogging's potential and to ignore the practical side of what a blog should do. The real key to marketing is the creation of one-on-one personal relationships in order to increase business. Blogs are best used in a marketing sense when they support the creation of these relationships. If your target audience is more the consumer type, and typically not so sophisticated that they are searching the web on a regular basis, then blogging is not so meaningful to them and may not be a worthwhile marketing strategy for you. Speaking to a local civic group may bring you more potential clients than blogging on the worldwide web.
"Making frequent posts and answering dozens, or hundreds, of email comments, can take time. As I observed in this newsletter a year ago, a minimal amount of necessary time might be 2 hours per work week. If we assume 50 work weeks per year for ease of calculation, and 2 hours per week (a rather low number once you get started) and $200 per hour billable value for an attorney (most lawyers charge more today), the calculation is $20,000 of billable time used to maintain a blog.
"The logical way to control such a major expense is hire someone to manage the physical aspects of maintaining your blog. The cost is far less than the time spent updating (no matter how easy with TypePad or other tools), which will take you away from other marketing activities or even from your practice. Remember, however, that delegating the work does not mean abdicating the responsibility. To be effective, posts must be your personal and frequent input.
"Blogging is certainly not "easy" in the sense that it takes commitment to be consistent and meaningful in the posting. I suspect it's a commitment worth making for many lawyers, but a commitment nevertheless, as is any marketing effort. Measuring the return on investment - ROI - of blogging is difficult. But never forget that there should be a return in order to make your blog work for you, and not the other way around."
Fro the active link, go to
Source: Larry Bodine’s Professional Services Marketing Blog, 25 July 2006
<http://www.researchbuzz.org/wp/2006/07/26/more-wikipedia-searching-options/>
From the e-newsletter: “Several years ago, I reviewed a lot of search engines that launched as technology showcases. To demonstrate what they could do, they'd take a large body of data and proceed to slice-n-dice it. Back then, the large body of choice seemed to be the Open Directory Project. Nowadays it seems to be Wikipedia. FUTEF, in beta at http://futef.com/ , allows you to search Wikipedia both by keyword and by category.
Since I have a giant bottle of San Pellegrino on my desk I did a search for Pellegrino. I got 167 results, the first of which was for the bottled water, but in addition I also got results on the front page for locations, people, and a TV station.
(This search wasn't too bad but with some of my other test searches I got results that were way too widespread. I would really like the ability to search for a keyword within the title of an article, or even better, within the first 50 or 100 words of an article.)
On the left side of the results there are categories by which you may narrow down your results. Some of the categories are too general to be useful ("Living People") while others are much more specific ("Cathedrals in Italy", "Maltese nobility", etc.) Click on a category and the search will rerun with the category search included, and you'll get a new set of related categories on the left side. This'll take you a variety of places; I started with a search for bottled water and after wandering through a few category/search result pages ended up at one result for Pellegrino in a page about Gothic architecture.
In addition to the search at this site, FUTEF also offers a Firefox plugin about which you can get more information at http://futef.com/plugin/ . There's also a short blog at http://futef.blogspot.com/ and a very brief about page at http://futef.com/about.html .”
Source: ResearchBuzz #382. 27 July 2006. Copyright 2006 Tara Calishain. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission of ResearchBuzz (http:// www.researchbuzz.com). Subscribe. <http://www.researchbuzz.com/>.
In the news: “Lawyers accustomed to "drive-by" meet-and-confer sessions with clients and opposing counsel should get ready to park and prepare for an extended conversation. The amended Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are going to profoundly affect meet-and-confer discussions concerning e-discovery. Litigators must acquaint themselves with the world of IT if they hope to keep up. Carolyn Southerland, special counsel to Baker Botts in Houston, shares some rules of survival.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 25 July 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Evan Schaeffer posts: “The recent amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure become effective December 1, 2006. Here's a good article about one of the amendments: "Are Litigators Ready for the New Meet-and-Confer Sessions?" by Carolyn Southerland in the National Law Journal—
[N]ew Rule 26(f) requires that 21 days before a Rule 16(b) scheduling conference, the parties are to meet and confer to discuss any issues relating to preserving discoverable information; to develop a proposed discovery plan; to discuss any issues related to disclosure or discovery of electronically stored information (ESI), including the form or forms in which it should be produced; and to discuss any privilege issues, including the potential for a "clawback" agreement to be included in a court order.
