TechnoLawyer

Originally published on September 26, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

"What's happening?" That one little prompt on Twitter spurs thousands of tweets every single second. It has given way to country-defining revolutions, some of the biggest reporting scoops of our generation, and life-saving warnings of natural disasters.

But for busy professionals at small law firms like yours, that prompt prevents so many lawyers and other professionals from using Twitter, which has an onboarding problem. Onboarding refers the process of enabling new users to quickly benefit from a service. For example, when you signed up for SmallLaw, you knew you'd start receiving newsletters like today's issue.

Regarding Twitter, why would prospective clients want to know what you ate for breakfast? How could that possibly make you money? They don't. And it won't.

Leveraging Twitter by Curating Information

What many lawyers don't realize is that Twitter isn't for mundane updates on one's day-to-day life. It isn't for anything specific. Twitter provides you with a ball and a field. What and how you want to play is up to you.

For lawyers seeking an effective client development strategy through Twitter, acting as a curator of information and active intelligence agent is the best game to play.

Instead of starting by figuring out what to say, lawyers must instead begin by deciding to whom they should listen.

By drawing on information from a wealth of credible sources and monitoring keywords relevant to your practice (client names, articles, cases, and the like) and then passing the best content along through Twitter, you can effectively establish yourself as a knowledgeable source of information within your desired niche. Twitter's limit of 140 characters per tweet is a blessing because no one expects a detailed treatise when you link to an interesting resource (including your own blog posts and articles).

Every morning before work I spend almost the entirety of the 35-minute ferry ride from my home on Bainbridge Island across the Puget Sound to LexBlog's offices in Seattle perusing the content in my RSS newsreader — a collection of feeds from sources I find credible and keywords relevant to my expertise — and passing along 10 to 12 headlines and my own short comments by way of Twitter.

Not only do I learn by skimming the latest news, but my brand as a thought-leader in my niche is going through the roof — all because I spend a half hour every morning using Twitter. All of the following metrics have increased as a result of my tweets:

• Traffic to my blog.
• Comments on my blog.
• Speaking engagements.
• Calls from reporters.
• Calls from law firms asking me to speak.
• Employee morale and our ability to recruit talent.
• And most importantly, our bottom-line.

Why Twitter Works So Well

These 35 minutes probably produce a higher return on investment (ROI) than any of my other client development work. Why? How could something so basic and seemingly impersonal work for client development?

Pause and think about how people get their best clients not just in the legal profession but in almost every single field — relationships and word of mouth reputation.

I have over 11,600 people following me on Twitter. While this group includes clients and potential clients — lawyers other legal professionals (managing partners, CMOs, CKOs, CIOs) and marketing and communications professionals — it's also comprised of the individuals who influence them — conference coordinators, editors, publishers, reporters, and the like.

These folks have come to rely on me for news and commentary about client development for lawyers, online networking, social media, and other relevant subjects. I'm their trusted intelligence agent.

This is the type of audience a public relations professional craves. A tool that puts me in touch with my target audience on a daily basis? Previously impossible.

And as an added kicker I'm nurturing and making meaningful relationships with people I want to get to know. We're becoming friends with one other.

Whether you work in employment law, estate planning, intellectual property, personal injury, or any other practice area, Twitter can be an effective client development tool. I have watched numerous lawyers connect with clients, prospective clients, and their influencers on Twitter. Those who follow them on Twitter aren't simply reading and digesting the information the lawyers highlight — they're passing it along to friends, business associates, reporters, and association leaders all the while keeping the originating source in mind.

Start Small and Think Big

Start small. You are not going to gain 1,500 valuable followers overnight. Growing an audience interested in news related to your niche area of the law from 50 to 100 to 500 followers can take time.

That's okay. You're strengthening your brand as a reliable and trusted authority in your specialty and creating relationships with your target audience.

Call Twitter mindless babble and beneath lawyers if you like. Smart lawyers and law firms will ignore such short-sighted rhetoric and use Twitter as a high ROI relationship-building tool.

Written by Kevin O'Keefe is CEO and Publisher of LexBlog, the leading provider of social media solutions and strategies to law firms.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on September 6, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

I have a confession to make. Since covering the 2011 ABA TechShow for TechnoFeature, I've been wrestling with a vexing question …

Who the hell is Jay Shepherd and how will he earn a living?

