The Greatest American Lawyer

Attorney Collaboration? Yes, attorneys in the same office can work together

One of the downsides of hourly billing is the disincentive to collaborate. Clients don’t want to see multiple lawyers showing up on their hourly bill. Law firms and lawyers are sensitive to having collaborative work sessions where multiple people might show up on the time sheet.

We are doing a project for a start up company which involved approximately $20,000.00 worth of drafting projects, including license agreements, intellectual property creation and intellectual property protection. Our deliverables included a list of specific documents. The client had hired other firms over the last several years to achieve the deployment of the business model which he was tinkering with. But none of the lawyers were able to capture the business model with any specificity, and he simply threw out the documents paid for on an hourly basis.

On Friday, the three partners of our law firm sat in a conference room together with the client and collaborated over the first draft of our master licensing agreement. We had already had several face-to-face meetings with the client, had visited the client’s initial deployment in order to better understand the software itself and had been working within the extranet to identify key issues. We had developed a master Mind Map document identifying all the different stakeholders, potential licensees and intellectual property hurdles.

It occurred to me during the middle of this brainstorming session designed to spit out a solid first draft of the master licensing agreement that collaborative brainstorming sessions almost never happen in a traditional hourly billing law firm. And yet the value of that meeting and the key issues we identified and resolved can not be understated. On a flat fee basis, the firm has an incentive as a group to perform the promised deliverables in as efficient manner as possible. The hourly billing model treats collaboration as inefficient. The flat fee billing model treats collaboration as a valuable approach to focusing on and deciding key issues.

At the end of the meeting, we asked the client whether or not we were outperforming his prior law firms. He noted that the business model and approach of the firm was delivering exactly as promised. He stated his belief that our business model was in fact the one that would prevail in the market in the end because it is the one that made perfect sense. The client wasn’t blowing smoke. Everyone in the room knew that value had not only been promised but was being delivered.

The Distinction Between Business and Law

Because we do so much trademark work, we live in a world of notice letters, threat letters and draft complaints.

It never ceases to amaze me how many business opportunities are lost as a result of lawyers being so caught up in their threats, that they fail to see the opportunity for companies to work together.  I am working on a matter right now where one of the top social networking sites for women is allegedly infringing on a large newspaper publishing concerns magazine trademark.  The publishing company’s website is pretty weak, with extremely limited traffic.  It is a perfect opportunity for them to get in the game on the web instantaneously. 

But the lawyers are so caught up in making threats that they can’t see the opportunity staring them in the face.  Lawyers sometimes forget that their client’s interest is business, not law and certainly not litigation.  “Protecting their client’s interest” sometimes means stepping back from the threats and focusing in on the opportunity. 

The Impersonal Nature of Email

I recently posted The Etiquette of Email.  As a follow-up, Peter at the Solo In Chicago blog provides great insight into the appropriate use of email:

I'm amazed at the vitriol I see written via e-mail particularly from clients and on lawyer list serves. I really think that the impersonal nature of e-mail (typing on some electronic device by yourself) really brings out the worst in people. My personal policy is absolutely if there needs to confrontation or criticism, do it in person or over the phone. Time and again I see a tone of communication from people that they would NEVER express verbally but when it's not really expressed to a person but rather just typed into a box there's inappropriate anger.

I couldn’t agree with Peter more.  Email is a great way to transmit information.  It is a terrible communication device.  If anything serious is happening in a case, a phone call is mandatory.  A follow-up email is fine. 

The Evil Side Effect of Lawyer Advertising: More Consumer Information

The proliferation of lawyer websites, law firm websites, lawyer blogs and even LinkedIn profiles have literally exploded the amount of information available to consumers of legal services.  There has been a steady debate about whether or not lawyer blogs constitute lawyer advertising and how the advertising rules impact law firm websites which often include testimonials, a listing of favorable results and representative clients.  Within the LinkedIn community, clients can provide recommendations to the lawyers they’re connected to.  Clients sometimes brag about their lawyers on bulletin board systems and even on their own websites. 

I got in a debate the other day with a lawyer who believed that all of the above forms of information were unethical and constituted impermissible lawyer advertising.  This lawyer’s view is that no lawyer should allow to have anything except a web page including your name, address and phone number.  What a crock!

Anyone that would suggest that consumers were better off before the advent of the Internet in shopping for legal services is smoking crack.  Anyone who’s worked in a law firm knows that the vast majority of clients walk in the door with absolutely no prior experience with attorneys, law firms, and in many instances legal services in general.  Before the Internet, they were placed completely at the mercy of the lawyer sitting across the big fancy table.  In that, “face-to-face” meeting, the chance that a consumer could escape without first paying a hefty retainer fee was slim to none.  Even in matters in which the lawyer had no expertise, they could always sound smart enough to land the client.

