The Greatest American Lawyer

What Are Commoditized Legal Services?

There has been a lot of discussion over the last several years about commoditized legal services.  There is nothing terribly scientific about commoditizing legal services.  It simply means that you define the typical tasks you typically complete for typical type of project, document the process by which those tasks are completed, and put a flat fee price on the deliverables for the client.

For instance, our law firm offers a non-compete agreement assessment for employees based on a defined set of deliverables.  The flat fee pricing depends on how much compensation is at issue and how complex the issue is to be sorted out.  However, an employee who needs to make a decision related to a non-compete agreement can retain our law firm to provide answers to the initial set of questions concerning non-compete enforceability and options and recommendations regarding risks, strategies and options moving forward.  We offer a similar non-compete agreement assessment for employers.

Overflow Legal (OFL): Will the Pendulum of Power Swing Toward Talented Independent Contract Attorneys?

Lisa Solomon from the Questionoflaw.net and Legalresearchandwritingpro.com submitted some interesting posts to OFL concerning lawyers acting as independent contractors.  As you all know, we are big fans of contract lawyers, virtual law clerks, and virtual paralegals.  My favorite post submitted by Lisa is “A Contract Lawyer by any Other Name” which talks about how many contract lawyers are suffering in the economic downturn, staffing companies have gone out of business and a $35/hour virtual lawyer rate in New York and Washington isn’t cutting it.

Should You Bill Hours, Value or Risk? OFL Knows the Answer.

The Overflow Legal website has a solid list of blogs and articles from around the internet addressing the issue of alternative billing arrangements by law firms.  If you want to see the top post as voted by you, the reader, check out the OFL category called “Billing Clients: Should I Bill Hours, Value or Risk?” While you’re there, you might want to subscribe to either the popular or upcoming RSS feed for that category.  If you see articles you think are the best, go ahead and vote for them as well.  To see all posts regarding the billable hour, check out the entire category list here. 

Submit Your Best Posts: Get Recognition and Link Juice!

Next Wednesday, we will be publishing our first version of Over the Hump (OTH) Wednesday, wherein we feature the most popular blog post submitted to Overflow Legal.  If you think you have what it takes, submit your best post into the OFL directory, send those posts to people you think are interested in the content, and become eligible to receive recognition as a top legal blog post next Wednesday.  You will be featured on Overflow Legal and the Greatest American Lawyer blog.  If you have not joined the OFL community, you may do so by registering here.

GAL Is Pleased To Announce Overflowlegal.com: The Best - Coolest - The Definitive Portal of Legal Information on the Internet

On Monday, our technology holding company UspeakWEtype Technologies, LLC launched a highly customized Digg-style site devoted exclusively to legal information.  OverflowLegal.com (you can register for OFL here and add your best blog posts to really narrow, and often irreverent, categories).   You can read the press release which you can see here.  And check out the the ~100 niche categories and 200 feeds available in OFL.

Introducing Over The Hump (OTH) Wednesdays: Sponsored By OverflowLegal.com

That’s right! Another new feature on The Greatest American Lawyer Blog.  Starting next Wednesday, Overflowlegal.com will be sponsoring “Over The Hump Wednesday.” What is Overflow Legal?  Well, the press release hasn’t gone out quite yet, but it’s a project that we’ve been working on for the last year.  Like you, we struggled to find the best of the best blog content on the internet within the niche issues that we care about most.  Sure, you can subscribe to Google Alerts and amass tens or hundreds of RSS feeds of your favorite blogs.  But what if there was a single source of information where the best blog posts were assembled within niche categories more narrow than any categories implemented on the internet for law.  What if those blog posts were rated by bloggers such as yourself so that the best of the best rose to the top?  What if you could subscribe to each narrow category of interest to you?  What if all of the content was human edited just like Wikipedia so that descriptions, synopsis, and categories were made descriptive and relevant? What if the latest social networking tools were built right into the system?