From the e-newsletter: “(AbacusLaw) - Many professional organizations have begun programs and made studies about the issues of paper usage in law firms. The American Bar Association is promoting green office policies through their Law Office Climate Challenge.”
Read more...
Related Resources
• Responsible e-Waste Disposal
Source: FindLaw’s Tools of the Trade. January 2008. Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Posted by Allison Shields: “Oprah Winfrey's TV show yesterday was all about how intuition (and sometimes fear) give us clues that we often ignore. Oprah likes to call this the "hmmm" -- it's that signal your intuition gives you when something just doesn't seem 'right' with the situation.
Intuition, gut feeling, 'hmm' - whatever you call it, that signal is there for a reason - it's our intuition's way of alerting us to something we might not consciously 'know.' Ignoring it (as was demonstrated on Oprah's show) can put you in peril.
Although Oprah's show was more about personal safety and security, there are lessons in it for your law practice as well.
Are you ignoring the "hmm...?"
One of the ways I work with my lawyer-clients is by helping them re-connect with that 'hmm' response - mostly in the area of client selection. Sometimes, a lawyer will come to me before entering into an engagement with a potential client. They're not really sure that this is the client for them. Some red flags have been raised. But they try to talk themselves out of taking a 'pass' on the client. They don't trust the 'hmm.' They make excuses for a client's bad behavior, inability to listen or follow directions, or other warning signs. More often, I hear about the situation after the lawyer has already accepted the client and the situation has gotten worse - and the lawyer is trying to find a way to salvage the situation or end the relationship. Frequently, the best thing to do is to get out, and get out fast.
Why do you ignore the 'hmm'?
Oprah had Gavin DeBecker, author of the book, The Gift of Fear, on her show. DeBecker commented that animals that recieve those intuitive signals know to back away, but humans talk themselves out of trusting those instinctive feelings - often out of some desire to be 'nice,' or to avoid hurting others' feelings.
Are you being too nice?
Sometimes lawyers accept the wrong clients out of that same desire to be nice - particularly if the client is referred by a friend or colleague. In those instances, I advise clients to trust their gut, be polite in rejecting the client or referring the matter to someone better suited for it, and thank the referral source anyway. You might also consider educating the referral source about what kinds of clients you're seeking.
Some referral sources aren't clear about what you do and who you want to work with. Others understand that not every client may be the right 'fit,' but they'd rather that you made that decision. Be open with referral sources about whether you want all referrals or only targeted ones (being a 'hub' has its advantages), and make sure that they understand that not every client may be right for you, but that you appreciate that they thought of you.
But there's often a second reason why you might take on the wrong clients - money. You might be afraid that turning away the client isn't a prudent financial move. But consider the damage that bad clients do to your bottom line - and to your stress level, focus and ability provide quality work not only for the 'bad' client, but for other clients as well. And it's worth repeating - bad clients drive out good clients.
If you want to learn more about how bad clients drive out good clients, or if you're interested in re-defining who your ideal clients are and what warning signals you should watch out for, the upcoming teleseminar, "How to Grow Your Law Practice on a Shoestring Budget" may be for you. The series starts on March 5, but special pricing ends on Feburary 15."
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Ease Blog, 30 January 2008
In the news: “A harsh reality of big-firm life is that you can hit all the traditional markers for success and still not make it into the partnership ranks. It is no longer a given -- there are too many associates and too few spots. But while landing that first job as an associate required you to be generic and interchangeable, the lawyer who makes it to the next level brings that extra something special to the table. Humor columnist The Snark has some theories as to what that special something is.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 31 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Genie Tyburski: “Joe Hodnicki, Associate Director for Library Operations at the University of Cincinnati Law Library, interviews Tom Smith, the founder of a legal search engine called PreCYdent. The site contains all U.S. Supreme Court cases as well as the cases of the federal Appeals Courts back to the 1950s.
Currently in alpha mode, PreCYdent plans to launch a beta in February. Smith says the site also plans to "have state cases going back 10 years or more from all 50 states, and ultimately all state and federal cases back to the beginning, as well as statutory and administrative materials."
SEE: PreCYdent
(Please note that this is a link to the alpha site, so the URL may change.)
RELATED: Sophisticated Search for Public Domain Law
Robert Ambrogi's LawSites, 30 January 2008”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: TVC Alert Research News, 31 January 2008, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=jan08/31jan08.xml
Posted by Darren Rowse:
1. “What was the main point of this post? have I made it clearly?
2. What do I want readers of this post to do? have I led them to this action?
3. Have I written something useful?
4. Have I written something unique?
5. Has what I’ve written taken me closer or further away from my blog’s goals?
6. Have I used a title that draws people into my post?
7. Are my spelling and grammar correct?
8. Could I have said it more succinctly?
9. Have I credited sources of quotes and inspiration?
10. Have I written something previously that relates to this post that I could link to? has someone else?
11. Have I left room for my readers to add something to this post? have I invited them to?
12. What keywords will people search Google for on this topic? have I optimized this post for those words?
13. How could I follow this post up with another that extends it?”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ProBlogger, 30 January 2008
From the e-newsletter: “(PRN) - Many of the companies who use new media mechanisms to promote their products and services are unaware of the potential risks. In fact, they can be held liable for unwittingly publishing defamatory comments or content that infringes on copyrights or trademarks -- even though they did not create the offending content. Technology companies like media companies, Internet service providers, technology companies, and even some general business companies are all at risk.”
Read more...
Source: FindLaw’s Practice Paper. 30 January 2008. Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Posted by Mister Thorne: “This white paper discusses a method for ‘editing a legal document collaboratively.’”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Set in Style, 27 January 2008
In the news: “The Qualcomm case, in which six attorneys were sanctioned and referred to the Bar for possible ethics violations because EDD wasn't properly conducted, may cause shock waves beyond California, write Jenner & Block's Jerold Solovy and Robert Byman, who say if it happened to them, it could happen to you.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 31 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “Last week, at Lexblog, Kevin O'Keefe posted about how corporations have started incorporating social networking sites into the workplace to facilitate collaboration and link employees working at different locations. O'Keefe encouraged law firms to experiment with social networking rather than resisting it.