In the Internet age, a client and virtually every possible legal matter can go to the Internet and educate themselves concerning the basic legal principles involved, review lawyer websites which explain the key elements, compare law firms through the information on their websites located all across the state, the country or the world.  They can make calls and get free consultations from many different law firms before making a decision; providing the client with a variety of different fee options.

Of course, this doesn’t even begin to touch on the amount of pro bono information that is provided by every lawyer who blogs, providing scores of individuals who cannot afford any legal services in-depth information in order to engage in legal self-help. 

I’ve always believed that there are really two classes of potential clients who might review information on the Internet.  The first are injury clients who are often vulnerable.  The second is everyone else.  Most of whom are looking for legal advice regarding business, real estate and other matters which do not imply vulnerability.  The concept that business people can be deceived by law firm websites which include a representative list of sample cases is laughable.  The anti-advertising contingent builds its argument on the foundation that legal consumers are fundamentally stupid.  I believe that most of that contingent is simply trying to avoid having to compete.  They would prefer it if there were no ready options available to clients and virtually no information from which a perspective client can educate themselves.  I believe it is the ethical duty of every lawyer to provide information concerning their practice, areas of specialization, representative cases and results.  They should be obligated to provide information concerning the fee options and billing policies.  Legal consumers win as information about lawyers and law firms proliferate, whether self-generated by the law firms and lawyers themselves or as commentary by other people.  The people who contact our law firm are overwhelmingly smart, intelligent consumers who have contacted several law firms, educated themselves about the legal issue they are facing and ask all the right questions prior to retention.

Have you considered dictating your emails?

In my previous post, I noted the rising problem etiquette in email.  I attribute this in part to text messaging, which, by its nature, kinds to be cryptic, short and almost painfully to the point. 

Virtually everyone who has an email account has a web version of that account.  We strongly recommend authorizing staff to access an attorney’s webmail account in order to send dictated email messages.  I would say that at least of 15% of all of my email is dictated, transcribed by staff and sent through my webmail account.

Dictating email has huge advantages.  First of all, it allows you to say more in a lot less time.  Second, you can dictate an email from anywhere that you have a portable recording device.  My Blackberry has built-in dictation.  I’m dictating this blog post into my phone, which will be auto-routed to my staff’s email account for transcription.  This allows me to work from anywhere and specifically to draft emails from anywhere. 

But the biggest advantage I think is that it allows you to be a lot more comprehensive when providing information to someone by email.  You could cover a many more issues in an email which you spend ten minutes dictating, then you can in an email you spent ten minutes typing yourself.

We include a disclaimer at the bottom of the email that the email was in fact dictated and transmitted by a staff member.  We believe that dictation is one of the most underutilized tools in virtually every law firm.  Digital dictation provides so many advantages over cassette tape dictation as we have previously noted, here, here and here.  The biggest problem is that many attorneys haven’t realized that dictation can handle a lot more than cover letters and pleadings.  It can be used to pass information onto to staff, to delegate tasks and even to draft email.  Have you considered leveraging dictation with your email technology? 

The Etiquette of Email

I think we all know not to turn our caps lock button on when we send email by this point in Internet history.  However, the rise of text messaging has created a shift in email etiquette.  Email recipients are much more willing to accept short cryptic messages sent by text through a Blackberry, Palm or otherwise.  In fact, using short hand and abbreviations is commonplace.  I often wondered whether the advent of text messaging has spilled over into the email arena. 

Short cryptic responses in email are sometimes inevitable.  But much of the time they are not received well by the recipient who may feel that the lack of attention suggests that they are being nuisanced, that their question wasn’t appropriate, that you don’t have time for them or other negative implications. 

I think it is important that when we send emails, we try and retain as many of the formalities of a signed, dated and transmitted letter as possible.  A three sentence response may still be appropriate, but it is my belief that the expectations of the recipient are still fairly high.  Don’t let the text message mentality spill over into your email account.  You may find that you are sending all the wrong messages to the people most important to you. 

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. 

The Relationship between Quality and Origination

Every law firm has to grapple with the issue of bringing in new clients, and starting new projects for existing clients.  For the purposes of this post, I will refer to both concepts as origination.

Origination can occur in a variety of different ways.  Many lawyers originate by going out to the golf club, yacht club or rotary club in order to meet new people and essentially solicit their business. 

But the best way to originate is to simply focus on quality.  During periods where the firm is doing the best quality work, new clients tend to find their way to our front door and old clients approach us with new projects.  There is no better business card than a satisfied client.  Quality is the ultimate origination tool. 

The Donald Says: Never Give Up!

