The Greatest American Lawyer

There is a Difference between Having Technology, Using Technology and Dedicating Yourself to a Process Utilizing Technology

We have incorporated an awful lot of technology into our law firm business model and process.  By way of example, we use GoToMeeting with the attendant conference call service almost on a daily basis.  Many of our clients are located in other states and over seas.  GoToMeeting is a tremendous asset to any law firm and, in many ways, is far superior to a face-to-face meeting.  For instance, you actually share a desktop and are looking at the exact same thing online.  In a traditional meeting, there’s a tendency to get together and talk about things without moving the ball.  The best case scenario in a face-to-face meeting is that someone’s got a projector or patch cord into a LSD TV so that everyone can look at the same thing.  If people have multiple laptops, changing the presenter is extremely difficult.  This is not true with GoToMeeting. 

I’m not saying that face-to-face meetings aren’t important.  But I am saying that an awful lot of people have software applications such as GoToMeeting downloaded on their computer, but rarely, if ever, use the application.  They have not incorporated GoToMeeting as a resource within their business process.

There is a big difference between having technology and using it.  You have to commit to technology in order to get real value out of it.  It’s great having an extranet, for instance, but if you don’t use it religiously, it will become more of a headache than a tremendous asset that it can be. 

And there is a difference between using technology and dedicating your firm process to it.  The key to technology is process.  I cannot state this strongly enough.  For instance, talking to a client on the phone is fine.  But our process dictates that you schedule a GoToMeeting with the client in order to maximize the time that you are on the phone.  In almost every instance, you and your client are reviewing something.  If you were both looking at that “something”, you will have a much more intelligent, thoughtful and focused conversation.  And specific to-do items will arise out of the conversation.  If you are editing the document online while discussing the appropriate language, you will be able to not only discuss concepts, but agree on the exact language after drafting, reviewing, revising and finalizing. 

Lots of lawyers and law firms have great technology.  Few law firms actually use that technology.  While some lawyers in law firms use technology, most lawyers in law firms don’t.  A single lawyer in a firm utilizing technology is fine.  A law firm dedicated to that technology as part of their client service model is nothing short of amazing.

So take some time and look at what technology you have available to you in your law firm.  Now ask yourself whether or not you use that technology to its fullest potential. 

# 1 Tech Tip For Lawyers-Copernic

I recently gave a presentation to the Grand Traverse-Leelanau-Antrim Bar Association about my top ten tech tips.  It was a difficult assignment since I have so many tech tips that it was difficult to narrow it down to ten. 

What I did not have any trouble with was determining what my number one tech tip might be.  As I have blogged previously here, here, here, here, here and here, Copernic is the number one productivity tool on the market today for lawyers. 

What does Copernic do?  Copernic does what Google search does and Windows Desktop Search tries to do.  It indexes all your emails and files on your local and server hard drive on the fly.  This means that when you punch in any search term, all emails and files come up in less than a second.  There is no better productivity tool than one that delivers the files you need in less than one second.  Copernic is my number one productivity tip for lawyers.

Equals in Opportunity

One of the interesting things we have done is to provide each partner an incentive to participate in each case.  We continue to emphasize an equality of opportunity.  Instead of the best cases be hoarded by one or two attorneys, every attorney in the firm has the ability to jump in and contribute on each case. 

The hoarding of the best cases is a side effect of a partnership compensation formula which includes as its sole feature, revenue.  Revenue in a traditional law firm is created purely through billable hours on business cases and for successful outcomes in contingency fee work.

But what if every lawyer was so well-informed about the cases being handled by the firm that they could jump in and contribute on those cases?  What if a firm was created which provided incentives for collaboration as opposed to isolation? 

Attorney collaboration can be encouraged using a variety of different technologies and techniques including:

• A case management extranet where every lawyer could see what is happening on every case at any time;
• A de-emphasis of billable hours so that lawyers felt comfortable and encouraged sitting down together to discuss cases, strategy and expected outcomes;
• A healthy number of flat fee matters where the law firm’s goal is to achieve the clients’ goals in the shortest amount of time.  Since billable hours are meaningless, case strategy, process and leverage become the foundation of the daily effort.  Three lawyers thinking, strategizing and working towards a client goal are much more likely to achieve that goal in a short time as opposed to a single lawyer holed up in the office focused on billing 50 hours per week;
• Regular sit-down strategy and collaboration meetings where the best ideas are tested, continually upgraded and where everyone has a hand in implementation.