Now, one firm, DLA Piper is doing just that. According to this story, DLA Piper has announced an internal social networking site for future hires. The portal, called "Inside the Tent," is similar to sites such as Facebook, but relies on a different platform and can only be accessed by those inside the firm. The site is intended to make new hires feel part of the firm as soon as they accept employment, and is expected to allow for easier communication about firm activities.
There's no discussion about whether the in-house site will be used to cement relationships between lawyers in DLA Piper's many offices. But the site represents a start towards integration of social networking tools that many of the firm's larger clients most likely already use.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Blog Watch, 29 January 2008
Posted by Tom Kane: “Every law firm should know by now that the best sources of new business are existing clients (in the form of new work or referrals) and other referral sources. Often called word of mouth marketing.
Miriam Lawrence at Automatic Referrals has a recent post where she advises financial professionals on how to get referrals in what she calls an “ugly market.” As I read her post, I realized that it was good advice for lawyers as well – at any time.
Her suggestions:
• Proactively getting in front of your clients by emailing and calling them, sending letters, and “talking to them in as many ways as possible.” (I would add visiting them in their workspace, sending news articles, press clippings, etc.);
• Putting “client calls into your daily action plan”;
• Taking your “show on the road” (seeing visiting clients above); and
• Building other “measurable referral targets into your business plan,” and always being on the alert for clues to referral opportunities you run across.
All good advice. I would add another aspect relating to client referrals. Part of any business development effort needs to include keeping basic client relations enhancers at the forefront of your attorney-client relationships. That is,
• Returning phone calls promptly (if not sooner),
• Meeting deadlines,
• Avoiding any surprises,
• Meeting (or exceeding) client expectations, and
• et cetera.
In other words, doing everything within your power to give clients a reason to give you more work and refer others to you and your law firm.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Legal Marketing Blog.com, 29 January 2008
Posted by Allison Shields: “Ron Baker of Vera Sage Institute posted yesterday about yet another lawyer moving away from hourly billing in his post, Memphis Attorney Moves to Fixed Pricing. Attorney Scott Ostrow has decided that hourly billing no longer serves either him or his clients, and he's decided to move to fixed pricing. I look forward to hearing more about Ostrow, particularly since he is a business litigator, and in my many discussions of fixed fee pricing for lawyers, business litigators are the most adamant that such a pricing scheme is 'impossible' for their practice.
Baker's post references an article from the Memphis Business Journal entitled, "Memphis attorney goes to task-based billing, but don't expect local trend" and takes issue with a quote from Tom Clay of Altman Weil, Inc. that, "[v]alue billing is hard to communicate to clients. Who calculates that value? Clients' views may not be consistent."
As Baker points out, just because value may be difficult to communicate, and just because different clients may have different ideas of value doesn't mean you shouldn't discuss value. Even attorneys that bill hourly must communicate value to their clients if they want clients to understand the services they're being provided and be willing to pay for them. The fact that value may vary from client to client and may be difficult to communicate is an argument for, rather than against, value pricing. It's better to get clear at the outset about what the client values and get agreement about the fee (not the rate, but the fee) before the work is done. What happens if you bill by the hour and the client decides when they get the bill that they don't value the work you've already performed?
Critics of task-based pricing include lawyer Lucian Pera, who is quoted in the Memphis Business Journal article claiming that task or value pricing doesn't make sense because 'not every deposition is worth $500' (the amount the article notes Ostrow charges for "standard" depositions). While that may be true, the mere fact that Ostrow charges $500 for a 'standard' deposition doesn't preclude him from charging $1000 (or $300) for a particular (non-standard) deposition. The difference is that task-based pricing, as Ostrow himself notes, is a collaborative process with the client, which allows "the client to participate in the litigation process and evaluate which steps make financial sense to pursue."
Proponents of hourly billing such as Pera claim that clients "shouldn't" be surprised when they receive a monthly bill based on hours. And yet, whether they 'should' or 'shouldn't,' clients often are surprised - because the minutes add up quickly and the typical client can't estimate in advance how much time the lawyer will take to perform specific tasks - assuming that the lawyer has done a good job of communicating what those tasks will be in the first place. So clients are often surprised - after all, if lawyers insist they can't possibly estimate the time (and therefore the fee), how can clients be expected to?”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Ease Blog, 29 January 2008
Posted by Evan Schaeffer: “Today's post contains three quick tips for legal writers. By following the links, you'll also find lots of additional advice:
• When addressing a court, don't adopt the technical business jargon of the parties without explaining it. (Tip from an opinion by Judge Richard Posner, as detailed in a post at the Pennsylvania Litigation Blog)
• Don't commit the double-identification sin ("the sin"), in which a writer inserts a parenthetical clarifying that which does not need to be clarified ("the unnecessary clarification") (Tip from "Writing the Persuasive Brief," by Judge William Eich in the Wisconsin Lawyer)
• Don't commit the used-car-salesman error, in which you try too hard to sell your position to a court. (Tip from "Persuasive Strategies for Appellate Brief-Writing," from Barger on Legal Writing).
Thanks to Celia C. Elwell, a paralegal in Oklahoma City, for these links. For much more on legal writing (one of my favorite topics), see the legal writing category on this weblog.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog, 29 January 2008
Posted by Robert Ambrogi: “Thanks to Laura Orr at Oregon Legal Research for including this blog in a pair of thoughtful posts on the art and practice of blogging for lawyers: Blogging for Lawyers and Blawgers as (real) Writers. In the first post, she covers the fundamentals of getting started in blogging. In the second, she considers the discipline and persistence that go into keeping a blog interesting. The blogs she lists are among the ones I regularly read and I join her in commending them to you.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Robert Ambrogi’s Law Sites, 29 January 2008
Posted by Skellie: “Whether you blog about internet marketing, parenthood, karate or ballpoint pens, there are certain things you can do to make each post better. This week, I want to share several strategies you can use to make your posts more gripping — regardless of their length or topic.