You might recall my son Echo's poem about perseverance last week. Looks like Donald Trump is following the GAL blog. :-)

Wealth-Protecting Tactics of the Ultra-Rich - Inside Trump Tower : With the Right Mindset, You Can Overcome Any Problem.

Don't dwell so much on a problem that you've exhausted yourself before you can even entertain a solution. It just doesn't make sense. It takes brainpower and energy to think positively and creatively -- and to see creatively and positively. Going negative is the easy way, the lazy way. Use your brainpower to focus on positives and solutions and your own mindset will create your own luck. Shakespeare put it this way, in a famous quote from Julius Caesar: "The fault is not in our stars, dear Brutus, but in ourselves." Donald Trump.

Technorati Tags: trump, rich, perseverance

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A Fully Integrated Blog into a Law Firm Web Site

I’ve been busy these last six weeks working with graphic designers and web developers on our new law firm web site with a fully integrated blog.  As those of you who have been following the firm know, we have in fact used TypePad blog software as our firm web site.  We are one of the few firms in the world to have shunned web pages in favor of a pure blog presence.  For those who haven’t been following the firm, you can check out our current (and soon to be outdated) design at the Traverse Legal web site here. 

Most lawyers who blog, do so separate from their firm web site.  Typically, there is a link from the website to the blog and vice versa, but they are separate.  Some firms include a navigation link within their firm website to the blog.  But the fundamental design of the web site is different than the blog.  Again, they are presented as distinct.  It has always bothered me that blogging is viewed as a separate activity from a law firm website.  Most law firms have decided (in error in my judgment) that they want absolute control over everything that goes on the firm’s site.  Many lawyers who blog, do so with the explicit or implicit permission of the law firm essentially “on the side.”

Our new web site will be a combination of traditional web pages and blogs.  They will be fully integrated so there will be no design differences between the blog pages and the web pages.  Our goal is to set the mark for law firm blog and web site design.  While there are few others who are moving in the same direction as us, we believe we will have the most sophisticated, fully integrated, dynamic, web 2.0 law firm web site in the world.   It is our hope to be online with the new site in a couple of weeks.  But I did want to give you a heads up about what was coming.

Will the Recession Hit Legal Services?

One of my favorite bloggers is Gerry Riskin over at the Amazing Firms Amazing Practices blog.  Gerry recently posted a wonderful article about “Seven Key Strategic Factors in Order to Recession-proof the firm.” I have never understood whether recessions are good or bad for law firms.  It seems to me that when recessions hit, companies start breaching their contracts, managers stop looking the other way when people are violating their rights and the overall sourness of the economy creates a more litigious mindset.  Recessions are probably more likely to hit large law firms because their client’s tend to be megacorporations. 

Regardless, what struck me about Gerry’s list is that it has perfect application for the day-to-day business of any law firm, in good times and bad.  Here is the bullet list.

• Strong Leadership
• Ramp Up the Frequency of Financial Data Reporting
• Make the Hard Decisions Humanely and Fast
• Get Practice Leaders and Client Team Leaders focused on short-term action plans
• Involve Your Clients
• Manage Internal Expectations
• This Too Shall Pass

If you want the specifics, you’ll need to go to Gerry’s blog. 

Blogging: What Do You Have to Lose?

Today I overheard two businessmen talking about advertising.  Both of them were unhappy with the amount of response to their latest advertisements.  One mentioned that he advertised via cable television while the other advertised exclusively in print media, including magazines, newspaper, and mail flyers.  At a minimum, each was spending $400.00 per advertisement type.

The worst part was that these advertisements had a predetermined shelf life.  They were printed or shown on TV, and then they were gone; never to be found again by interested consumers.   Despite the unsuccessfulness of these ads, both businessmen mentioned how they continue to advertise and hope that one consumer will walk in the door because of it.

Why not blog?  For less than what would be spent on one print advertisement in a newspaper, we are able to provide as much content as we want throughout the year.  Not only is our content available every minute of every day, but more importantly, it never goes away.  Of course, if the Internet ever does go away, so would our advertisements.  However, I’m sure you all agree that that will never happen.  Instead the Internet continues to become the preferred method by which consumers search for information, providers of goods and services, and new things on which to spend money.

What better way to show your expertise, communicate to interested consumers worldwide, and gain an amazing return on investment than through a blog.  Not only is it quick, easy, and effective, it’s also quite fun. So go out there and start blogging.  Before you know it, your blog will likely become the main avenue through which you bring in new customers.  Brian

This Blog is My Blog, This Blog is Your Blog

Enrico, Mark, and I met last week to discuss our blogging efforts.  We all agreed that publishing content to our blogs and on other online trade journals are extremely important.  Not only does it allow us to broadcast our expertise across the world, but it also allows us to comment on the state of the law as seen through the eyes of other experts.  Moreover, it truly allows us to expand our knowledge base and hone our ability to effectively communicate our position on important and popular topics.  In fact, emerging areas of law receive as much attention through blogs as other material.