Let me explain. On the eve of TechShow, a veritable Who's Who of legal pundits took the stage at Ignite Law 2011: Tom Mighell, Dennis Kennedy, Kevin O'Keefe, Carolyn Elefant, Marc Lauritsen, Jim Calloway, and of course Jay Shepherd. Wait a minute! Jay who?

Well whoever he was, he considered it appropriate to announce during his six minutes on stage that he would close his employment law practice to start Prefix, a consulting firm to help law firms abandon the billable hour.

My first thought was: Who cares? My next were: Too much imbibing at the cash bar? An attempt at free advertising? A cry for help? Still, I let go of the issue and chalked it up to a lawyer's ego (plenty of that to go around). So imagine my surprise when none other than the ABA Journal covered Jay's announcement.

Whoa. This guy's career move was national news? The whole episode got me wondering — why would anyone abandon a successful law practice to become a consultant? Not that it's unheard of. After all, a few years ago I did just that, only to be drawn back to the law once and for all.

While this SmallLaw column might arrive too late for Jay, let me explain to those of you still managing small law firms what will likely happen to Jay since I have traveled this path.

Commanding Attention Versus Begging for It …

Not long after I slipped the surly bonds of law practice in 2006 to live the jet-setting life of a legal practice consultant, I found out that lawyers don't think they need advice, and certainly won't pay for it.

Even free advice was of no interest to most lawyers. After all, if they had to change anything to make the advice work then it really wasn't "free" was it? Change is hard, new hardware and software costs money, and clients hire people, not technology. To the vast majority of lawyers, one good afternoon on the links and a vintage IBM PC (circa 1999) was more important than all the consulting in the world.

Of course, sometimes I would get a prospect to agree to a meeting. Inevitably however, I found myself talking to someone from IT with no grasp of the legal process, or explaining things to a partner who had already decided to cut out the middle man and have his teenage kids throw together a Facebook page. Ultimately, the process was more like selling encyclopedias than delivering professional services. And at no time did I feel as if I were selling "knowledge," a recurring theme in Jay Shepherd's promotional materials. On the contrary, I frequently had to beg for attention instead of command it, as I had when I was a lawyer.

Even if Jay manages to avoid such obstacles and get hired, how will his new business compare to his old business? We lawyers adhere to a simple principal — clients pay to cure pain, ward off fear, or have us deal with unpleasantness. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the law is utterly opaque, attorneys and courts have little patience for lay people, and the legislature and courts throttle competition from out-of-jurisdiction lawyers while keeping the barriers to entry high for recent law school graduates. All in all, you might say that clients have to hire us to get anything done.

By comparison, being a consultant is like playing Vegas. The field is clogged because any mope can call himself a consultant. Even when consultants get hired payment is still at the customer's mercy. Worst of all, consultants must span the credibility gap with prospects by selling themselves around the clock. That doesn't leave much time in which to sell knowledge — or help lawyers sell knowledge instead of hours.

Room for One More?

So, is there room for one more practice consultant in an unregulated field crowded with tireless self-promoters? After my experience a few years ago, I recommend that Jay keep one toe in the legal practice tide pool for now. And for all we know, that might be his game plan. When Jay also used his Above the Law column to announce his plans, one commenter sarcastically quipped that: "he said he was closing his law business, not necessarily quitting law practice. I expect that he will work out of his (mom's?) basement … as a solo practitioner doing legal work for several of his existing clients, but without having to carry the risks and costs of employees."

But practice consultants who try to wear both hats are often lousy lawyers. What's more, skills become dull surprisingly quickly, learning new tricks is never easy, and having the confidence of courts, colleagues, and clients is as important as making a good argument. Being a lawyer is as much about relationships as anything else, and those relationships rely on seeing and being seen by the right people every day.

What's a would-be consultant to do when he's too busy selling himself to be at the closing table, in the office, or in court? Does Jay understand what he's getting himself into?

Here's a lawyer about my age and experience level, with an established practice in a major metropolitan area, strong academic and peer credentials, several blogs and a popular column who experienced his share of wins and notoriety, and who by all accounts could have continued to practice.