The power of collaboration cannot be underestimated.  Most law firms today provide few, if any, incentive for collaboration.  The best cases in most law firms are handled by one or a few attorneys who guard the case like a personal possession.  None of this serves the client.  Many great minds will always be superior to one. 

Thinking about Technology

I’m doing a presentation on technology right now to our local Bar Association.  I have to say; even thinking about technology gets me incredibly excited.  Do I love technology more than law? 

How Many Lawyers love Their Job?

One of the best parts about our firm is that we have managed to create an environment which drives me out of bed in the morning.  I’m usually awake by about 5 a.m. and out of bed by 6.  I can’t wait to pickup my digital recorder and start dropping tasks and messages into our extranet.  Sometimes they are on client cases.  More often, they are blog posts or agenda items for our “perfect law firm” Tuesday and Thursday meetings.  I have a sense of control and opportunity which brings me into each day.  I can hardly wait to see what is going to happen each day, which new clients will find their way to our firm and what will happen on the cases we have pending.  I have never been involved in a legal situation where we have returned so many extraordinary results to our clients.  Nothing feels better than hitting a grand slam on a difficult case. 

There are so many things that make this firm different.  As a digital law firm, we have instant access to all our case information from wherever we are located.  This allows us to accomplish things faster and more intelligently than virtually any other lawyers.  Our extranet also pushes so much information to the client level, that our clients are the most informed and involved clients of any clients our there.  We do more in terms of strategy than any other firm I’ve been involved with, by a multiple of ten.  This is largely because we document the deliverables and every task along the way driving towards a defined end zone.  Is it any wonder we accomplish extraordinary results?  Our virtual workers allow us to avoid lower level functions which distract us from focusing on strategy and client relations.  These virtual workers allow us to expand and contract with case load ensuring that the train is moving forward at a steady, even pace.  Our collaborative work environment means that all of our lawyers and staff are on the same page on every case.  Each lawyer is able to contribute to any case at any moment.  These types of checks and balances are critical for a firm and client success. 

Because we are constantly revising our internal process and overall approach based on whatever makes sense, our creativity is rewarded each day.  Innovation is the foundation of our firm.  Nothing is more exciting than finding ways to do things better and technology to make it happen.

Most law firms live in a cynical environment of “why not.”  We live in an environment of “can do” where problem solving is our most rewarding activity.  There’s nothing more unrewarding than writing CYA letters to clients, always working to cover yourself in expectation that things will eventually go wrong and essentially telling the client about all the problems in their case.  We make things happen for clients every day that other lawyers would say are impossible. 

The reality is that the traditional law firm can be a brutal, boring, negative, uninspired, underperforming and static environment.  Isn’t time you changed your environment?  Isn’t time that you found out for yourself what is truly possible?

Refusing to Allow Your Client to Fail

Perhaps the most difficult part of running a client-centric law firm is making sure your clients don’t fail to realize their defined goals.  While an extranet system works well in setting client expectations and assigning client key tasks, the most important ingredient for success in any client matter is the lawyers willingness to get involved. 

At Traverse Legal, we take a stake in the outcome we’ve helped to define with the client.

Sometimes, clients don’t get back to you in a timely fashion.  There may be important information or tasks they need to complete.  You may need client approval on the next phase of the case.

A good lawyer helps the client realize defined goals.  A great lawyer demands that the client protect their own interest, get their tasks accomplished and see the matter through to conclusion.  A great lawyer is proactive when it comes to the client’s interest.

One of the many problems with hourly billing is that it fails to align the client’s goals with the lawyer’s goals.  Hourly billing drives complacency when it comes to accomplishing defined deliverables. 

So what if you do if a client isn’t responding in a timely fashion?  The best technique is to pick up the phone and call.  Emails can often get lost in the shuffle. If is easy to ignore an email, especially if it’s asking you to make a tough decision or perform a task.  An even better way is to have your staff schedule a meeting.  Again, email may or may not move the ball.  Picking up the phone, getting a live body on the other end and forcing the issue is sometimes part of the job.  And if you can’t get an office meeting scheduled, try a GoToMeeting.com conference. 

At the end of the day, the lawyer is the one responsible for the deliverables and the outcome.  Using the client as an excuse won’t get you very far.  For firms that live and die by the value provided, lawyers are driven to push a matter through to completion.  They do it because the can only see value as the commodity which is bartered.  And a bad result reflects on them as much as it does the client irrespective of the cause.   

The Irony of Technology

Technology allows us 24/7 information and virtually unlimited ability for communication and collaboration.  Yet, these same benefits can cause us to insulate ourselves from each other. 