As we discuss the importance of blogging for our business, we also realize the importance of blogging for the Greatest American Lawyer.  Enrico made clear, as can be seen throughout the historical posts on the Greatest American Lawyer, that the Greatest American Lawyer is not one person.  Rather, it is an ideal.  As such, we are continuously striving as a firm and individual lawyers to become the Greatest American Lawyer.  There is no reason why all three of us should not be posting great information and content to the Greatest American Lawyer blog.

There are definitely days where I believe Enrico is in fact the Greatest American Lawyer.  However, I see his point and his vision through this blog.  As such, I will happily be posting more often than before.  Not only does it allow me to continuously strive to become what we envision to be the Greatest American Lawyer, but it also allows me to hone my ability to communicate, learn new technology areas that will advance our business, and continue to differentiate myself as a lawyer from the millions of others who practice law on daily basis.  So, keep an eye out for new information and happenings through the eyes of this Greatest American Lawyer. 

Brian

As Bad as Hourly Billing is for Clients, It’s worse for Lawyers.

I’m a member of the Grand Traverse Bar Association for Grand Traverse, Antrim and Leelanau Counties for the State of Michigan.  I spoke at a seminar last week to a handful of local lawyers about technology and innovation.  I have to say that I was a little nervous as to whether anyone even cared about that issue locally.  I haven’t thought about it in years.  I don’t have a substantial presence locally.  Most of our clients are from somewhere else. 

But the turnout was solid.  I told them that I couldn’t possibly delve deep enough into any one thing to make it worthwhile in an hour’s time.  So instead, I told them that I would be inundating them with as much technology and innovation in the next 60 minutes as I possibly could.  The title of the presentation was The Top Ten Tech Tips For Lawyers.  I’ll be blogging in the next few days about what my top ten tech tips where.  Even cooler, I’ll be telling you about each and every piece of software on my desktop computer and how it fits into my business process.  I figure as long as I get to tell them what I’m running, I may as well share it with you as well.

But there is one thing that stands out most from my presentation.  It was how true it struck when I said the words “as bad as hourly billing is for clients, it’s worse for lawyers.”  The room was filled with silence.  No one said anything.  But I doubt anyone disagreed.  Let me say it again.  As bad as hourly billing is for clients, it’s worse for lawyers.  To live your life as though each minute spent doing something else besides billing the client was a wasted moment is a waste of life.  You know the feeling I’m talking about.  Your wife calls.  She’s telling you about some otherwise seemingly trivial part of her day (which is a huge part of her day) and you’re thinking about the fact that you’ve only got four and half hours in today and already four o’clock.  You’re trying to be polite at best, but mostly you’re trying to get back to your hours.  Imagine a life where each hour was measured exactly the same.  It sounds like communism to me.  It doesn’t matter how hard you work or the quality of your work, you get paid the same.  If capitalism is all about incentives, then we cannot help but pose the most fundamental question of all.  What is the incentive of the billable hour.

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. 

Becoming an Expert in the Internet Era

It used to be you had to go to school to learn stuff. Why? Because they had the books and the experts which could teach you the things you wanted to know. If you wanted to become an expert on trademark law, you had to go to law school, work your way through the system until you were able to take electives for intellectual property, buy the book which contained the principles in the cases and listen to the expert professor walk you through each doctrine.

Word of Mouth Marketing

Kevin O’Keefe over at Real Lawyers Have Blogs picked up on our thread about blogging with a post called "Word of mouth gets lawyers their best work: Spend Internet marketing dollars there."

Kevin picked up on comment I made on a post called "Showing off Your Expertise." I had noted that there was more eyeballs surfing the web than there are mouths standing at the fence line. Kevin correctly notes that lawyers have always gotten their best work, best clients and most rewarding relationships from word of mouth. A lawyer’s reputation is everything. Reputation certainly has many components including character, accountability, temperament and other qualities. But the quality which most often drives word of mouth referrals is a lawyer’s expertise. Clients and referral counsel want the best lawyer available.

Kevin picks up on something I have not yet posted about, that is the community aspect of blogging. Kevin notes:

Blogging is about networking with thought leaders in your niche, being seen by your target audience as you both cite thought leaders in your blog and are cited in the blogs of others, and talking with your potential clients in a transparent way as I do here with you. That's word of mouth at its finest.

Kevin is absolutely correct. Blogging allows you to build relationships with the very people who are thought leaders in your niche. And don’t make the mistake of thinking of other experts in your field as competition. Think outside the box. Other lawyers who are also experts in your niche are the very people that you want to be blogging about, linking to and building relationships with. If you are truly an expert, you will achieve reciprocity. As importantly, you will create dialog on the most important issues facing your vertical market.