A simple rule for every post
Omit any sentences or paragraphs in your post that don’t fall under the following two categories:
1. Words that persuade visitors to read the article.
2. Words that visitors will want to read.
Your posts should, ideally, flow from one category to the other. The aim of your introduction is to hook visitors in: to give them a reason to read on. The rest of your post should be dedicated to delivering on your earlier promises.
A common mistake I see bloggers make is to forget persuasion: to start with a long anecdote or rambling detail without a hook. If visitors can’t see what they stand to gain from reading your content, they’ll skip it. While their visit will add +1 to your site stats, it won’t grow your blog.
A useful habit — When settling down to write the first paragraph of your post, don’t launch into the content straight away. Instead, dedicate the first paragraph to words that will persuade the visitor to read. While you could achieve this with an intriguing anecdote, a controversial statement, or a knock-out opening sentence, the “tell them what you’re going to tell them” approach has worked well for me. It won’t win the Pulitzer Prize, but being able to say “this article will do this, this and this” is easy and effective. Sometimes the most simple and obvious option is the best one.
Deliver on your promises…
A useful habit — Start with your best point first. A reader who was gripped by your introduction may soon lose interest if your content doesn’t make an immediate impact.
Remember to link out…
Help longer posts get read…
Add visual interest…
A useful habit — Make a pact with yourself to add at least one image to each post you write, even if the post is short (and even if the image is very small). By adding align=”left” or align=”right” to the HTML tags for your image, you can push your image to the left or right of surrounding text. You can use stock photography, take your own photos or, my favorite option, find and use great Flickr images.
Put the ‘I’ in Write…
A useful habit — If you’re writing about news in your niche, ask yourself the following questions: does this affect me or someone I know? What do I think the implications of the news will be?
Points to review
• Start your posts with words that help persuade visitors to read them.
• Once you’ve done that, start delivering on the value you’ve promised.
• Go over finished posts and add relevant links.
• Add sub-headings to provide multiple entry points into your posts.
• Add at least one image or graphic to every post you write.
• Inject your personality and experiences into your posts to help differentiate your content.”
The full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: ProBlogger, 31 January 2008
Posted by Justin Patten: “Some interesting statistics which highlight some of the potential costs savings of using mediation and other forms of dispute resolution. With the Telegraph doing a series on infidelity and relationship breakdown, this could be very relevant to many people.
David Hoffman's Boston Law Collaborative has analysed 199 of its recent divorce cases, and found that mediation, collaborative divorce and litigation all produced high rates of successful settlement.
Mediation was by far the least expensive option, with a median cost of $6,600, compared to $19,723 for a collaborative divorce, $26,830 for settlements negotiated by rival lawyers, and $77,746 for full-scale litigation.”
[His] Source of post - Mediator Blah Blah
Read more of Justin’s insights into mediation at the source site listed below.
Source: Human Law, 23 January 2008
In the news: “As employees use laptops, cell phones and handheld devices for personal communications and employers adopt policies to restrict use to business and preserve their right to monitor employee use, legal conflicts arise between employee expectations of privacy and employer control over technology usage. Jenner & Block attorneys Carla Rozycki and Darren Mungerson discuss litigation that demonstrates that an employer's technology-usage policies may be the key to tipping the balance in favor of the employer.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 30 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Jordan Furlong: “With an assist to Ron Friedmann’s Strategic Legal Technology blog for locating the story, here’s another neat law firm innovation that qualifies as a “why didn’t we think of that?” moment. A Buffalo law firm, Rupp Baase Pfalzgraf Cunningham & Coppola LLC (I’m sure glad I don’t answer the phones there), is giving each of its legal secretaries a specialty for which she’s responsible and to which she can devote her attention and training, rather than assigning her to work for a specific lawyer. Here’s the managing partner, Tony Rupp, with the details:
“We have secretaries specializing in different fields,” Rupp said. “We have someone who’s filing, someone who’s calendaring, someone who’s filing motions and several typists who are concentrating on transcribing the dictation and producing the documents.”
This is a great idea, and it highlights an area in which law firms have been extremely slow to innovate: workflow. The traditional alignment of one lawyer -> one secretary still makes sense in a solo practice, but in a firm with multiple lawyers and a large volume and range of tasks to perform, keeping that alignment just encourages redundancy and inefficiency.
Allowing secretaries to focus on and develop expertise in one particular area creates clear channels through with assignments can flow much more easily and efficiently. Lawyers have specialties; why shouldn’t their secretaries have them too? More importantly, logistics is revolutionizing commerce worldwide, and while a study of law firm logistics (or rather, the near-complete lack thereof) would be a major undertaking, it’s still encouraging to see even one example of a firm willing to rethink how it accomplishes its daily work.
Now, that said, what disappoints me about this effort is that the secretaries’ specialties are still largely clerical and administrative. Filing, calendaring, taking messages — it’s alarming that the firm still requires “several typists” to transcribe dictation — these are tasks that trained professionals should have moved beyond by now. Almost all the clerical or administrative tasks that a 1980s legal secretary carried out can now be accomplished by software. Grouping the secretaries according to specialty is a great idea, but restricting their specialties to the likes of dictation and filing is not.
(And from a purely HR standpoint, it effectively reduces the secretary’s ability to find work elsewhere down the line, because she’s no longer trained to multitask, which is still what most businesses ask of their administrative professionals.)
Lawyers have a hard enough time re-engineering the way their own practices work, let alone their secretaries’ jobs. While I like what this firm has started to do, I would’ve been happier if it had gone the next logical step and begun viewing the secretarial staff not in the traditional terms of clerical and calendaring assistance, but as trained professionals with the talent and motivation to constantly move up the value chain.
Software advances have long since given lawyers motive and opportunity to reconsider how they use their secretaries. Most lawyers haven’t taken advantage, preferring at best to view the software as better equipment for their secretaries’ continued clerical tasks. (There are exceptions: quite a few lawyers have long been sending their secretaries to file motions or attend closings, but while this was a good idea at the time, the age of e-filing and title insurance is taking these tasks away too.)