Like anything else technology can be good and bad.  Yes, technology allows us to communicate.  But an email is inferior to a phone call. And a phone call is sometimes inferior to a face-to-face meeting. 

Yes, you can launch a GoToMeeting.com conference and bring people together wherever they are located.  But sitting down in room with each other and brainstorming still has its place.

In order to ensure that we are taking advantage of the benefits of technology, while avoiding the pitfalls, we have instituted Tuesday morning meetings among partners, as well as Thursday lunch meetings with partners.  The agenda for these meetings reflects the mission and priorities of our firm.  We discuss operational issues, cases, client retentions/new clients, and relative workloads on a scale of one to ten.

So when you are setting up your firm built on the foundation of technology, don’t forget to sit down in a room together on a regular basis.  There is still no substitute for looking each other in the eye and patting each other on the back. 

Recommitting to Technology

Technology is not, nor will it ever be, the answer.  Technology is a component of business process. 

When you recommit to use a particular piece of technology, you are essentially recommitting to your internal business process.

We try to recommit to technology all the time.  We do it by sending an email around encouraging each other to get back in to the process.  I call it “working the technology.”  We all need to recommit to our internal business process on a regular basis.  Over time, recommitment not causes you to leverage the process you have in place but inevitably results in upgrades to the process as well.

Technology is Great but the Phone is Better

There is no question that technology makes communication easy and convenient.  We use email, extranets, text messaging and voicemail to communicate by and between ourselves and our clients.

But when it comes to relationships, there is no substitute for face-to-face meetings.  A close second would be a phone call.

I think we sometimes get so enamored with technology that we forget to reach out and “touch someone.”  We have to remind ourselves to bring clients in for face-to-face meetings and call them on the phone as an alternative to email on certain issues.

Anyone who is involved with billing knows that a phone call is far more likely to secure payment than a series of emails.  And when you’re looking for new work, scheduling a client meeting (at no cost to them of course) is the best way to explore new projects with clients. 

Yes, technology rocks.  But the personal touch is still a mandatory part of any successful business plan. 

Portable Digital Dictation Changes Everything

My Philips 9350 portable digital recorder fundamentally changes the way I practice law. Many people can’t really contemplate carrying a portable digital recorder around all the time. Even I sometimes laugh thinking about the geek standing in the corner doing a "memo to self" in his portable dictation device. On The Sopranos last night, Junior’s cancer doctor went to instruct his secretary to call Junior, by dictating a memo in his digital recorder. Tony smacked the recorder out of his hand and, without saying anything more, let the doctor know he’d better call Junior himself.

I don’t spend a lot of time dictating in public, or in front of other people. But when I get up in the morning, there are at least three things bothering me about one or more of my cases. There are questions that are rumbling around in my head for which I don’t have answers. Those questions become tasks or messages in our client extranet because I immediately pick up my digital recorder and assign tasks which will get me answers. The chance that I would "move the ball" on those issues once I got into the office inundated with distraction is incredibly small.

I often say that I do the work of three attorneys. This is probably true. And while I work hard and put in a lot of miscellaneous hours when I’m not in my office, it also has personal benefits as well.

Let’s face it. We all get anxious when we know things need to happen in cases and those issues are not being handled. We only have so much time in day. We’re only in our office so many hours.

The ability to pick up a portable dictation device and solve a problem, pose a question or provide information is a huge relief. If I dictate three research tasks before getting into bed at night, I don’t have to lie there worrying about them. I know that dictation will be uploaded into the extranet in the morning and I will likely have answers shortly thereafter.

I’ve always said that the practice of law is simply about identifying important questions and obtaining answers. Sometimes I refer to this approach as putting the lawyer in the position of "coach and quarterback." Digital dictation in tandem with our extranet allows me to be the coach and quarterback for all the members of our team. This includes our internal workers and our remote virtual workers. It also includes the clients. So take those questions and thoughts rambling around between your ears and turn them into action items at a moments notice. You’ll feel better. And your client will receive the value they deserve.

What Are Your Rights to the Domain?

Traverse Legal does a lot of work with domain name disputes. This is work that puts us in contact with clients from across the globe, and legal bodies that often reside even farther - through whom we arbitrate these disputes.

However, an interesting debate with regard to the work we do is of the exact nature of the domain name. Is the name that fills the browser address bar a form of intellectual property that can be owned and protected as such, or is it simply something rented from dedicated servers - only as permanent as the payments made to keep the URL?

As Ellen Pony, over at the Domain Name Handbook writes: "What are your long term plans for your domain name? Do you expect to convey the name and the goodwill associated with it to an interested buy or bequeath it to your heirs? Perhaps you intend to use the domain name to secure a loan for a business expansion or for your child's college tuition. You may be in for a surprise." 