Kevin also makes a correct observation that lawyers who blog as a way to achieve cheap SEO are missing the main point. Yes, blogging about your expertise will likely bring you to page one of Google search returns within your niche. But it is the relationships you gain, the community you build and the reputation you achieve which will provide the real value. And trust me. When it comes to attorney blogging, no one in the world knows as much as Kevin O’Keefe at Lexblog.

Take a look at some of my favorite blogs created by Kevin and his team for lawyers who are establishing and showing off their expertise:

• E-Discovery Bytes (run by a group of bloggers over at Quarles & Brady as noted here. This is a great example of "divide and conquer blogging" wherein several lawyers from one firm share off their cumulative expertise within a vertical niche. 
• Securing Innovation Blog, managing intellectual property, patents, trademarks and trade secrets. A relatively new blog run by another group of bloggers sharing their cumulative expertise.
• Brain and Spine Injury Law Blog published by Timothy Titolo of the Titolo Law Office. This is a great example of a niche blog. Mr. Titolo doesn’t try and blog about all aspects of personal injury. He focuses in on brain and spine injury providing a phenomenal resource on those issues and leaving little question as to his expertise.

Anyone reading any of the above blogs immediately knows that the people involved with these blogs are in fact experts. In fact, in three years time, I have never had a client ask me whether or not I really was an expert on, say, cybersquatting. Our firm’s cybersquatting blog leaves no doubt that we are a leading authority on cybersquatting issues. The blog allows any prospective client or referral counsel to do more due diligence on you than any other due diligence vehicle.

If you have expertise within a niche area of legal practice, why are you hiding it? Start blogging and you will establish yourself as an expert in the global marketplace.

Get Vertical! And Get Blogging.

The biggest advantage of blogging technology is the ease with which you can post content. As noted previously, it still takes time, energy and focus in order to drive great content and show off your particular expertise. For many lawyers, however, establishing and extending expertise is simply a part of their professional practice. Lawyers who are true experts almost inevitably publish articles in journals and participate in presentations. Both of these activities also take time. Compared to putting together a PowerPoint presentation, traveling and attending a conference presentation, blogging really is easy. Blogging also offers an advantage over drafting articles for legal publications. Blogging is less formal, there are no "minimum word" requirements and is less formal (i.e. an occasional typo or grammatical error is far less important).

That’s not to say that a lawyer who is spreading their tail feathers on the Internet by blogging should abandon these other activities. What I am suggesting is that a lawyer with limited time might consider one less presentation and one less formal article in order to find time to blog. There is little question that blogging reaches a wider audience than attendees at a seminar. And blogging provides a permanent footprint on the Internet, unlike a paper magazine which gets thrown out at the end of the week or month.

In watching blogs come and go over the last four years, I have noted some approaches which have been successful and ones which have been far less successful. For that category of blogs that I would label "expert blogs", the key is to "get vertical." Getting vertical means finding your expertise and showing off just that expertise. Most blogs try and do too much. You can’t have a blog about being an attorney. The category is too broad. While you theoretically could launch a blog about intellectual property, you’re much better off to launch a blog about trademark issues, or copyright cases being decided at the federal bench, or key patent decisions. I will be talking this week about what it means to "get vertical" in order to give your blogging the best chance for success. Remember, you can’t be everything to everyone. And if you are truly an expert, there is a finite list of things and topic areas which you can credibly call your own. And while having more traffic is fine, generating quality traffic is much better. A newspaper can drive a lot of online "horizontal" content. A paper can put articles online about dog shows, corrupt politicians and water treatment plants. But a newspaper isn’t showing off its expertise. It is showing off its lack of expertise. It is general and broad by nature.

An expert blogger on the other hand wants to speak to a particular type of person. An expert blogger wants a very particular visitor to visit their website. An expert blogger wants web traffic from people who will hire them, whether they are prospective clients, referral attorneys or in-house corporate counsel.

I know that a person that types in "noncompete lawyer" into Google is very likely looking for me. The chance that person might actually retain me, assuming I can prove my expertise through my blogpost, is relatively high. (Note that when you type "noncompete lawyer" into Google, our law firm website comes up on page one at the tcattorney.typepad.com/noncompete). Someone that types in "compete for food in non-Asian countries" might very well find my site but that web visitor certainly isn’t buying my expertise.

Different Blogging Styles Achieve Different Results.

There are lots of blogging styles out there. There are lots of different agendas being promoted by lawyers. Carolyn Elafant over at the myshingle.com blog promotes small and solo firms to other lawyers and as an alternative for potential clients to consider. She does a great job promoting the solo practitioner.