At first blush, this list doesn't seem too daunting. But any attorney who ever spent an afternoon with a client's chief information officer, trying to understand where the data requested by the other side in discovery are stored, knows that even understanding the language of the information technology (IT) world requires a significant investment of time and effort. So what will the courts -- and opposing counsel -- expect at a meet and confer come Dec. 1, when the new rules go into effect?
Even if you don't regularly litigate in federal court, you'll find that the article contains some good ideas for completing those electronic discovery tasks that should now be part of almost every case.”
For active links, go to
Source: The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, 25 July 2006
Sue Altmeyer posted: “Ohio SB 349 would prohibit employers from requiring employees to use radio frequency ID tags for tracking. The tags are inserted into a person's body. Newly Introduced Bill Would Protect Privacy by ACLU of Ohio, July 20, 2006. For a list of other states with proposed or enacted RFID legislation in various areas, such as consumer products, documents created by the state and requiring a person to insert a tag, see RFID and Privacy, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See also Wikipedia, RFID.”
Active links can be found at the source site listed below.
Source: Cleveland Law Library Weblog, 25 July 2006
Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: “The 6th. Circuit Court of Appeals, yesterday, overturned the death sentence of a man whose execution has been pending in the State of Ohio for the past 21 years, citing ineffective counsel in its ruling and remanding the case back to the Ohio Southern District Court, giving the State 180 days to conduct new penalty proceedings.
Notable, however, and indeed troubling, are some of Chief Justice Danny Boggs’ comments that lawyers might be tempted to employ ineffective counsel measures as a defense ploy for their clients. “If counsel provides fully-effective assistance,” the Chief Justice wrote in a concurring opinion to the case, “and the jury simply does not buy the defense, the defendant is likely to be executed. (But) if counsel provides ineffective assistance the prisoner is likely to be spared, certainly for many years, and frequently forever.”
“To put it bluntly,” the Chief Justice wrote, “it might well appear to a disinterested observer that the most incompetent & ineffective counsel that can be provided a convicted and death-eligible defendant is a fully-investigated and competent penalty-phase defense under the precedents of the Supreme Court and this court.”
The active link can be found at the source site listed below.
Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 25 July 2006
Justin Patten posted: “I am grateful to this post from Adam Smith Esq. who explores the work of David Maister, Richard Susskind & Kieran Flat. The issue of the day is to do with investment in IT and whether it leads to growth and profit for law firms.
I will focus exclusively on what Susskind has to say.
As Susskind asks - "Should lawyers be technology pioneers? When they hear, say, about the great promise of wikis and blogs, or of the likely impact of e-learning and automated document assembly, should legal practitioners reach enthusiastically for their cheque books or more reflectively for a stiff, single malt?"
Some of us do not need such an excuse for a single malt.
I think Susskind is right when he observes "Client-facing pioneering is not sufficient to sustain advantage. The trick here is not just to deploy the first workable system but to make it impossible or unattractive for competitors to imitate, and inconvenient or undesirable for clients to switch allegiance."
One observation - With ever increasing competition, is it feasible to have a system which others cannot imitate?
And then as Susskind concludes:
"This is a lesson for firms thinking about online communities for clients — internet-based, collaborative facilities that focus on particular specialities. These sites will be rich resources, full of source materials and commentary, of gossip and analysis; and will encourage active participation, through wikis, blogs, chat rooms, and more. Once clients are drawn into these communities and contribute themselves, it will be hard to entice them away. Here, therefore, is where firms should pioneer."