As she goes on, Network Solutions a registry organization with whom my firm operates, is said to force any registrant to agree to 24 terms and conditions in the Service Agreement, which includes:

23. NON-ASSIGNMENT. Your rights under this Agreement are not assignable. Any attempt by you to assign your rights shall render this Agreement voidable at our option. Any attempt by your creditors to obtain an interest in your rights under this Agreement, whether by attachment, garnishment or otherwise, shall render this Agreement voidable at our option.

Now, her article is a little dated, and despite the fact that I could not find that exact point in the Service Agreement over at Network Solutions, this brings to light an issue that, if nothing else, should be fully understood before you start paying for your domain name: your long term rights to the name that will fill your clients' address bar.

Its so important to be aware of your options underneath any service agreement because of the fact that your website is one of the major aspects of your business, something that will hopefully be operating for a lot longer than your time in the office. So when it comes time to bequeath your firm to the next generation of high-tech attorneys, is it going to be within your power to hand over the domain name along with the keys to the door? Or, as Ellen Pony stated, what about selling your reputable URL to the highest bidder? Is that an option that is going to be in your hands, or, like in her example, void the contract that gives you the domain?

The Focus Should Be on Mankind, Not Technology

Thank you to Jim Calloway at his Law Practice Tips Blog for reminding me that Time Magazine named YOU the person of the year. Time says that the year 2006 is about community and collaboration on a scale never seen before. Check out the story here.

In the spirit of Web 2.0, I would also like to congratulate YOU. After nearly a decade where we all focused on technology and the Internet, we are finally coming full circle. Man is not here to serve technology. Technology is here to serve man. Technologist get so caught up in the latest and greatest hardware and software that they forget that mankind is both the object and driver for all innovation, including technological innovation. And I’m not talking about the people who create technology. I’m talking about the people for whom technology is created. I am talking about the end-user.

I worked for an Internet company in Boulder Colorado from 1994 to 1996. We built collaboration tools for hospital systems. Our technology was more sophisticated than most of what is on the market today, including Basecamphq. But, surprise, surprise, the end-user wasn’t near ready for such tools. In 1996, doctors and their staff were considered "hi-tech" if they were receiving email. By 1997, they were responding to email. By 1999, they were attaching documents to email.

The great revolution that people are now calling Web 2.0 is, as the Time Magazine "Man of the Year" article suggests, man. Despite our penchant for the status quo, the general population is now willing to consider changing their habits at work and at home. The revolution is not collaboration tools, it is the end-users willingness to use them.

The good news is that mankind is now willing to sit at their computer and interface with various software programs for hours on end, not the least of which are the web browser and email applications. The bad news is…well, that man still has to sit at their computer in order to drive these applications. For those of you who know me well, you know that I believe that mankind must find a way to separate himself from the computer, while preserving the ability to interface with it. The answer for now is found in personal assistance and portable dictation devices which allow us to instruct others how to interface with software programs such as basecamp. The real "ah-ha" moment here will be when mankind realizes that they can still derive the benefit of software and hardware without sitting in front of the screens themselves.

Routing Digital Documents in Your Paperless Office

I’ve had so many requests over the last year or so concerning our internal process for scanning paper that it is overwhelming. As you may recall, we receive all incoming mail and review it in paper form before scanning it. We tried scanning it first and sending it to a special folder, but that proved inadequate. The old adage "out of sight, out of mind" left too many scanned documents un-reviewed for too long.

So how do we deal with the conversion process of paper to PDF? First, the mail comes in. A staff member puts a document cover routing sheet on the mail which covers a variety of items including priority, calendaring, tasks, scanning options, server filing, routing (including by email, regular mail, fax, leap file), special instructions, opening of new clients in extranet and PCLaw, and any other activity or action item which comes out of the document. Because I am no longer anonymous, I am free to post our document cover routing sheet here Download Document_Cover_Routing_Sheet.doc (48.0K)

The whole goal is to make sure that every important task, event and routing path arising out of each and every document is handled comprehensively on the front end. Unlike most firms which simply place a sticky on incoming mail as it routes its way through to their secretary, we try and spend a lot of time with each piece of paper on the front end. If a piece of correspondence from opposing counsel suggests two new task categories and five new task items, I dictate those while I am filling out the routing cover sheet for uploading into the extranet. All tasks get assigned at the same time. If a piece of paper has to be sent to the client and the expert, the document cover routing sheet indicates as such.