But the type of blog I want to talk about is somewhat different. It is a blog that establishes very narrow, vertical niche expertise. It is a marketing blog which creates the potential to match a client with a particular problem with the lawyer, who has expertise in solving that problem. This style of blogging is a great example of vertical marketing and can be found here.

As you will see from the example blog at our law firm, we specialize in cybersquatting, typosquatting and domain name dispute matters. We have a blog that is devoted to cybersquatting news and cybersquatting cases, both under the ACPA and the UDRP. Clients who type in "cybersquatting lawyer" on Google find that our firm is ranked in the first three results as illustrated here.

I’ll be talking more about clients who find us on the web this way. For now, take a look at our domain dispute and cybersquatting blog and notice that it immediately establishes our expertise in this practice area.

Showing Off Your Expertise

Granted, most lawyers don’t think much about marketing. Some lawyers still look at the concept of marketing as somehow unsavory. Why it is some lawyers think this way?

Preserve the status quo: Some lawyers don’t like advertising because they’ve been around a long time and they don’t want to compete. Some of these law firms live off of their momentum and the fact that their law firm name is well known in the community. These law firms fundamentally think advertising is bad for the simple reason that advertising is going to create more choices for consumers.

Advertising is unethical: Some lawyers believe that advertising is unethical. They think it is somehow beneath the profession to create a marketing message for consumers to consider. Much of this way of thinking is driven by the ambulance chaser advertisement message used by some personal injury attorneys. It is true that advertising needs to be regulated when it comes to people who are extremely vulnerable. Someone who has just been seriously injured in an auto accident doesn’t need a high pressure sales pitch, gross exaggeration or the like. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water here. A very small percentage of legal consumers are injured people. Most legal consumers are in fact private individuals or corporations looking for a good law firm to help with a business or professional problem. For this group of legal consumers, advertising provides information and educates consumers on choice.

Word-of-mouth lawyers: Many law firms simply rely on word-of-mouth as opposed to advertising. For those law firms that can get by on word-of-mouth, that’s wonderful. But I have never spoken to a lawyer or a law firm, no matter how big, that didn’t want more work, better clients or higher quality projects to work on. Besides, word-of-mouth and reputation are the exact qualities which any lawyer marketing campaign should promote. Many of the lawyers who are considered to be the best in their niche, publish articles, give speeches and participate in presentations for this very reason.

The Internet offers a wonderful vehicle to establish your expertise as an attorney. And there are a lot more eyeballs surfing the web than there are mouths standing at the fence line talking about legal services. I cannot think of any better way to establish and promote your expertise than to publish online. There is no better tool for accomplishing this goal than blogging.

Blogging for Business

At this point in blogging history, there are lots of different types of blogs. Many blogs are like this one. They’re educational and informative in nature. They are noncommercial journals of sorts generating thought and commentary.

Approximately four years ago, I started blogging about niche legal practice areas. At that point, blogging to generate business was on the cutting edge. In fact, many bloggers were commenting that blogs were inherently non-commercial in nature. There was a bit of a stigma to using blogs in a commercial fashion. My thinking was that people would go to the web to identify professionals who had published information about the niche legal practice area with which they were presented. An auto accident victim would go to the web to determine what their rights were. A company owner would go to the web to learn about non-compete issues on the cusp of hiring a new top-level employee. A start-up web company would do Internet research to determine whether or not the name they are thinking about for their company has cybersquatting or trademark issues associated with it.

In short, I began blogging for business. Today, there are lots of niche practice area blogs out there authored by lawyers who want to show off their particular expertise. If you are considering launching a blog, you need to decide initially what your purpose will be. Are you looking to express your first amendment rights about a particular subject? This Greatest American Lawyer Blog is a great example of what I call a first amendment blog. If your goal is to drive business, however, you need to think outside the box. The format and style of your blog needs to be fundamentally different than what you see here. In the coming weeks, I will be sharing all of our knowledge about blogging for business. We will be showing you specific examples of how we have designed our commercial blogs to show off our expertise in various niche practice areas, and the style of writing which we believe provides you your best chance of converting web surfers into clients. As individuals and top-level executives go to the web at an increasing rate to find lawyers with expertise in niche practice areas, you want to be standing on page one of the organic Google results. We are going to show you how.

Generating Blog Content

We’ve all heard it from associates and other professionals. "I don’t have time to blog."

I’ve always been amazed by this statement. We generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in business as a result of our niche practice area blogs. From our point of view, how could a professional not have time to blog?

When the Yellow Pages' guy calls and wants me to spend a couple thousand dollars on an ad, I always tell him the same thing. "I pay $13.00 a month for my TypePad account and generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in business. Can you guarantee me the same the return?"

Of course, the conversation ends quickly at that point. But I do appreciate one undeniable fact. It does take time to generate quality blog content.