Why the sudden zeal to fix our industry's broken billing model? Is it because he's a fellow at the Verasage Institute, an organization so inscrutable its name isn't even a real word? Or is it because the Institute taught him to "bury the billable hour and timesheets" as it boasts on its web site? Or is it because, as Jay writes in his biography on the Verasage web site, he is on a "mission to save the world from lawyers, and to save lawyers (and other professionals) from themselves"?

Or Has Jay Simply Painted Himself Into a Corner?

I guess what I'm saying is that Jay Shepherd might want to take a lesson from my experience, and not throw the baby out with the bathwater. He might also want to refrain from predicting the future at national events just in case things don't work out. And in the unlikely event that he's forced to take up law practice again, he might want to keep certain skills honed so he doesn't have to re-learn how to maintain credibility with his peers, acquire clients, try cases, hire good employees, and most importantly, fire bad ones.

I mean, look at me. As critical as I am of our profession and its broken systems, I still practice law and keep track of hours, expenses, and other business minutiae. Why? Because to paraphrase Churchill (and channel Tocqueville), the legal business is terrible … but consulting is far worse.

Written by Will County bankruptcy lawyer Mazyar M. Hedayat of M. Hedayat & Associates, P.C.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 30, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

With Hurricane Irene just recently having rumbled her way through my adopted home state of North Carolina — including making a mess of our beautiful Outer Banks and eastern regions — disaster preparedness (or business continuity to use a popular euphemism) is on my mind. Watching Irene's progression up the east coast and the trouble she wrought en route, I imagine it must be on some of your minds too.

When we talk about technology, we often engage in a facile and glib debate over operating systems, Angry Birds, and coolness. God knows, I'm a card-carrying member of that club — new and cool is my red meat as regular readers of my SmallLaw columns well know.

But in deference to all the law firms who are digging out from Irene, I want to use this issue of SmallLaw to address how to get your firm as ready as possible for the next Irene Mother Nature throws your way. Below you'll find my top five tips.

1. Go Paperless

The discussion over going paperless in a small law firm often centers on efficiency, collaboration, ethics and mobility, all of which are important facets of the decision.

However, it's not until you wake up one day, however, and your entire office suite is under six feet of water and your paper files have turned to pulp that paperless' importance as a disaster preparedness measure become clear.

Sure, you may only need offsite digital copies of everything once in a career — but the day you need it, you really need it. Offsite backup is a good start, but if only 25% of your key data is digital, you are still sunk when the high waters arrive.

2. Sever Your Servers With Hosted Communications

Floods and natural disasters are good reasons to consider embracing hosted communications — meaning both your email and your phone system. If your communication hubs run out of server boxes in your office and they're under water, they're useless. Sure, some backup strategies can help mitigate this porblem, but if I were running a small firm today, I'd get rid of all my servers — applications, email, documents, telephone — the whole shebang. With Hosted Exchange, Google Apps, and VoIP phone systems, it has never been easier.

3. Centralized Document and Practice Management

According to the ABA's 2011 Legal Technology Survey, the adoption rate of document and practice management software in small law offices remains dismal.

Anecdotally, in my work, I find that law firms regard this software as somewhere between an unnecessary expense and a "nice to have." Much like the decision to go paperless and host your communications, if you imagine having to run your firm the day after a disaster (with all of your employees working remotely from their homes), the decision to centralize document and practice management is not a luxury, but a necessity.

Frequency of need is not the same as degree. You only need an emergency room once in a while, too, but if you didn't have one nearby the day you needed it, you'd be in big trouble.

4. Laptops Over Desktops Plus Smartphones and iPads

I frequently talk with lawyers who debate whether to buy their staff laptop or desktop computers, citing that desktops are cheaper and more powerful. A disaster should convince you that mobility trumps the marginal cost savings and power of desktops.

Laptops have another advantage. When the power goes out, they continue running for a few hours. But even laptops have their limits. Smartphones (and 3G iPads) tend to have a much longer battery life, and can access the Internet via your carrier. Some smartphones can even serve as a mobile hotspot. Law firms have issued smartphones to their lawyers for many years. Some have begun to issue iPads as well.

5. Home Office Essentials

For your lawyers and staff to be productive working from home while your office is underwater, in addition to a laptop they will need an internet connection robust enough to run their VoIP phones, a headset with a microphone, a printer, and a scanner.