By filling in the routing sheet completely and dictating tasks while reviewing the paper, we make sure that virtually nothing falls through the cracks.

Don’t hesitate to post questions or comments concerning the document cover routing sheet below.

New Additions to your Marketing Toolbox

Chuck Newton has a great new post on my favorite extranet tool, basecamp. He correctly notes that basecamp is not only a great productivity and team collaboration tool, but also a marketing tool. How does basecamp end up in the marketing toolbox.

Because you are transparent to clients and increased the level of collaboration, your clients tend to think of you more for new projects. Your clients tend to think of you not only for new projects, but also on new issues on current projects. Your clients tell their friends about the fact that your law firm is completely transparent. Clients want to know what their attorneys are doing and are impressed by the fact that they are involved at every step along the way.

Wireless as a Supplement to Your Office Network

Wireless is all the rage. Many law offices have installed wireless networks. A good number of attorneys are working exclusively by laptop.

I have a Lenova IBM ThinkPad Tablet PC, fully loaded. But I still plug in my network cable every morning before turning my laptop on. Sure, I have a high-end wireless network in my office. But wireless does not run at the same speed as a cable network. Windows explorer doesn’t open as quickly on the wireless network. PCLaw doesn’t run nearly as fast on the wireless network (in fact, they told us when we ordered it that PCLaw did not work on wireless networks). Files open faster. All of this means less system crashes and blue screens.

When I first installed my wireless network, I thought that would be it. I never imagined also running Cat-5 cable into every office. But I soon learned the truth about wireless. Cat-5 is faster.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my wireless network. We have laptops all over the office performing various functions. I take my laptop into meetings and unplug from the cable network on numerous occasions throughout the day. But when I am sitting at my desk, I want the fastest network speed available. Right now, that means a cable network.

What is your experience with wireless in your office?

Sharing Details is Important if You Want to Change the Way Law is Practiced

As many of you know, I started out this blog talking a lot about my day-to-day experiences. It’s kind of like reality blog. I gave you the blow-by-blow. My emotions were worn on my cuff.

Recently, I have been blogging more about generic issues. I’ve talked a lot about digital dictation.

I blogged a lot about law firm marketing.

Other topics have included:

1. "Greatest Philosophy" If you ever wanted to know what my philosophical approach was to the practice of law, you would find it in this category.

2. "Problems with the Michigan Supreme Court" can be found here.

3. And of course, "extranets".

My brother is an attorney with 20 years experience. He is a partner with the firm he started out with right out of law school. He makes a good living and has been at his firm long enough to have escaped many of the pressures that drive attorneys early in their careers (being seen at your desk at the right times, working Saturdays, giving up vacations because of a "more important" legal research project or trial). He’s got a 3,000 sq ft house on the Black River and 39’ sail boat. He and his wife have been married something on the order of 15 years. They have 3 boys, 13, 11, and 9.

Two weeks ago my brother, Mark, gave notice to his firm that he was quitting his partnership and moving his family 300 miles north to start his practice all over again at our firm.

I’ll be blogging about Mark and my firm’s transition in the coming weeks. Yes, there will be issues that are personal to me (having a family member directly involved in my life for perhaps the very first time), practical issues related to integrating him into our process and philosophical issues (why Mark jumped and why you should too).

So stay tuned. It’s going to be an exciting time. Don’t forget that the Greatest American Blogger will be exposed on February 10, 2007.

The Advantage of Bulletin Boards Over Email

I have posted recently on challenges posed by the email inbox here and here. One of the advantages of our extranet system is that it contains a bulletin board system (BBS) inside the application. While not all of our clients communicate exclusively through the bulletin board, over 50% of the communication goes through there.

The advantage of the BBS is that it threads discussions much like Google’s gmail. There is no danger of a message or a comment to a message getting lost within the extranet. Everything is preserved in a single place and sorted by client and matter. Everyone on the team can see the communication, drastically reducing the chance that something will get lost in the mix. The problem with email is that it is typically uncategorized. Sure, people create folder systems in their email inbox and work diligently to put ingoing and outgoing emails into the appropriate folder. That approach is foolhardy. It takes way too much time to file emails by folder. Further, the risk that you’ll miss an important email makes the approach incredibly high-risk. By working through the extranet, emails are automatically sorted and categorized. This is one of the many advantages which an extranet has to offer.

The Importance of the Test-Drive

I little while back I posted about a the importance of remaining dedicated to the title "technologically advanced" (see "Staying Ontop of the Wave"). It is pretty universally accepted that those who work with this type of firm are always competing to discover and adopt the latest in technological advances that have the potential to make their work even easier and more efficient.