My view is that it will be the importance of content and the people doing the writing which will keep the clients within the community. The people are [more] important than the technology!”
Active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Human Law, 21 July 2006
Posted By Rob Millard: “An article out of the Stanford Business School highlights how diversity and work group performance are interlinked. Drawing on research by Margaret Neale, a professor at the business school, the article has important insights for how diverse teams in professional service firms can be made to be more productive.
People often think of diversity as meaning simply an issue of demographics such as gender, age or race. However, groups can be diverse in other ways, too, for instance:
- Informational differences (reflecting a person’s education and experience)
- Values and goals (reflecting what behaviour/actions a person believes are desirable/acceptable and what the ultimate strategic/overall intent of the group or firm should be)
Diversity can significantly increase performance in developing creative solutions for out-of-the-ordinary problems such as cracking new markets, adapting to major changes and developing new services. However, it can also reduce performance if the conflicts that it generates are not constructively channeled.
Informational diversity is particularly useful in bringing different perspectives to bear on a problem, uncovering solutions that are not immediately intuitive. On the other hand, demographic diversity can whip up interpersonal conflict as thinking moves from “you think differently to me.....” to “I don’t like what you think.....” to “I don’t like you.”
The third type of diversity (goals and values) stirs both debate and interpersonal conflict. It is potentially the most damaging of the three. Here, the crux of the solution is to first discuss and understand the differences in values and goals that exist in the group so that differing reactions to ideas that emerge, in turn, can also be understood.
The field research that underpinned the Neale and her colleagues’ work found that that the effects of diversity were more pronounced during complicated tasks that required the interdependent work of several groups. The more teams had to work together, the greater the effects the researchers observed.
The researchers also drew on another study that looked at the effect social and informational ties had on how groups shared information. This study set up groups of three people who were told to solve a murder mystery. In each group two members were social friends. The third member was a stranger. In half the groups, the friends had a common piece of information and the stranger was given a piece of unique information essential to solving the problem. In the other groups, one friend and one stranger had common information, while the other friend had the unique information. Which group was more likely to share information more effectively?
The groups with two friends having common information and the stranger with unique information did the most productive information sharing. "Our best guess is that the two friends know each other and expect that they have similar information because of their mutual experience," says Neale. A stranger knows he or she is different and is more likely to share unique information. In groups where one of the friends had the special information, the friend suppressed the informational difference in order to keep social ties intact, researchers speculate.
Having grown up in a culturally highly diverse society, I’d observe that it is the norm for people of similar backgrounds and cultures to tend to aggregate, even within a diverse larger group. Or for power plays to influence the dynamics within the group very strongly, sometimes completely suppressing good ideas and ultimately the best solution to a problem. Differing values and goals can indeed cause such intense conflict (whether expressed or not) that one side, not understanding the perspectives of the other, discards the other side’s input as irrelevant, useless or just plain wrong. To the detriment of that group's ability to solve the problem that faces it.
I'd also observe that it is possible to overcome staggering levels of diversity of all three kinds, to reach solutions that do not fully satisfy everybody, but that everybody can live with. Achieving this kind of consensus is obviously critical to successful strategy execution.
It takes skill and patience to firstly get everybody focused constructively on the problem and then secondly ensure that the inevitable conflict is channeled constructively. (Also to defuse it when it spirals out of control.) Once one looks beyond demographic diversity, it is also easy to see that diversity is far deeper even in professional service firms that at first glance seem collegially and culturally uniform, than one might first imagine.
Hat-tip to MBA Depot.
For more on this topic, see also my recent piece titled Essence of Strategy: Controversial Choices.