Whether you provide this equipment for your staff or require that they provide it for themselves is a matter of your compensation and training systems. Either way, if you want your staff to work rather than just watch Sports Center until your office reopens, they will need the tools to perform their work.

Conclusion

I hope you and your firm survived Hurricane Irene with nary a puddle. But I also hope this article prompts you to prepare for the unthinkable.

Written by Erik Mazzone of Law Practice Matters.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on October 4, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Remember the popular advertisements for beer in which two groups argued between the relative importance of "great taste" versus "less filling"? A similar debate is brewing regarding the creation of blogs for large law firms. What is more important — great content or great design? Most law firms have lawyers capable writing great content, but few have designers in-house that can build and design good-looking blogs. Can you ignore design? Or should your blog(s) have both?

The Case for Great Content

Great content alone can make a blog successful. If you write blog posts helpful to your industry, people will read them, email them, tweet them, etc. — and the media will take notice too. Eventually, they'll end up on sites that corporate counsel use such as JD Supra, Lexology, and Legal OnRamp.

Perhaps most importantly, Google loves great content. The better your content is, the more links it will accumulate. Google's search algorithm uses more than 200 "signals" to rank web pages, but inbound links remain among the most important (the famous PageRank patent). One caveat — Google does not "value" links on social networks as highly as those on web sites so try to encourage others to link to you from their sites (easier said than done).

The Case for Great Design

People who read your blog via email or an RSS reader like Google Reader could care less about your blog's design. But many people will read your blog in a web browser, including everyone who first discovers it with a Google search. So let's explore the design issue.

You don't need to be a designer to recognize a good design. Even if only for a second, we're all conscious of the design when visiting a blog for the first time. Sometimes, the design is so good we notice for more than a second because it blows us away. And sometimes the opposite happens — we can't believe how bad it looks. This first impression is important.

A key element of blog design is user interface, which is often overlooked. A while back I was on a law blog trying to find the author. It took me several clicks before I could find his contact information. What's the point of creating a blog and gaining exposure if prospective clients can't contact you?

The layout and design of your blog is not just important but critically so. Make sure it's easy for people find your contact information. Make sure your blog gives people a positive impression (no pop-ups is a good policy with which to start).

Can You Have Both?

"Why can't you have both"? A designer at a recent conference I spoke at asked me that question. Yes, of course you can have both. As a large firm, you have an advantage. Hiring a top-notch designer won't have a material impact on your expenses unlike at a smaller firm with a much smaller marketing budget.

That said, a blog with great content that uses a prefab template will outperform a beautiful blog with a custom design that lacks great content — as long as the template makes it easy to contact the author(s).

So feel free to spend $10,000 on the design of your blog, but make sure you can create quality content on a regular basis before making that leap. After all, the leading cause of law blog failure is the failure to publish at all.

Conclusion

Blogs don't cost much money to start. Many inexpensive and free options exist. Far more important is the quality of the content and the frequency with which you add content. Publishing is a grind. Law firms are not media companies by nature so many just wing it without editorial calendars and other publishing workflow tools that they may not even realize exist.

I recommend that even large firms start conservatively. Have a basic blog built for you by a local web designer for no more than $1,500. Try blogging for six months. If you like it and think you can keep it up, make a more substantial investment.

The blogosphere is littered with failed blogs that never made it past their first couple of blog posts. Having a blog experiment fail quietly is no big deal, but having a blog fail after spending a lot of money is fodder for Above the Law and others in the large firm gossip business. If you start creating great content, people will ignore the design as long as it's not terrible. After all, you're a law firm, not a fashion magazine.

Written by Adrian Dayton of Marketing Strategy and the Law.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 23, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

2011 dropped a bomb on me. This year just plain stinks. It has tested my solo practice, my confidence, even my faith. On May 21st, my mother suffered a massive stroke. According to some interpretations of the Bible, the Rapture was supposed to occur on May 21, 2011. My father had planned to play a joke on my mother by piling up his clothes in the living room and hiding in a closet. Deciding against it, he went to let Mom in on the joke. She didn't laugh. She was too nauseous, and couldn't see or stand. After a 120 MPH drive to UAB Hospital, I was fortunate enough to see her smile one last time. She remained in a vegetative state for two more months before passing away on her 68th birthday.