However, for many firms, saying you are dedicated to high-tech is much easier than remaining that way. Once you launch your Basecamp project management account, or purchase those new dictation devices, and than go through the hassle of training your staff in the use of all those things, it becomes extremely easy to stamp it as "high-tech" and leave it all alone.

Don't let yourself get caught in that trap. Stay abreast of the latest in breakthroughs, and when something comes up, don't be afraid to test-drive the technology. Test-driving is the most important thing that your firm can do to remain technologically advanced. Try different things out, even if you think your system is everything you need. Engineers across the globe are making breakthroughs upon breakthroughs, combining devices, making them faster, or creating something totally new in itself; and what you have today could very well be old news tomorrow. So, if something new and flashy comes around - give it a shot (perhaps in a small capacity) and see if it just might be of use to your office.

And don't feel like this is something that you need to be doing yourself. For a majority of new technologies, the time it would take for anyone to sift through the different options and commands is time you could better spend generating revenue. So if you hear about something, don't hesitate to ask a staff member to check it out themselves.

Things I hate about voicemail

Many people have commented over the last few years about the positives and negatives of voicemail. Some people don’t like having to speak to a recorder as opposed to a live body. I’ve always thought that was nonsense. The ability to provide a voice message to someone on an important issue is a huge step forward.

My problem with voicemail is that it takes forever to get to the message if you are on the receiving end. Why do you have to punch codes five levels deep in order to listen to your message? If I touch the "messages" button on my phone, that should be indication enough that I want to hear my voicemail messages. I shouldn’t have to enter my extension number. It should know my extension. I shouldn’t have to enter a password. I lock my offices and control who comes in and out. I don’t need a password to protect voicemail messages. I don’t need someone whether or not I want to listen to the message. Why should I have to press "0" to listen to my messages?

In the age of technology, speed is everything. Voicemail vendors need to get smart. They need to design systems that allow someone to grab voicemail with a single touch of the button and immediate access. My voicemail system, and most of the ones I’ve dealt with over the years, are exercises in overkill.

Does anyone know of a system out there that works better?

100,000 page loads / 50,000 unique vistors

For those of you who follow this website, you know that my firm uses blog software for its primary website. We do well into six figures in revenue each year in clients obtained over the web. In mass tort cases, we are currently representing thirty-five victims of a mass tort accident, which occurred thousands of miles from our office, all clients who found us through our blog. These cases represent seven figures in liability to the defendant who has admitted negligence.

In 2006, our firm did one hundred thousand page loads and fifty thousand unique visitors. I don’t know how that stacks up with other firms who monitor their web traffic, but I do know this. Many of these visitors came to our site to obtain representation. We brought the right kind of visitor to our website and turned a good number of those visitors into clients. Blogging and blog software has created a foundation upon which our firm grows each day. These tools have allowed us to develop a national client base. We are now perceived as experts across numerous practice areas.

It is also interesting to note that over eighty percent of our traffic comes from Google. The other search engines break down like this. Yahoo provides approximately ten percent and MSN approximately three percent of all of our traffic.

You would think this means that we do better in the Google search engine than in the other engines in terms of search engine results. Actually, the opposite is true. Yahoo and MSN put us on page one more often than Google. What this tells us is that Google is the dominate search engine by which our clients search for legal services.

I would be interested to hear from other attorneys who’ve successfully turned web traffic into clients. What has your experience been?

Project Management Technology

The technology known as Basecamp has been used in my firm for a while now. Through the technology we communicate with our virtual workers, assign tasks to specific cases and do most of what make us high-tech; however, Basecamp is a technology not meant to revolutionize the way that lawyers do their work, but to revolutionize the way in which any project of any kind is managed.

I have recently received word that a former employee at my firm, who is now off at college, has decided to test-drive Basecamp for a project he is in charge of in his student government. His goals may be very different than mine, but the commonality between us is that we are both leading projects with large tasks, and many people working together. As different as our projects may be, we both have seen the same increase in efficiency, transparency, and control that have greatly benefited our work.

The great thing about Basecamp is that you can achieve the common traits that make any project run smoother and faster, regardless of the nature of the project. Whether you are running a law firm or a student government project, a used-car dealership or a huge corporation; Basecamp will help you complete the projects that you set for yourself. If you have never tried Basecamp, regardless if your an attorney or not, I urge you to try their free account and see for yourself how your project can benefit.

The Power of Positivity

There is a great discussion going on in the blogosphere concerning the dependency of bloggers to point out what is wrong with the world.