A really far-sighted law firm would give its secretaries the chance to “skill up” and take on more responsibility, accomplishing more advanced tasks. If I ran a firm, in fact, I’d put my secretaries in charge of, well, logistics.
Secretaries already keep most lawyers’ practices from going off the rails administratively and financially, and their organizational skills (make no mistake, a critical talent in a law firm) are superb. Let them analyze the firm’s logistics, constantly reassigning talent and upgrading tools to make the whole firm work more effectively and efficiently. Most would appreciate the confidence you’ve shown them and the opportunity to enhance their skills and experience in what will be a key 21st-century field.
Change “secretary” to “workflow manager” or “logistics director,” and you’ve accomplished three great things at once: increased the role of software in handling clerical and financial duties, reassigned your valuable secretarial help up the productivity chain, and attended to an area in which you can find real efficiencies and carve out a true competitve advantage over other firms. Any law firms out there doing just that?”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Law21, 24 January 2008
Thanks to “Dennis Kennedy's Links of the Week- January 28, 2008”
In the news: “Making partner in a law firm is a quintessential moment for celebration. Yet, in the days that follow, after the congratulatory dinners and cocktail parties have ended, the average newly minted partner is also likely to nurse a few doubts about his or her new title. Attaining partnership can be a time for soul-searching and even dread at the increased burdens to come. So Katten Muchin Rosenman partner Brian Corcoran proposes a few admonitions that every new partner might contemplate.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 29 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Kevin O’Keefe: “Stole that subject line from, 'Learn to Love Social Network Sites,' Mary Braid's story in this morning's Sunday Times about how corporations benefit by helping collaboration and the spread of ideas through employees use of social networks.
As Krishna De, a leading Irish branding strategist and my source for this post, points out, the article even cites the case of the international law firm of Allen & Overy who banned its staff from using Facebook only to be forced into an embarrassing u-turn after an avalanche of employee complaints. The law firm had to e-mail their people acknowledging the strong reaction and conceding that Facebook was used by many employees for business as well as social networking. The Allen & Overy network on Facebook had 700 members.
As you consider social networks in your law firm, consider some of the points in Braid's article.
• Cisco Systems aims to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing between web users.
• Social networks pull innovation up from the roots of an organization rather than expecting it to come down from above.
• For many corporations banning social networking it’s a trust issue, not a technology issue. Innovative companies keep their people busy enough for this not to present problems.
• Bans on bringing one’s personal life into work time is a reach when companies now harness the internet to such effect that employees can never entirely escape from work. The line between business and social matters was blurred long before the internet came along. How many business people have chugged for years around the golf course, hating it but knowing that 18 holes is good for business?
• It’s a natural human instinct to collaborate. Technology can be used to create huge collaborative communities like Procter & Gamble's use of a social network to link 100,000 scientists across the world to come up with new products.
Understand we're not just talking FaceBook, often the social network of choice for reporters calling me. Law firms may be using any number of new technologies for collaboration, creativity, employee retention, and recruiting. Tools include, among other things, blogs (both private and public) and software specifically designed for corporate social networking.
Law firms would be wise to discover, learn, and experiment, rather than dismiss innovative technology out of ignorance and fear.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Real Lawyers Have Blogs, 27 January 2008
From the site: “The emergence of virtual law firms came at the dawn of the internet and in recent years, the increased popularity of virtual firms has proven that the law is in fact changing. On Lawyer2Lawyer, we will take a look at what goes on behind the scenes of a virtual law firm, the advantages and disadvantages of virtual law, and why many lawyers are trading in the traditional firm for a virtual one. Law.com bloggers and co-hosts, J. Craig Williams and Robert Ambrogi call on the experts: Larry Bodine, business development consultant, Attorney Wyatt Durrette, from the XDL Group and Mark Harris, CEO of Axiom Legal, to discuss the “future of law”.
Right Click and Download Play Windows Media”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Talk Network, 24 January 2008
Posted by Tom Kane: “Being aware of those mistakes to avoid can improve any law firm’s legal marketing, obviously. I ran across an article by consultant Robert Moment that appeared on RainToday.com that was written for service businesses generally; but can be helpful to lawyers as well.
Robert’s “7 Costly Marketing Mistakes Every Service Business Must Avoid” include:
1. An inappropriate message - concentrating on what your firm does, rather than how a client will benefit from your firm’s services;
2. “Spray and Pray” marketing – failure to focus or require ROI from marketing efforts, and just hoping that they will produce satisfactory results;
3. Not emphasizing “Value” that your firm offers – get to know your clients business and what is important to them;
4. Selling vs. Educating – as we all know, no one likes to be sold, but rather they want to sell themselves. Thus, your time is better spent on educating clients and potential clients on issues, problems, solutions, et cetera that will lead them to hire you;
5. Not testing your marketing efforts to see what is working and what isn’t;
6. Lack of follow up (or, what I like to call not “enhancing the relationship”) – which can be accomplished by picking up the phone, visiting the client, developing a personal relationship, or sending information of any kind to stay in touch (newsletters, articles, press clippings, etc. etc.); and
7. Targeting the wrong or too broad an audience – firms should focus on those markets they most would like to represent, are best known within, and likely to already have a brand.
Not rocket science here, but certainly worth being reminded about.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: The Legal Marketing Blog.com, 24 January 2008
Posted by Carolyn Elefant: “Not only do lawyers like to whine but they also like wine, at least according to a recent study from the United Kingdom. According to this post at Epicurious.com, the study showed that more successful professionals drink more wine. CEOs of large companies drink the most wine, an average of three bottles (or 23 units) a week, with lawyers, doctors and accountants not far behind at 20 units.