In the next week or two, I’ll be sharing some of our secrets about blogging and, specifically, lowering the barriers to generating blog content. As a firm that generates as much or more business than any other firm globally as a direct result of blogging, you won’t want to miss the next series of posts.

Staying Focused Over the Holidays

I love the holidays.  For some reason, I always feel like life is starting again after Christmas.  The possibilities once again seem endless.  Opportunity abounds. 

It used to be that I was also very distracted by the holidays.  For some reason, I would loose momentum and become less focused.  When you practice law on your own terms and by the force of your own will, I find it is much easier to keep your eye on the ball during the holidays.  When you are essentially working for yourself, it is much easier to attack each day in relaxed and undistracted matter.  It is easier to make big things happen without the pressure of answering to someone else.

There is something about working for yourself that changes the whole dynamic of work.  When I worked for a firm, the money pretty much came in no matter what I did or did not do.  Because there were many other attorneys all pulling on the ores, cash flow was rarely a problem.  The bi-weekly paycheck got paid. 

But it was truly difficult to get inspired about going above and beyond the call of duty in a traditional law firm.  I knew that I would receive somewhere between one and six pennies for every dollar I brought in by way of bonus.  It should be pretty obvious that earning $60.00 for $1,000.00 in revenue or $600.00 for every $10,000.00 in revenue isn’t much of an incentive. 

Today, I got up out of bed with the same thought I wake up with on most mornings.  I want to get the day started so I can get to work and make something special happen for me or my clients.  It has now been almost three years since I started my firm.  I know have two partners, four staff and a slew of virtual workers.  This expansion has allowed us to take on major federal court cases across the country for large corporate clients. 

So as the new year approaches, I am already struck by how thankful I am for everything that remains possible in this coming year.  Opportunity is everywhere.  And my partners and I have the talent, will and desire to explore and expand on those opportunities.  What more could a lawyer ask for?   

Clients Who Don’t Understand Value

Over the past three years we have had two clients who we have asked to find other representation.  Both of these clients could not or would not grasp the concept of value billing.  In both cases, the clients wanted to know how many hours were spent and the billing rate of the lawyers involved.  In each instance, they believed that, because of our expertise, it shouldn’t have taken us very long to analyze the background information and generate a threat letter.

In both instances, the early email exchanges made it clear that these clients were going to use our expertise against us.  Their view was that they ought to receive our expertise at no charge.  Both instances involved a low level $1,200.00 threat letter.  This involved obtaining all the background information from the client, doing independent research and generating a five page threat letter with dozens of pages of attachment. 

In each instance, the deliverables were specifically defined and approved by the client ahead of time.  In each instance, every deliverable was achieved.  In both instances, the client did not receive the ultimate result they were seeking.  In the latest incident, a cybersquatter had provided all false registrant information.  Thus, the threat letter was not received by either certified mail and/or email.  The client’s position was that since the letter was not received, no value had been provided.  As we began discussing the matter with the client, all of the client’s communication focused around the number of hours involved.  The client erroneously assumed that the firm had not done all of its independent research, had worked diligently to try and identify false information.  In fact, the firm had taken on an investigation of a separate domain name under a different registrant at the client’s request in order to develop a tie between the two domains at the registrant level.  Despite all of that, the fact that service had not been achieved, an issue common in the domain area and of course beyond anyone’s control, was driving the client batty. 

Despite the fact that value and deliverables had been specifically defined and approved up-front, it became very clear that the client’s idea of value was not on pre-approved deliverables but that a single letter would result in immediate relief to the client.  The domain name would be voluntarily transferred immediately upon the receipt of the letter with little or no further activity.  In short, all the red flags were pointing to a mismatch between our services and the client.  We returned the client’s fee despite having provided all of the deliverables and provided recommendations to two other law firms who specialize in the particular area of law. 

What the client failed to realize is they had received tremendous value despite the lack of service (which would be inevitable once additional project phases were completed and the registrant was identified):

1. The five page threat letter would eventually be used with the registrant of the domain, or against the competitor which the client would ultimately reuse it for if a link was established;

2. The firm’s expertise in this area of law which allowed for a threat letter to be generated the same day as the project start date with all of the background facts and relevant law included;

3. The fact that our firm didn’t have to do any independent research to know exactly what the client’s rights were and the appropriate course of action on behalf of the client;

4. The flat fee quote itself.  This same project completed by another hourly law firm would have no doubt cost two to four times more than the flat fee our firm charged.  This is because of two primary factors.  The first is that most firms would not have the background and expertise to immediately act on the matter.  Second factor is that the client came to us in “emergency mode” seeking immediate response and results, as well as extending the project beyond its original definition.  Hourly lawyers love clients in this situation.  This client was so outranged by the cybersquatting, that an hourly billing lawyer would have had lots of different directions to go and possible hours to accumulate.