My father, brother (also a lawyer), and I, with the help of my wonderful wife, sat by Mom's side day and night. I continued to work on existing cases, and decline new clients. To make matters worse it was the summer time — when the court system all but shuts down. I would have lost my business, let alone my mind, if not for virtual services.

We all read about virtual law firms and the virtual services they use such as receptionists, typists, and remote control applications. However, this summer I learned that these services provide an important safety net even in a traditional law practice like mine with office space. In this issue of SmallLaw, I'll tell you about three virtual services that literally saved my law firm.

You Can't Avoid the Phone Forever

After word got out that I was having a hard time, a friend relayed my troubles to Jill Nelson, the the top dog at Ruby Receptionists, a virtual receptionist service in Oregon gaining momentum among lawyers. Sympathetic to my plight, Ruby offered to answer my phones until I got back on my feet. A few email messages later I had a system in place. A warm, professional group of receptionists greeted callers, knew what to ask, and knew the people with whom I needed to talk. With Ruby I was able to concentrate on simply surviving the loss of a parent, instead of playing phone tag.

Making the benefits of Ruby even more obvious is my ability to review all calls from my iPhone via the Ruby Receptionist app. It displays who called, lets you know if they left a message (transcribed by the Ruby staff) or a voicemail, and enables you to create a new contact entry. Even cooler is the app's ability to notify Ruby of my whereabouts so that my phone doesn't ring during hearings. I can even message Ruby from the app to give them special instructions such as returning a call to a client for me.

You Can't Think of Everything

While sitting helpless in the hospital, I tried to get some work done. While I could accomplish more than I thought possible with my iPad (read my previous SmallLaw column, Using the iPad 2 in the Field in a Wrongful Death Case), there were times when I needed to access my desktop computer.

For example, the day I had to make a mad rush back from the hospital to the courthouse for a hearing I had forgotten a document I needed to present to the court in hardcopy form. Its residing in my Dropbox account was of little use since I couldn't print reliably from the iPad. I spent the hour drive to my hometown tracking down buddies who could print the document for me.

How much simpler it would have been to have a remote desktop server in place! Enter iTeleport for iPad, which I now have thanks to the efforts of TechnoLawyer. Now when I'm out of the office and need access to my desktop it's only a click away. iTeleport leverages the iPad's beautiful touchscreen to recreate my desktop computer. It perfectly implements the touch controls so that I can print documents, run non-iOS programs like Microsoft Word, and even stream music and movies from the office to my mobile location.

You Won't Have Time to Type

On another occasion, I again found myself in my least favorite place — under the gun. I had a brief due that couldn't be put off any longer without detriment to my client, so there I was resembling a trained bear on a motorcycle in a hospital waiting room pecking away at the iPad's virtual keyboard (sometimes virtual is not a virtue). This document needed some serious appellate formatting that made blood drip from my ears. If I'd only had somebody to type it for me.

Now that I'm enjoying 20/20 hindsight, I've started using LegalTypist. Unlike a virtual paralegal, which I suspect would be overkill for most of us, LegalTypist is simply that — an administrative assistant who optimizes your workflow. I can email a recorded dictation file or just dictate using a telephone. Within 24 hours, I received the document formatted properly for my jurisdiction. The best thing is I don't have to train anybody, implement weird proprietary software, or have a monthly contract for services I don't use often. The company is just there when I need them without a commitment to justify when bookkeeping.

The Bottom Line on Preserving Your Bottom Line: Plan Ahead

Life is unkind to everyone at times. However, a large law firm can keep rolling along if one of its lawyers becomes unavailable. Small law firms — solo practices in particular — don't have a deep bench or any bench at all. My mother's death crippled me emotionally and nearly crippled my law practice too. Had I known then what I know now I could have had services like Ruby, iTeleport, and LegalTypist in place to ease my stress during my time of need. These services are more affordable than ever, even on a rookie solo's nonexistent budget. You'll never be fully prepared for the unthinkable. Fires, natural disasters, and even death are very real threats to our legal careers. Plan ahead SmallLaw subscribers, plan ahead.