If you're trying to decide what kind of wine you should drink to fill that 20-unit quota, you can even consult a lawyer for advice -- Professor Bainbridge on Wine.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Blog Watch, 25 January 2008
Posted by Tom Mighell: “Here's an interesting niche blog -- the Healthcare Neutral ADR Blog aims to connect at the intersection between alternative dispute resolution and healthcare law. It's brought to you by Healthcare Neutral, a New Jersey company founded by attorney Richard J. Webb. Here you'll find lots of discussion on arbitration, mediation, and other issues as they relate to medical malpractice claims, hospitals and medical staff, and other healthcare matters.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Inter Alia, 29 January 2008
Posted by John Jantsch: “In this final installment of the 3-part “Fun with RSS” I want to show you how to take multiple RSS feeds, mash them together, and create one single feed to filter or display.
Now, perhaps you’re wondering, “why would I want to do that?” Here are my three favorite uses for this technology
1) Listening - let’s say you want to follow everything being said about a subject and have it delivered to you daily
2) Creating custom or iRSS feeds (individual) - let’s say you have several really hot prospects and you want to create a news feed just for them as a value added service - and to show your mad customer service skills.
3) Creating custom content - maybe you would like to create dynamic news pages related a topic or community (great local search play), or maybe you wanted a way to take the feeds from your top 5 strategic partners and have them run down the sidebar of your blog page.
All of the above can be done using a tool called mysyndicaat. Mysyndicaat allows you to take any RSS feed and put it together with up to four others to create one new feed. This trick even takes out the duplicates that might come from news service feeds like Yahoo and Google News. (Note: if you want more than 5 feeds you can create several mashups and then create one new one using the 5 feed mashups resulting 25 feeds in one.)
The video below demonstrates this technique with the addition of Buzz Boost from Feedburner to help you display the results on a web page. I’ve use my Duct Tape Marketing Coach home page to easily display the latest posts from all the coaches in the network as an example. (Always respect copyrights and content syndication licensing.)"
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 23 January 2008
From the blog: “Results from a new Vault survey. Questions include:
+ Have you ever looked up potential hires on Facebook, MySpace or other social networking web sites?
+ Would something that you perceive as negative in a social networking web site profile affect your decision to hire a job candidate?
+ When you are in the midst of a job search and sending out resumes, do you think that potential employers might look up your profile?
+ and many others.
Quick comment:
What might be the most interesting part of the survey (and not noted) are how many companies/potential employers go back to verify (both good and bad), using other primary, secondary, and tertiary sources along with what they find on a social network? Or, are you as good (or bad) as what’s written on a social network page (be in yours or someone with a similar sounding name or background)…period.
It’s easy to create a profile for the same or a very similar sounding name. It’s even easier to develop a profile with the exact job requirements included in the job listing. What, if anything, are the large social networks (since they now have many more uses than to just “make friends”) doing to keep similar names yet different people under control. In other words, where does name/authority control fit in with social networks? Are these and can these systems be easily and quickly gamed? When it comes to people verification, we always talk about using a variety of sources. Is this being done by those posting jobs on the Internet?”
Source: ResourceShelf, 28 January 2008
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: “What if the Internet went down...and didn't come back up? By Lynn Greiner, CIO.com, 01/22/08
• "Imagine, if you will, a world with no Internet. No e-mail. No e-commerce. And no BlackBerrys. E-mail would be supplanted by snail mail; cell phones by land lines. Now imagine what the future would look like. Futurists say virtual business services of all sorts, accounting, payroll and even sales would come to a halt, as would many companies.”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 27 January 2008. Copyright ©2002-2007 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: “Comments to the set of proposed amendments to the Ohio Rules of Appellate, Criminal, and Civil Procedures issued last October, have been reviewed and evaluated by the Supreme Court Commission on Rules of Practice & Procedure. The Commission, back on Jan. 16th., has now recommended further revisions to those previously published and resubmitted for public comment. ( Here)
“Modifications were made to the proposed amendments following the initial comment period, including withdrawing proposed amendments to Civ.R. 33(A)(3) and 36(A) which would’ve established “service of both a printed and electronic copy” as the triggering event for calculating response time for interrogatories and requests for admissions.
“The Court can revise & file the amendments with the General Assembly prior to May 1, 2008, with the amendments then taking effect on July 1, 2008 unless the General Assembly adopts a concurrent resolution of disapproval to them.
Comments on this second set will be accepted until March 4, 2008”
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 25 January 2008
In the news: “In the old days, redacting privileged data from a document was simply done by crossing out privileged words and recording the redaction. In today's age of electronic data discovery, it's no longer that simple. Attorney Kenton Hutcherson explains how to maintain privilege in e-discovery.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 28 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Genie Tyburski: “ We added a new section on electronic data discovery to the Database of Sources.
Current Listing of States That Have Enacted E-Discovery Rules: K & L Gates provides a listing of state statutes and court rules that address the discovery of electronically stored information. The list links to the relevant legal documents. See also: The firm's Electronic Discovery Law blog also offers a list of states considering the adoption of special court rules to address the discovery of electronically stored information. The list also links to the relevant documents. (et)
List of States Actively Considering the Adoption of Special E-Discovery Court Rules: K & L Gates provides a listing of states that are considering the adoption of special court rules addressing the discovery of electronically stored information. The list links to the proposed rules. See also: The firm's Electronic Discovery Law blog also offers a list of states with statutes or court rules on the discovery of electronically stored information. The list also links to the relevant documents. (et)
Local Rules, Forms and Guidelines of United States District Courts Addressing E-Discovery Issues: K & L Gates provides a listing of federal district court rules, forms and guidelines pertaining to the discovery of electronically stored information. The listing notes: "In some districts where there are no local rules or court-mandated forms, individual judges have created their own forms or set out their own preferred protocols for e-discovery." Judge-mandated protocols are included. (et)
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: TVC Alert Research News, 25 January 2008, Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, http://www.virtualchase.com/tvcalert/transfer.asp?xmlFile=jan08/25jan08.xml
Posted by Sabrina Pacifici: “Top 60 Little-Known Technology Web Sites, By Charles Babcock, Thomas Claburn, John Foley, W. David Gardner, Antone Gonsalves, Nicholas J. Hoover, K.C. Jones, Elena Malykhina, Richard Martin, Paul McDougall, Marianne McGee, Chris Murphy, Cora Nucci, Art Wittman, and Serdar Yegulalp, InformationWeek, January 26, 2008
• "Our guide to great blogs and Web sites worth adding to your bookmarks. The selection ranges from obvious picks like Technabob and Search Engine Watch to more obscure destinations such as Location One, istartedsomething, and GottaBeMobile."