For active links, visit
Source: The Diversity of Strategy, 25 July 2006
In the news: “Judges in several states are participating in a new program in which they attend science classes so they can better understand cases that involve complex scientific theories. Such cases -- whether they be medical malpractice, products liability or intellectual property suits -- are increasingly popping up in their courts, they say. And, they note, if judges are to be the gatekeepers of scientific evidence, as the Supreme Court's Daubert decision mandated, then more knowledge of science is essential.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 25 July 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Tom Collins: “Dennis Kennedy wants his electricity back. It went missing a week ago in St. Louis after freak thunderstorms. The Greatest American Lawyer loses data when lighting strikes and Evan Schaeffer’s natural gas generator kicks on. The Juris team helps St. Louis clients recover from the extended St. Louis power loss.
All this is another reminder that it can happen to you. Are your prepared? Business interruptions and disasters can happen at any time. Think you are safe? What if a water pipe breaks over the weekend? What about a fire? The water, heat, and smoke damage from even a small fire can shut down an office and put data and paper files at risk.
I noted in a prior post that one of the reasons so few firms have a disaster plan is that we tend to make them too complicated. A simple plan is workable and far better than none.
1. The first priority is personal safety—always protect lives first. Establish evacuation and reassemble procedures. Make sure everyone understands that no one is to risk or endanger their lives or the lives of others for paper, media, or any other material or firm property.
2. Second, maintain current employee contact information (including an alternate contact outside of the area for use as an intermediary) and get the contact information in the right hands and in various forms, including a printed document. Establish calling "trees" so that by contacting a few people, information can be disseminated quickly to everyone.
3. The next priority is to protect the survivability of the firm by making sure that critical information is safe before the occurrence of a disaster. Online backup services are now economically available. They are always current, always secure, and are available even if you are operating from a different location.
The above three steps are the essentials and, if implemented, will materially increase the ability of the firm to survive in a crisis. For more information on business interruption planning, use the morepartnerincome search feature and search for “disaster” or select the “Disaster Recovery” folder.”
For active links, go to
Source: morepartnerincome, 26 July 2006
Ron Friedmann posted: “Who’s better at making decisions - people or PCs?
Maybe We Should Leave That Up to the Computer (NYTimes, 7/18/06, c4) [Free reg. req.] reports that professor Chris Snijders of Holland argues that computers often make better decisions than people. He has experimental data supporting this hypothesis.
Before dimissing this as having relevance in law…. the article notes that “a Dutch insurer, Interpolis, whose legal aid department has been expanding rapidly in recent years, called in Mr. Snijders to evaluate a computer model it had designed to automate the routing of new cases — a job previously handled manually by the department’s in-house legal staff.” The law department manager reports the model is faster and more accurate than the old manual system. He’s quoted: “We’re very satisfied about the results it’s given our organization,” he said. “That doesn’t mean there are no daily problems, but the problems are much smaller than when the humans did it by hand. And it lets them concentrate more on giving legal advice, which is what their job is.”
Ok, so this example is not the main point of the article. It is still interesting for law department managers. Given how many surveys paint general counsels as unhappy about their outside counsel, maybe they should consider computer models to pick them.
More on the general point of the article in a future post."
For active links, visit
Source: Strategic Legal Technology, 23 July 2006
Posted by Bonnie Shucha: “Bloglines has recently announced that you can now listen to your podcast subscriptions directly in your list of feeds. This is pretty handy for the occasional podcast listener who either doesn't have an iPod or other MP3 player or prefers not to download them.
One thing to note, however: if you navigate your browser away from Bloglines, you'll lose the audio. Just make sure that you open a new window before you start multi-tasking somewhere else.”
Get the active link at
Source: WisBlawg, 24 July 2006
Tech Training for Lawyers
From the website: "Listen up technically challenged lawyers AND technically savvy lawyers! What do you need to know and how do you get the training for the technology that will make practicing law easier and quicker for you? Coast to Coast hosts and Law.com bloggers J. Craig Williams and Robert Ambrogi turn to our guests Todd Sons, IT Director for Jackson Walker, Adriana Linares, founder of LawTech Partners and Andy Adkins, Director of the Legal Technology Institute at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law for information you can't miss!