How to Receive SmallLaw
Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 2, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

From Ocean's 11 to X-Men, great teams consist of a diverse cast with unique skills. You can't make a team of quarterbacks any more than you can make a team of linemen or even shortstops with 3,000 hits. But in large law firms there are no formal positions. To help you build a 1998 or better yet a 1927 Yankees from the law students wrapping up their summers, the midlevels flooding your human resources department, and the partners at competing firms dropping hints at your squash club, this issue of BigLaw identifies the five types of lawyers you need among your ranks to win that championship ring — and boost your profits per partner.

1. The Commander

A leader is anyone with a big enough office or tall chair, but a Commander actually makes the trains run on time. If your junior associates have to ask basic questions like research deadlines, someone at the top is not doing his job. Good Commanders foresee and immediately put an end to potential problems, believing they are responsible when a subordinate fails.

Where to Find Them

Look for straight talk and a lack of ambiguity. When you ask about leadership positions they've held, they'll talk less about the organization and more about what they accomplished.

Potential Problems

The Commander needs to be able to issue marching orders without approval of a committee or anyone's blessings. Make it clear who is in charge of a matter, what authority they have, and then step back. Mixed signals and confused leadership hurt morale and turn simple projects into quagmires.

2. The Strategist

In litigation, the Strategist is a master of procedure and evidence, able to predict the opposition's strategy. On the corporate side, they will spot pitfalls in a deal structure or poor executive incentives. In estate planning, they can sniff out who needs a pre-nuptial agreement, and when sibling rivalries will put the family business in jeopardy.

Where to Find Them

Strategists love games, but hate leaving things to chance or other people. If he's a poker player, he doesn't think in terms of the hand in front of him (too much luck involved), but how his playing style will hold up over the next five years. Chess enthusiasts can be a red herring — the rules are too esoteric and the skill doesn't always translate to other strategic situations.

Potential Problems

Strategists seek out high level competition, which can leave them vulnerable to seemingly inferior strategies much like a Cold War military machine is vulnerable to guerillas. A behavioral economics background will make this debility less likely, but don't be afraid to bring in the second-string to play defense while the strategist plays offense.

3. The Super Genius

An LSAT score of 167-168 automatically qualifies one for Mensa membership. Virtually everyone at a top law school is a "genius." The Super Genius is a different species — the same way 6'2" is tall, and then there's Shaq.

This person combines top-notch analytical skills with a memory like a sponge, enabling them to dig through information and concepts to amazing depths your average smarty-pants can barely fathom. Judges quote these lawyers in their opinions (see e.g., Eugene Volokh).

Where to Find Them

Super Geniuses exist in every field. But in the humanities it's unclear who's who. The 170 and 120 IQ English majors earn the same 4.0. Improve your odds at landing a Super Genius by looking for people who excelled in chemistry, computer science, math, physics, and perhaps biology if you're desperate.

Potential Problems

Super Geniuses have a terrific work ethic, but not for mundane matters other lawyers can handle. They need to be on the cutting edge. If you don't have an appellate case for the Super Genius to work on, don't assign her to a document review. Instead, give her an article or amicus brief — or send her to an advanced NITA course. The prestige she brings your firm will offset her lower billable hours.

4. The Puck

Despite the negative stereotypes it perpetuates, there are times when you will need to frustrate opposing counsel, derail a deposition, or make a witness succumb to a case of word salad on the stand. The person you want for these necessities is The Puck. Think Bud White in LA Confidential — but with a law degree.

There are bulldogs, jerks, and a whole lexicon of colorful terms for people who rely on blunt force. They can win cases, but it's messy and potentially disastrous. Pucks never need to explain to the judge the foul language in a deposition transcript; they're the ones who tricked opposing counsel into the filthy rant.

Where to Find Them

He is equally social and competitive. While some people tout their accolades or win-loss records, Pucks are in it purely for the fun of a good challenge. When asked about his interests, he'll discuss process more than results.

Potential Problems

Avoid giving him busywork or false deadlines. He has the ultimate BS detector. Rather than appreciate the extra billable hours and experience, he'll sow discontent among his peers.

5. The Workhorse

The Workhorse is the type of person you don't have to ask to pull an all-nighter updating a filing that isn't due for a week. Instead, she stays at the office until the entire firm's workload is cleared, or she's ordered to leave. She likes to work weekends. Don't ask why, just count your blessings.