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: beSpacific - Accurate, focused law and technology news by Sabrina I. Pacifici. 27 January 2008. Copyright ©2002-2007 BeSpacific LLC. All Rights Reserved. Subscribe <http://www.bespacific.com/mt/subscribe.html>.
By B. Kreisler: “Sponsored by Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP, the Religious Liberty Archive is an extensive repository of resources for anyone seeking information about state and federal laws pertaining to religious freedom in the United States. Here visitors may view Supreme Court cases and commentaries, state statutes, and important historical documents and speeches relevant to religious issues in the United States. Cases are browseable by topics such as “Abortion” or “Censorship,” or viewable by date or case name. Some of these cases have commentary by the Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons law firm. Statutes are browseable by act name. The Archive also provides law review articles and treatise excerpts. A wonderful resource of the Archive is the “Historical Documents Outline” section, which contains the full text of early colony charters, state constitutions dating back to 1776, Congressional debates, Presidential proclamations, ands statements regarding religion and religious liberty.”
Source: “InSite.” Vol. 13, No. 11. 28 January 2008. Cornell University Law Library. To subscribe send the following request to: listproc@cornell.edu: Subscribe InSITE-L [YourFirstName] [YourLastName]
From the e-newsletter: “(Microsoft) - Microsoft Corp.'s Macintosh Business Unit (Mac BU) today announced the official availability of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac at the Macworld Conference & Expo 2008. Office 2008 for Mac is significantly enhanced to provide a simplified user experience that helps beginners and longtime experts alike deliver professional documents that are compatible for co-workers and friends on Macs and PCs.”
Read more...
Related Resources
• More on Legal Software
Source: FindLaw’s Modern Practice. 25 January 2008. Copyright © 2008 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Posted by Evan Schaeffer: “As I've written before, one of the best ways to learn deposition techniques is to pay attention to lawyers who are more experienced that you -- most particularly, your opponents.
After all, it's one thing to read how to do a thing, or have it explained to you, but it's quite another to learn from the example of someone who actually knows how to do it better than you do.
This trick of learning by example applies not only to depositions, but to any area of legal practice. Here are some other skills a litigation lawyer can learn from a more-experienced opponent—
· How to strategize during discovery;
· How to write effective interrogatories and requests for admissions;
· How to object to improper discovery;
· How to write letters about discovery disputes;
· How to write an effective brief;
· How to argue a motion in front of the court;
· How to move a case forward by taking an effective deposition;
· How to keep an opponent on the offensive;
· How to make a compelling case for your client at the beginning of a mediation;
· How to present direct testimony during trial;
· How to cross-examine during trial;
· How to persuade a jury at trial during voir dire, opening, and closing.
To take advantage of this learning-from-your-opponents idea, all you have to do is make a file, which will get larger and larger over the months and years, and then resolve to pay attention during your normal day to what other lawyers are doing and how they are doing it.
Use your file to collect all the best form-worthy materials you come across in your practice, as well as all the notes you take about new tricks and techniques you've learned from your opponents.
Finally, remember to be humble enough to acknowledge that it's possible to learn something from an opponent. For many lawyers, this is probably the largest impediment to an ability to learn by example.”
Source: The Illinois Trail Practice Weblog, 24 January 2008
In the news: “ The most egregious violations of competition law, often called "per se" or "hard-core" violations of antitrust law, occur when competitors collude and make secret agreements among themselves to engage in cartel activity to fix prices, allocate markets and restrict production output. Chadbourne & Parke attorney David T. Blonder describes the types of practices prohibited under competition laws, examples of recent litigation and some ways that companies can minimize the risk of civil and criminal liabilities.”
Read full text
Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 25 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Allison Shields: “One of the most common questions lawyers ask about marketing is, "Which method is the most successful?" My previous post, Why Blindly Choosing Marketing Tools Doesn't Work - Know Your Target Market, gave one reason why answering this question is more difficult than it might seem. No marketing method will be successful if it doesn't target the right clients. That means you've got to know a lot about who your ideal clients are, where they are, what they need and how you can help.
Here are some additional questions things to think about before you choose (or reject) a particular marketing method:
· How will you define 'success' or 'failure' of the method?
· Is this method one that is likely to reach your ideal clients?
· Is the message one that will appeal to your ideal clients?
· Is the placement one that is likely to reach your ideal clients?
· How does this particular method fit within your overall marketing plan?"
The active link is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Legal Ease Blog, 24 January 2008
Posted by Brian J. Ritchey: “The 5 key performance indicators all law firms should measure are:
· Rate
· Realization
· Utilization/ Productivity
· Leverage
· Margin
This week each day I will focus on one of the above. Today the focus is on realization.
Realization is a word with many meanings. Depending on what you want to see, it could mean the percentage of what was billed from what was worked (billing realization), the percentage of what was collected from what was billed (collection realization), or the percentage of what was collected from what was worked at standard rates. Further, you can look at realization on the basis of standard rate or negotiated rate (standard rate realization). This article will take a look at billing, collection, and overall realization from a performance measurement perspective. For some previous posts on realization, look here, here, here, here, and here.
Why is it important to track realization? The answer is efficiency. How efficient are you in converting work to cash? Each percentage point lost represents money out of the pocket of the firm. Firms that don't track realization will only find success by accident. Tracking realization at every step in the process will help your firm become more efficient and thus more profitable.