David Maister has this post "Are We Too Negative" which started a vigorous debate (actually more folks agreeing with David that blogosphere may be making us more cynical).

Stephanie West Allan picked up on the discussion and provided these great links:

* Arnie Hurst "Seeing the Positive Side of Negativity in the Law Profession"

* Julia Fleming Brown "Look What’s Right"

* The transcript of Larry King Live on Positive Thoughts and the Benefits of Gratitude."

Beware Unsolicited Email from Prospective Clients

The ABA Journal has a great article called "Open Season on Email?".

The article analyzes an ethics opinion from the San Diego County Bar Association which concluded that attorneys who receive unsolicited emails from prospective clients can represent a client adverse to the sender of such email. Essentially, attorney in question received an email from the driver of a vehicle who hit the attorney’s current client. The issue was whether or not that unsolicited email precluded the attorney from representing, or continuing to represent, the current client arising out of the same auto accident.

The ethics committee, in my opinion, correctly decided that no attorney client relationship or expectation of a relationship is created by unsolicited email. The practical reality is that the internet makes communication so easy that lawyers would always be at risk of conflict of interest as a result of unsolicited emails.

Note that the lawyer in the unsolicited email even received information which would otherwise be strategically advantageous to the adverse party. Although the opinion covers a hypothetical situation, it is instructive for all attorneys who practice and market on the internet. Here is a link to the Opinion and your thoughts are welcome.

Dan Hull Over at the What About Clients? Blog has a Great Post on Maintaining Focus on Client Service in Your Law Firm.

Dan digs deep into the question of establishing a culture which demands daily excellence. Dan makes the excellent point that discipline is required to create and execute a plan. Too often, lawyers simply drift through their cases. They are billing by the hour so there is no incentive for laser focus and a commitment to execution.

One of the great things about our use of the Basecamp extranet is that all client project benchmarks are defined and executed in a chronological fashion. All to do items are identified. A client can see all of the to do items that will achieve their goal laid out right in front of them. We are completely transparent.

Great job Dan and keep up the great blogging.

GAL Says: Web Dictation Is Very Cool

As someone who does a lot of dictating, I have to say that web dictation is one of the coolest products I have seen.  Why?  Because all you need is a java enabled web browser to start dictating.  No downloads. No configuration. Click here for a free demo provided by UblogWEtype.com

"The (Greatest American) Google"

Our President knows so little about technology that he refers to Google as "The Google."  For those of us in the blogosphere, we all know technology.  We are jaded somewhat by the fact that we all get it. We should remember that in the blogosphere we are often singing to the choir. Good lord, he doesn't even email because he is afraid someone might say he actually did receive information (which presumably he would want to deny)!

His statement reminds me that technology can make people accountable.  Our extranet makes us transparent to our clients, for instance. Many lawyers have the same attitude as the President.  They spend their days insulating themselves from being held accountable.

As far as we have come in  the technology age, there are still many more miles to go ...ogle. 

Blogging for Business

It has always amazed me that people say you can’t generate business through a blog. Perhaps that was just a couple of years ago and things have changed for others. I would be interested to know whether or not there are people who are seriously blogging out there about their expertise and not generating business as a result. I would guess that 50% of our business is currently off the internet. We have blogs in a variety of niche practice areas from trade secret and noncompetes, to domain name disputes to investigation sites on mass accidents. Our search engines results are phenomenal through our blogs. On many days, I talk to and receive emails from five to ten people who are contacting us through our website. On an average week, we’ll retain five or more new clients on a variety of different matters.

So are the days where people say that blogging is purely a selfish and personal pastime gone? Are other companies besides mine realizing the business benefits of blogging? Please post a comment and weigh in one way or the other. I can’t possibly be the only one whose business model is driven by blogging. (And no, none of my business comes in through this website, which is purely noncommercial).

The Most Deadly Weapon in My Technology Quiver

I was thinking the other day about all the ways technology has changed my internal business process. I love Copernic Desktop Search because it brings my emails and files to me in milliseconds. There is no doubt that my Basecamp extranet has been a tremendous success for us internally and in terms of client service and satisfaction.

But there really is only one hands down winner in measuring the impact of any particular technology on our business success. There are no rivals in this category. Digital dictation is the engine that drives our business. Digital dictation has been the difference maker and allows for all the other technology tools to contribute.

It also occurred to me that some people would be surprised that digital dictation could be such a difference maker. After all, there are already numerous ways to dictate assignments, tasks, and correspondence. Even with the old cassette tape method, a good businessperson can get an awful lot done using dictation.