Where to Find Them

Socially awkward without any intriguing or compelling qualities, she works hard but lacks ambition. Look for extracurricular activities with no top leadership positions.

Potential Problems

After billing 27,000 hours in eight years, she'll come up for partnership. But, odds are she lacks leadership and management skills. Make sure she always has a more senior partner above her running the show.

Conclusion

Each of these lawyer types is extremely rare, possessing knowledge or skills beyond the typical law review editor. Though seemingly mundane, even the Workhorse's endurance makes her an outlier. That's the point though. You're not interested in a wild card wonder 1997 or 2003 Florida Marlins, you're building a dynasty. Not everyone at your firm needs to fit into one of these types nor should they. But you need a few of each. And as hard as it is to find someone who fits one of these molds, it's even harder to mentor them and keep them at your firm. Good luck. You'll need it.

Written by BL1Y of Constitutional Daily.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on September 21, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Partners and associates alike hate the drudgery of tracking their billable hours. Clients hate paying exorbitant hourly rates, always wondering whether that associate really spent 1.6 hours composing a letter, or 23 hours reviewing documents. We all agree that hourly billing stinks — except that all other pricing models (known as "alternative fee arrangements") seem to stink more — at least from the perspective of large law firms.

As some industry insiders have pointed out, fixed or flat fees present two concerns — whether the fee is too high, and whether the fee is too low. And, of course, the risk of the latter "concern" makes the thought of fixed fees a source of terror for partners. No one wants to become the next Brobeck or Howrey. Lawyers hate risk so despite its flaws, the billable hour is a soft, fluffy guarantee that in the unfortunate event a CD of documents ends up taking 200 hours to review instead of 100, the client will assume most of the cost of the extra time.

Enter the Internal Hedge Fund …

Fear not! Some of the great minds here at BigLaw have developed a way to make flat fee billing work for your firm, giving you a devastating competitive advantage over your rivals in an increasingly zero sum game.

We call it the "Internal Hedge Fund" (although, technically, it's more like "My Law Firm's Proprietary Trading Desk"). This new though admittedly not rocket science business model kills two birds with one stone.

The First Bird: Offsetting the Risk of Flat Fee Arrangements

Let's start with a few basics — what exactly is a hedge fund? I asked Michael Nelson who practiced law at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, moved in-house, switched gears and worked at a proprietary trading desk, and now manages hedge fund Thea Capital.

"The definition of a hedge fund has become very broad," says Nelson. "Traditionally, a hedge fund employed a strategy that literally 'hedged' investments so that, for example, if you were short on one position, you would be long on another. Nowadays, the term is used to describe a huge variety of funds, trading in just about anything, that are very actively managed."

Nelson contrasts the various hedge fund strategies with the "buy and hold" position usually taken by mutual funds. In addition, he says, hedge funds are characterized by a certain fee structure, which is usually "2 and 20," or a formula that compensates managers 2% of the assets under management and 20% of the fund's profits for the year.

As you may have gathered from news coverage of our current economic climate, a certain degree of mystique surrounds hedge funds. One reason could be their history of opaqueness. According to Nelson, hedge funds were once subject to very little oversight, although the regulatory environment is changing. In addition, hedge funds can be very risky, but also extremely financially rewarding.

But the sexiest facet of the hedge fund, perhaps, is its exclusivity. "The hardest thing about starting a hedge fund is raising the money," says Nelson. Traditionally, this meant that the hedge fund was the province of the uber-wealthy, or anyone talented enough to drum up the capital required to play high-stakes investment poker.

Enter the Internal Hedge Fund for large law firms. In our model, clients pay fees for litigation and other hard-to-price legal services up front, thereby supplying your firm with lots of cash. Maybe you price to perfection, maybe you underprice, maybe you overprice. No matter. Your money (i.e., the fees that your clients pay up front) is already hard at work being actively invested by the small team of experienced hedge fund managers with a proven track record working full-time at your firm or if you prefer at their own hedge fund with your firm as the sole or principal investor.

Given the potential returns, the risk — or reality — of offering legal services a little more cheaply than you would have liked is offset by the benefit of having all that paid-up-front "straw" to spin into hedge fund gold.

What About Ethics Rules?