Sometimes referred to as "accrual" realization, billing realization looks at what work you performed at your standard rate and compares it to what you bill. Your standard rate is the rate you would charge a new client before any negotiated discounts. Some only want to look at negotiated or actual rate that you are charging to a client and that is fine, but you should also look at what percentage you are billing based on your standard or, as I call it, your "aspirational" rate. That way you can measure the difference between what you should be receiving based on what you believe you are worth and what you are actually getting.
Let's say your standard rate is $250 per hour. For client ABC, Inc. you and your associate perform 5 hours of quality, best in-industry work on the DEF matter. Because ABC gives you 200 matters per year as part of the guaranteed 20% of their workload for your region, you have provided them a nice 30% discount on the rate. $175 x 5 hours gives you $875 of billable work. However, once you see the pre-bill, you notice that 2.5 hours was spent by your associate "reviewing draft of status letter". You aren't going to make your client pay 2.5 hours for this, so you write it down to .5, reducing the bill by $350. Your bill the client for $525.
What is your billing realization? Based on your standard rate, you would have charged $1,250. This is your standard value for the work performed. There is a $725 loss from the negotiated rate and write down. Your billing realization is determined by dividing your billed amount, $525, by the standard value, $1,250. Your billing realization based on standard rates is therefore 42%. If you based it on your negotiated rate, your realization is $525 divided by $875, or 60%. Either way it's money lost due to inefficiency.
Ok, so you have billed $525. The invoice reaches your client, they notice a charge for .2 hours with a narrative "Telephone call with Ed regarding his paternity test - advised he should start saving for child support." Since the matter for client ABC, Inc. was related to a breach of contract claim, they requested that the time related to the erroneous entry be taken off the bill. You adjust the bill $35 and $495 is promptly paid. Your collection realization is 94%, another hit on your profits due to a lack of attention to reviewing the bill; ie, inefficiency.
Overall realization based on standard rate would be $495 divided by $1,250, or 40%. Overall realization using your negotiated rate is $495 divided by $875 or 57%. You won't make a living with these numbers. However, does any of the above (except maybe the reason for the post-bill adjustment) look that out of the ordinary? The only difference is that I am looking at realization at a per invoice level rather than a global level.
According to the 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey from LexisNexis, billing realization has a relationship to increased partner income while collection realization doesn't. Though overall realization is preferred, tracking billing realization appears to have the most impact on revenue. The charts below illustrate this:
[Graphs are available at the source site listed below]
The first graph represents cash basis, or collection realization. It is split up by quartile, the first quartile representing the best performing firms in terms of per partner income and the 4th quartile representing firms with the lowest per partner income. Note that there is no link between cash basis realization and per partner income. In fact, those in the 3rd quartile had the best collection realization, while the best performing firms in the 1st quartile were over 3 percentage points less. In the second graph, which represents billing or accrual realization, there is a clear correlation between the realization percentages and per partner income, regardless of whether you compare based on standard rates or negotiated rates.
Ultimately, the best practice would be to track overall realization based on your standard rate. However, the above provides some insight into where most of the money is being lost. It appears that if you can get control over pre-bill adjustments, your revenue will increase as will per partner income.
Ways to increase realization:
· Don't negotiate your standard rate away without volume guarantees.
· Pay attention to mark downs. If they must happen, make attorneys note a reason. If it is correctable, correct it so you can decrease mark downs.
· Bill. WIP is inventory and loses value every day it sits on the shelves (your desk).
· Don't wait months for a client to call and try to negotiate down their bill. Stay on top of receivables.
· Be efficient in how you work, how to bill and how you collect. Modify your processes to the extent you already have them. Develop a process to the extent you don't. Measure your performance and prepare to adjust if your process isn't yielding the results you desire.
Along with other key profit drivers, realization is something you should track regularly. Utilizing technology will help you achieve your goals. Tools such as Juris® Active Information can alert users when their realization goes below their desired percentage. Benchmarking tools such as Lexis® Insight can compare your realization numbers to your peers. Measure against your own goals and the performance of your peers to gain insight as you how your firm performs against others in the marketplace.
There's no reason law firms can't earn more even in a rescessionary economic cycle - unless they don't measure performance. Don't leave the financial state of your firm to chance. Measure your performance.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below. You may have to use your browser’s REFRESH option to read this post.
Source: morepartnerincome.com, 25 January 2008
In the news: “ High rates and the increasing bulk of e-discovery have pushed Scott Rickman, the associate general counsel at Del Monte Foods, to seriously consider using sources other than his outside law firm for the grunt work of litigation. "It doesn't make sense to pay 150 or 250 dollars an hour at some of the larger firms to do the document review -- it just seems like overkill," said Rickman. Other in-house departments have already reached that conclusion.”
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Source: Law.Com's Daily Legal Newswire. 25 January 2008. Copyright 2008. ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved. Subscribe <http://store.law.com/registration/register.asp?subscribeto=nw>.
Posted by Dennis Kennedy: “I recently mentioned the Internet Roundtable columns Jerry Lawson, Brenda Howard and I wrote on Internet marketing for lawyers several years ago and how they are some of my favorite articles.
Sabrina Pacifici emailed me that she has placed all of the columns in one location on LLRX.com. Even better, she relinked and added columns 36 and 37, a two-part series on blogging.
I remember that Jerry Lawson decided that it was time (July 2003) to cover blogs as part of Internet marketing in the columns. We had been talking privately about blogs and how they were changing all the rules and conventions of law firm websites.
I started the first column with: "When I notice that both Jerry Lawson and I have commented publicly that the energy and excitement around blogging remind us of 1995 and the early days of creating web pages, it's clear that blogging is a topic that deserves some attention . . . ."
We brought in two of our favorite bloggers as guests - Ernest "Ernie the Attorney" Svenson and Tom "Inter Alia" Mighell - and the columns are especially interesting to show their early reflections on blogging.
I've always felt that Ernie captured a core element of blogging with this comment:
I was always interested with the idea of having a website, but I would never have taken the time to set one up. But some easy-to-use weblog software with a free 30-day trial is all it took to draw me into the Internet fray. That, and an obsession to have my voice broadcast to the widest possible audience.