Click the play button (or choose another way to listen).
>>Play in Windows Media Player
>>Download the MP3 (members only - right click, "save target as")"
Psychiatric Disability
From the website: "A disability may not be visible as physical injuries are, but psychiatric disabilities are just as serious. And physical injuries can be accompanied by emotional trauma or depression. How best to understand psychiatric disability in the workers comp case? Workers Comp Matters host, Attorney Alan S. Pierce discusses these issues with an expert in legal cases of this kind, Attorney Bernard Mulholland, principal in the firm of Ford, Mulholland & Moran, P.C. in Brockton, MA , practicing over 20 years and a legal expert in the field of workers comp and psychiatric disability. Its important information for lawyers, employers and insurers.
Click the play button (or choose another way to listen).
>>Play in Windows Media Player
>>Download the MP3 (members only - right click, "save target as")"
Active links for both shows are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Legal Talk Network, 21 July 2006
Sabrina Pacifici posts: “Bureau of Justice Statistics - Improving Criminal History Records for Background Checks, 2005: "Describes the achievements of the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP), its authorizing legislation, and program history. This program report summarizes NCHIP-funded criminal record improvement efforts, including improved accessibility of records, full participation in the Interstate Identification Index, the automation of records and fingerprint data, and improvements in the National Instant Criminal Background Check, National Sex Offender Registry, and domestic violence and protection order systems. The report provides examples of projects aimed at enhancing the involvement of the courts and system integration in improving disposition reporting. The report also discusses the Bureau of Justice Statistics' efforts to improve performance measurement including the development and use of a Records Quality Index." [July 6, 2006]”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 24 July 2006. Copyright ©2002-2006 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
From the blog: “Obviously, one of the holes in our system involved data backup. We’ve had some relatively makeshift systems for doing data backup while we have moved to our new Unix Server from some Nas drives. The last two databases on the Nas drives were scheduled to be moved over onto the Unix box with RAID V and other backup systems but just wasn’t quite there when lightning took the data down. We are still sending the Nas drives out to a data recovery company to see what can be retrieved.
Everything they say about data backup is true. Although it’s an "out of site, out of mind" kind of problem, you need to take care of it. It isn’t the end of the world when you lose certain types of data such as we may have. We didn’t lose any file materials. That would have been far more serious. Get your data backup systems in place and don’t forget that lightning can indeed strike.”
More info on the effects of a lightning strike on a law firm can be found at
Source: The Greatest American Lawyer, 23 July 2006
Adriana Linares posts: “Mmmm, footsies. I love playing footsies - which is odd because I hate OPF (other people's feet). I freak out if an unfamiliar foot touches my bare skin. It's happened more than once that I've had to shower or at a minimum clean the stricken area with a disinfecting wipe. Now, certainly if the footsie advances are coming from feet who have been approved - well, that's a different story. Playing footsies with Word by way of Footnotes and Endnote may not be nearly as stimulating, but alas, it's something we should all know how to do. Here's a quick run down on how to insert a reference note in your document."
For step-by-step instruction on inserting a footnote or an endnote, go to
Source: I Heart Tech, 25 July 2006
Package Tracking from Major Web Engines
The ResourceShelf team posts: “MSN Search now offers an option to track packages for DHL, FedEx, UPS, and USPS. New idea? Nope. Google, Yahoo, and Ask.com have offered this service for some time. What’s also interesting to note is that a person who doesn’t read the blog post or this blog would have no idea about this feature. A simple MSN search for “package tracking provides no information. The same is true for FedEx tracking.
What others offer:
++ Yahoo (FedEx and United States Post Office) enter company plus tracking number.
A search for package tracking does offer info about the feature.
++ Google
Offers FedEx, USPS, and UPS. A search for package tracking offers no info about the feature or search box.