5. The fact that the deliverables were defined.  Again, an hourly billing lawyer could have taken the matter in many different directions almost immediately.  The opportunity for the lawyer without and project definition or cap on spending could have easily gotten to five or eight thousand dollars within a couple of days of work.  Defining deliverables takes risk off of the client that the number will simply grow and grow.

6. The fact that as in any phase one project, you are merely building a foundation for the future phases.  Our project specifically included negotiations or drafting of any documents assuming that the cybersquatter was willing to turn over the domains.  And the real value came from tying the particular domain to the client’s competitor.  The real value to the client, worth a lot of money, would be data tying the competitor to the infringing domain.  After sending the client on their way, we went ahead and completed what would have been phase two of the project, seeking to tie the competitor with the domain.  We have access to tools that few other attorneys, even those specializing in this area, can utilize.  We went ahead and spent the money required to access the database to see if we could find.  We actually found we actually found the smoking gun data to tie the domain and the competitor together.  Of course, we smile knowing that the client may never obtain that information, even if they spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars with another domain specialist.

A law firm should never hesitate to monitor “red flag clients”, return their money even when you’ve delivered each and every item and send that client on their way.  I’ve always believed that law firms make their money by insuring they receive a solid match with clients.  Stated the other way, a law firm can lose a lot of money really quickly on a client that doesn’t understand and realize the value they are being provided.  The above client will in all likelihood spend significantly more money on an hourly fee lawyer and may never achieve anything close to the results our firm is uniquely positioned to deliver.  That is unfortunate for the client.  However, you can’t have it both ways.  One of the benefits of value billing is that the client knows exactly what they are going to pay for a particular set of deliverables.  Capping your exposure is a huge benefit over the hourly billing model.  Clients that want to have their cake and eat it to should suffer the hourly bill over the longer period only then will they understand and appreciate value billing.

Driving Your Cases Forward

One of the best benefits of the extranet is that it provides you with a unique ability to continue to drive your cases forward. Lawyers in traditional law firms tend to be far more reactive than proactive. They are putting out fires, rather than driving results. We are constantly reviewing our extranet on a project by project basis. By looking at the previous tasks and latest messages, it is almost always obvious what needs to happen next. Driving that next set of tasks is as simple as dictating them someone else who puts them into the extranet.

Finding and Fulfilling Your Potential

My nine year old son tested into the gifted program this year which required him to change schools.   He is no longer on the bus path.  As a result, I get the privilege of driving him to school each day at 7:35 in the morning. 

It’s only a four minute drive but each day we find something significant to talk about. 

Today, I was finishing up a GAL blogpost on my portable dictation as we were walking out the door.  I asked my son whether or not he minded if I finished the post.  He listened as I finished what you now see as the last post before this one.  He asked why I was always “talking into that thing all the time.”  I laughed and told him I had a lot to say.  I lead a pretty balanced life and spend good quality time with my family.  But I’m also constantly working in the background.  Evenings, weekends and vacations.  My digital dictation isn’t far away and my laptop computer is almost always on and handy.  Yes, sometimes this interferes with family time. 

The fact is, I do have a lot to say.  And my cases require a lot of attention.  And you never know when that critical task or client message is going to pop into your head.  And there is a beauty and benefit to being able to download it onto your portable dictation before it melts away.  Doing a data drop is better than letting the data pile up in your brain, continually pushing you out of the moment. 

I told my son that someday I wouldn’t be such a workaholic.  But I told him that there are things that I was saying and the things I am doing are important.  The GAL blog will be a permanent biography of one of the most exciting, creative and important periods of my life.   It will be here for my children and their children.  In the lessons found herein may be some of the most important lessons I ever teach to them.

We talked about how important it is to identify and then fulfill potential.  I encouraged him to be patient in finding the things that mean the most to him and then driving towards them over the course of his life.  I explained that I was fulfilling my potential in how important it is to balance your obligations to mankind, in my case the legal profession, myself and my family.  Everyone is Superman at something.  He understands that it would be inappropriate for superman to ever sit on the sidelines and watch his potential to help and change the world go unrealized.

Have you found your inner Superman?  Does your firm support and encourage you to find and realize all of your super powers?  The reason that I ask is that it’s almost the end of the year.  It time to start thinking about changing your life.  Most lawyers leave their firms in January, after bonuses are paid for the previous years work.  And any lawyer that works for their firm for a half a year never gets paid for the half they worked since that payment comes only at the end of the year.

So I encourage any lawyer that feels unfulfilled, unsupported and uninspired to consider change.  There is much more to gain than there is to fear. 

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?