I thoroughly recommend the columns to anyone interested in blogs and blogging, and the early history of lawyers using blogging. Look for the discussion of the term "blawg." Column 37 (part 2) marked the end of the Internet Roundtable columns, which was appropriate in a sense because blogs so radically changed the world of traditional law firm websites.
Jerry Lawson's final comment on that last article was both wise and prescient:
Blogs have enormous potential, but it's important to keep the phenomenon in perspective. I think we're going to see another instance of the "80/20 Rule." It will probably shake out something like this: About 80% of all lawyer web logs will fail. The remaining 20% will have greater or lesser degrees of success, mostly modest. One per cent or so, maybe less, will be extremely successful. However, some of that 1% will be so successful that they will make their owners very, very glad they got into the blogging game.
A big thank you to Sabrina for bringing back these columns. And, when you visit the articles, be sure to check out the rest of the always great content at LLRX.com.”
The active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: DennisKennedy.com, 23 January 2008
Posted by John Jantsch: “In this final installment of the 3-part “Fun with RSS” I want to show you how to take multiple RSS feeds, mash them together, and create one single feed to filter or display.
Now, perhaps you’re wondering, “why would I want to do that?” Here are my three favorite uses for this technology
1) Listening - let’s say you want to follow everything being said about a subject and have it delivered to you daily
2) Creating custom or iRSS feeds (individual) - let’s say you have several really hot prospects and you want to create a news feed just for them as a value added service - and to show your mad customer service skills.
3) Creating custom content - maybe you would like to create dynamic news pages related a topic or community (great local search play), or maybe you wanted a way to take the feeds from your top 5 strategic partners and have them run down the sidebar of your blog page.
All of the above can be done using a tool called mysyndicaat. Mysyndicaat allows you to take any RSS feed and put it together with up to four others to create one new feed. This trick even takes out the duplicates that might come from news service feeds like Yahoo and Google News. (Note: if you want more than 5 feeds you can create several mashups and then create one new one using the 5 feed mashups resulting 25 feeds in one.)
The video below demonstrates this technique with the addition of Buzz Boost from Feedburner to help you display the results on a web page. I’ve use my Duct Tape Marketing Coach home page to easily display the latest posts from all the coaches in the network as an example. (Always respect copyrights and content syndication licensing.)
[Video is available at the source site listed below]
Video: Using mysyndicaat to mash together feeds
I would love to hear any ways that you have fun with RSS!”
Video and active links are available at the source site listed below.
Source: Duct Tape Marketing, 23 January 2008
Food Poisoning Can Be Long-Term Problem
From the e-newsletter: “It's a dirty little secret of food poisoning: E. coli and certain other foodborne illnesses can sometimes trigger serious health problems months or years after patients survived that initial bout. Scientists only now are unraveling a legacy that has largely gone unnoticed.”
Read more...
Related Resources
• Food Poisoning and the Law
Losing a Job: Your Rights
From the e-newsletter: “(FindLaw for the Public) For many people, the loss of a job can raise a number of questions. How do you know whether a firing rises to the level of wrongful termination? Do you have an automatic right to severance pay if you are laid off? If you signed a non-competition agreement when you were hired, how will that affect your prospects for finding new work? Get answers to these questions and much more with the "Losing a Job: Your Rights" topic in FindLaw for the Public's Employee Rights Center.”
Read more...
Related Resources
• Employee Rights Center
Source: FindLaw’s PUBLIC ADVISOR. 24 January 2008. Copyright © 2006 FindLaw, a Thomson Business. Subscribe <http://newsletters.findlaw.com/>.
Posted by Julie Fleming-Brown: “Today marks the release of the first issue of the new twice-monthly e-newsletter, Leadership Matters for Lawyers. My conversations with lawyers have revealed deep interest in the topic of leadership. Law firms have initiated leadership development programs and bar associations have instituted Leadership Academies. Attorneys are reading (and writing) books that address how leaders are made. Lawyers in private practice often aspire to be leaders - perhaps by becoming managing partner of the firm or being named to the executive committee. But is leadership development just another box to tick for the “average” lawyer, another drain on precious non-billable time?
I hold that leadership reflects action rather than a title and that the action of leading is intrinsic to the profession. Lawyers lead in their practices, through business development, and in numerous other ways. Leadership capacity is directly tied to success and satisfaction in practice, so smart lawyers spend time and energy in developing their skills. The first step on the leadership development path lies in revealing the many dimensions of leadership, which opens opportunities for a leader’s growth. And it’s that conversation where we begin by asking the question: Does Leadership Matter for Lawyers?
It’s a fair question, and a good place to start off with the Leadership Matters for Lawyers newsletter series of articles. After all, if leadership doesn’t matter, there’s no point in spending valuable time reading (or writing) on this topic.
The truth is, leadership absolutely matters to lawyers, and it matters on several levels. We’ll begin by identifying these levels, and future articles will address them with greater depth.
Internal Leadership...
Leadership as a Skilled Practitioner or Rainmaker...
Team Leadership...
Leadership in the Community...
Leadership to Effect Change...
Why Does Leadership Matter to You?...
The full text of the post is available at the source site listed below.
Source: Life at the Bar Blog, 15 January 2008
Posted by Sabrina I. Pacifici:
• Reviewing the XO “$100” Laptop,
"Conrad J. Jacoby provides a comprehensive review of this retro PCs composition, features and functionality as well as an user's perspective on its performance and value to its target audience, children between the ages of six and twelve."
• Social Networks for Law Librarians and Law Libraries, or How We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Friending,
"Debbie Ginsberg and Meg Kribble discuss how social networks create links between people, forming connections based on interests, expertise, past employment or education, and friendships. They specifically focus on how law librarians can use social networks such as LinkedIn, Ning, Facebook, and even MySpace to promote useful websites and legal resources as well their own expertise and interests."
• FOIA Facts: The Impact of the OPEN Government Act of 2007, by Scott A. Hodes
"Now that Congress has passed and the President has signed the FOIA Amendments known as the OPEN Government Act of 2007, many wonder what the new law does and