++ Ask.com
Offers tracking for DHL/Airborne, USPS, UPS, and FedEx. A search for “package tracking” offers you options for all four companies. Ask also includes the toll-free number for further assistance and a direct link to the company’s home page. Also, Bloglines, another Ask.com product allows you to track packages and receive updates via RSS for FedEx, UPS, and the United States Postal. This service was launched in March, 2005.
+++ 4INFO.net also offers package tracking via web, mobile web, and SMS. UPS and FedEx only.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The ResourceShelf, 25 July 2006
Genie Tyburski posts: “Small businesses will now find help with compliance regulations in a new section of the Office of Management and Budget's business.gov Web site. Discover compliance resources by agency name.
SOURCE: Web site offers info on regulations
Federal Computer Week, 18 July 2006”
For active links, visit
Source: TVC Alert Research News, 25 July 2006, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=jul06/25jul06.xml
David Swanner posts: “One of my favorite quotes in life is from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll:
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cheshire Cat: That depends a good deal on where you want to get to
Alice: I don't much care where.
Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn't much matter which way you go.
You have to know where you’re going, to make decisions about what the right direction is.
The very last thing that jurors hear before they begin their deliberation are the jury instructions. So it’s important to build the case around the jury instructions. I like to draft the jury instructions before I draft the complaint. Of course they will change or be modified as new facts emerge, but it helps to have a guidepost. I review the jury instructions before:
Drafting the Complaint
Preparing Themes for the Case
Analyzing the Facts of the Case
Taking Depositions
Answering Discovery Requests
Preparing for Trial
If you know where you’re going, the decisions on how to get there become much easier.”
For more good practice advice, read David’s blog:
Source: South Carolina Trial Law Blog, 23 July 2006
In the news: “The proliferation of blogs written by law professors and attorneys often results in robust online discussions of cases pending before the courts for resolution. In this way, appellate attorney Howard J. Bashman writes, the Internet can be regarded as a vast amicus brief through which legal experts may influence cases' outcome. But what is the proper response of judges if they, too, are reading the legal blogosphere's debates about the proper way to decide those cases?”
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 24 July 2006. Copyright 2006. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “This short piece, The not so lonely lawyer (WV Record 7/20/06) offers a couple of quick thoughts on solo practice. Some of the views are positive; for instance, the article takes the time to dispell the myth that solo practice is a greater risk than staying at biglaw:
However, for law firm marketing guru Mark Merenda, remaining with a mega-firm is the risky decision. "As an employee, you can be fired at any time for almost any reason," Merenda began. "In your own practice, one or two clients might fire you, but they're not all going to fire you at once. "There is actually greater security in having your own practice."
At the same time, it's obvious that the author hasn't been reading MyShingle or noticed the changes that have evolved in the profession over the past few years. The article notes:
Small firms are often characterized as "minor league law." Often, solo practitioners have to work harder than lawyers in larger firms to make sure that their firm image matches those in the "majors."
Honestly, I think much of that has changed. Sure, there's "bet the company" litigation where corporations want a bigname firm (not just for the name, but to handle the size of the litigation), but many other companies are choosing smaller firms with more personalized service and lower costs. The change is evolving slowly of course, and perhaps, but it's a real phenomenon just the same.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: MyShingle, 23 July 2006
Posted by Tom Collins: “I mentioned in a prior post that “branding” seemed to be on everyone’s lips at the June Los Angeles Law Firm Business Forum organized by ALM. One of the stronger educational segments was titled “Know Thyself: Marketing and Brand Strategies.”
Each of the four faculty members responsible for the session emphasized the necessity of a consensus among law firm partners as the starting point for developing a branding strategy.
Branding is about communicating a clear image of who you are. The typical, unbranded law firm has multiple personalities. Different partners have a different image of where the firm is and where it should go. It is this dysfunction that branding program