The Greatest American Lawyer

A Trademark Attorney Loose in Austin, Texas

One of the great things about being a trial attorney is that you get to travel a lot.  Traveling is worth the trip, when you get to go to cool places.  I have been in Austin, Texas for over a week and have a couple of days left.  One of our favorite clients is based in Austin, Texas.  We are now going into our sixth day of consecutive depositions. 

I have to say, Austin, Texas is one of the coolest places I have been in the Continental United States.  This city is incredibly clean.   You’d be hard-pressed to find a single piece of trash or cigarette butt in the street.  The restaurants are amazing.  The people are generally friendly, fit and active.  Zilker Park is one of the coolest parks I’ve been to in any major city. 

So for all of my trademark litigation friends out there, I would highly recommend trying to find some depositions in Austin, Texas.  If you can manage to stay a few days, you won’t mind it one bit.

Turning Web Traffic Into Clients

Most law firms have a website, but few law firms actually get much, if any, business off of the Web.  The first problem most firms face is that their websites don't get much traffic in the first instance.  They treat their website as a brochure and include their web address in the signature line of their email.  They know that prospective clients will probably look them up, and they want to look good to those who care to check.  The second problem is that most law firm websites don't ask prospective clients to contact them.  On the Web, a lot of traffic is transient.  Unless you invite people to pick up the phone or send an email, chances are they will simply drift through.

What Do Men Want?

There’s a magazine where I live called Northern Michigan Men’s Magazine or NM3.  The headline for this month states:  “What We Men Want?” I thought it was an interesting question, so I am posting it here, and despite the fact that it is somewhat off topic to the things we normally talk about.

But it is a damn good question.  Both men and women would be happier if they could figure out the answer to this seemingly simple question.

Offering General Counsel Services on a Flat Fee Basis

Every once in a while, I’ll dive into my web traffic statistics and see something really interesting.  Sometimes, search terms which bring people to our primary law firm web site are funny.  Other times, I am filled with a sense of pride to come up number one in the search results.  Check out these Google search results for “flat fee general counsel services” in which our law firm comes back number one.  For start-up, small and rapid growth companies, a flat fee approach to providing services makes a lot of sense.  How, you ask?  Simple.  You simply define what is and is not included in the flat fee amount.  The client is encouraged to use you as aggressively as possible on these issues.  It is the lawyer’s responsibility to ensure that the client receives value.  Instead of waiting for the call, the attorney actually reaches out to the client on specific issues.