The difference for our firm is that we use dictation to type correspondence, pleadings, and motions just like everyone else. That only comprises of about five to ten percent of all of our dictation. I use digital dictation to dictate emails, email responses, virtually all of the extranet content, instructions to all of our internal staff and virtual workers, blog posts, and instructions to clients. Digital dictation is far more superior to email when it comes to managing and instructing workers and clients. Why? Because I do not have to be sitting at my computer in order to make it all happen. Because I can talk ten to 20 times faster than I can type. Because much of the work I do is while I am standing in my kitchen getting my kids ready for school, or driving in my car. Because, you see, digital dictation is also portable. I carry my Philips 9350 portable dictation device everywhere. When a great thought hits me, I quickly dictate it.

I often tell people that I do the work of three to five attorneys. Digital dictation is what allows that to happen. I have lots of internal staff and virtual workers all executing the tasks and goals that flow through my various dictation systems. Most lawyers share one secretary with one other lawyer. The difference? Digital dictation.

What I am telling you is that there is a lot more behind the technology of digital dictation than a new and improved way to prepare work product and speed up workflow. Digital dictation offers a brand new business process that unplugs the businessperson from both their computer and the office, allowing them to get stuff done during otherwise non-business and non-productive times.

You have heard me say it before; our firm is humming when I am dictating. When I am dictating, the staff is receiving tasks and assignments. When I am dictating, goals are being defined and projects being executed. When I am dictating, I am acting as the Coach and Quarterback rather than the Linemen and Wide Receiver.

Have you considered the impact which digital dictation might have on your blogging?

Return On Your Blogging Investment

One of the most amazing things to me when I launched my vertical blogs in a variety of niche content areas was that my total cost was $13.00 a month through TypePad for unlimited blogs. I designed my blogs a little different from most anyone else. I don’t have one blog where I talk about a variety of different things. I have blogs that are purely niche. Those blogs only talk about narrow issues within that niche. For instance, I have a domain name theft blog. It is a blog which deals exclusively with domain name theft, uniform domain name dispute resolution policy and domain name International Domain Name Arbitration. I have blogs in lots of other niche areas. But my blogs don’t bleed together. They are all independent and stand on their own. I use advanced templates within TypePad to create a standard "website" look for all of my blogs. When navigating between my niche areas, you have no idea you’re actually skipping between blogs. Because my blogs all link to each other, they increase the search engine results between them.

I do a tremendous amount of business off my blogs for $13.00 per month. Contrast the money I pay with TypePad to the money I pay for my Yellow Pages ad. I might get two or three clients a year off my Yellow Pages ad. I took a look the other day and I pay almost 100 times more for my Yellow Pages advertising and get 1/1000th the business.

When it comes to return on an investment, there is no marketing or advertising program I could have launched which is even in the same galaxy as blogging. The return on my blogging investment has been staggering.

I Don’t Understand The “I Don’t Have Time To Blog” excuse.

Many professionals and business executives simply say they have no time to blog. I don’t get this. By saying you don’t have time to blog is almost like saying you don’t have time to generate new customers. If you post your expert knowledge and commentary online within a narrow area of specialization, you in all likelihood dominate all the search engines within that category in six to twelve months. How could you not have time to blog?

Redundant Redundancy

I just realized how nice it is to have two laptop computers with virtually the exact set up on both. Sometimes, one laptop is not working the way it is suppose to. Other times, you have upgrades and tech support dealing with one computer. It is times like these that makes it really nice to be able to hop on your other laptop and still be up and running.

Have you considered having a redundant computer available to you at all times? What would you do if your laptop stopped working?

Follow-up on Tech-Show

I posted recently that I was a speaker at a technology show in my part of the state.  It was not focused on lawyers but businesses using technology to win. 

I did a one-hour presentation on “Blogging Your Way To Business Success.”  This was the most well attended presentation of all of the presentations at the show.  It surprised me that blogging would draw so much attention. 

What fascinated people was the ability to use a TypePad blog to generate six to seven figures worth of income as we do on our main website.  We create vertical content in a number of niche practice areas including non-compete contracts, trade secrets, domain name disputes and several other areas.  We sign up on average five to eight clients per week from our blogs. 

Very few law firms have reported similar results with their blogs.  What makes our blogs different?  First of all, we launch a separate blog for each niche practice area.  All the blogs are tied together with custom html so it looks like one seamless commercial website.  In fact, you wouldn’t even know that a website was built with blog software unless you were a blog aficionado. 

I think that is what makes our commercial blogging effort different than most others.  We use blog software to create a professional looking business website.  Perhaps as importantly, we don