But wait, you say — is this model ethical? Can you collect an up-front fee for deposit directly into your firm's internal hedge fund trading account before having performed a single legal service? The ethical ramifications of alternative fee arrangements have certainly been (and continue to be) explored, but our model contains an added wrinkle in that it contemplates completely bypassing retainers and client trust accounting.

According to legal ethics maven Eric Cooperstein, the answer is a definitive "maybe." "It depends on the jurisdiction," explains Cooperstein. For the most part, he says, lawyers can take a flat fee for certain kinds of defined services. In fact, it's routine in practice areas like bankruptcy and criminal defense. Charging up front for a specific service or a "package" of services should not be problematic Cooperstein adds, as long as the fees are "reasonable" under the factors defined in the ABA's Model Rules governing billing arrangements.

Hedge fund manager Nelson points out a few additional ethical pitfalls for adopters of the the internal hedge fund model to avoid — don't allow clients to direct investments, don't forget to thoroughly vet your internal hedge fund managers … and so forth. In fact, says Nelson, having the law firm vouch for the sterling credentials of its fund managers might greatly benefit the "branding" of the fund if you decide to invite others to invest.

The Second Bird: Put Underemployed Associates to Better Use

Nelson ends our interview with a clever idea. Your firm could make use of some of those underemployed associates, thereby killing the second bird.

"Lots of associates sit around at times twiddling their thumbs," Nelson notes. "Instead, they could conduct equity research." Think of it as the large firm equivalent of timesharing a jet. Your firm has lots of talent, some of which simply lies fallow in a down economy. Why not put it to good use? The downside — could these assignments result in higher attrition as associates given a taste of Wall Street leave the law to pursue a career in finance? It's hard to say, but we're hedging our bets.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on August 16, 2011 in our free SmallLaw newsletter. Instead of reading SmallLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Sitting in the audience at the Legal Marketing Association annual conference this spring, I heard an "Internet marketing expert" advise that blogs were only for lawyers who had a lot of time on their hands.

She warned that publishing a blog requires posting three or four times a week, constant moderating of comments, and thinking of original stories and updates to cover. She's wrong.

Quality, Not Quantity

If blogging were that hard, I would never started publishing a blog eight years ago.

Can you publish a law blog that enhances your reputation, grows your network, establishes you as a domain expert, and brings in not just clients, but quality clients, without it consuming all of your time? Yes.

Seattle lawyer Dan Harris of Harris & Moure publishes the China Law Blog, one of the more influential law blogs.

He spends 15 to 45 minutes to write a blog post with 25 minutes being the average. Harris characterizes his blog as very successful in generating new business.

Quality over content is key. About one-half of the law blogs on our LexBlog Network are updated once per week. About 75% are updated once every two weeks. That's a far cry from 3-4 times per week.

Those who don't talk all the time command attention when they do talk if they have something interesting to say. That's especially true for law blogs focused on a niche area of the law or geographic region.

The Share-and-Comment Blog Post

Like this and other columns in SmallLaw, blog posts should be short and cover only one point. Actually, shorter — 200 to 500 words is sufficient.

Think of blogging as sharing what you read. Blogging to share not only takes less time, but also works much better for business development. With your blog, you can create and participate in a rich, ongoing conversation regarding matters relevant to your area of practice and the industries or consumer groups you represent.

Here's how it works:

1. Follow what is being written in relevant blogs and news stories. Use Google News and Google Blog Search to track key words and key phrases germane to your practice areas. You can subscribe to these searches via email or with Google Reader.

2. Share a story or blog post you find interesting and which you believe prospective clients and others who read your blog would find of interest as well. Offer your insight and commentary.

Think of it as clipping out an article, highlighting a paragraph, and dropping a note to a client as to why you thought the story would be of interest to them. But don't just say, "I saw this, here's the link." Instead:

• Link to the source material. For example, linking the title of the article on which you're commenting will create a consistent style across your blog. If you prefer, link keywords that describe the article.

• Link to the author or reporter's LinkedIn profile or Web site bio. They'll notice and appreciate the link.

• Share a fair use block quote or two that brings home the salient points you want to share.

• Offer your insight in a paragraph or two.

For example:

John Schwartz, the National Legal Correspondent for the New York Times, wrote an interesting story last week, Florida: Drug Laws Ruled Unconstitutional.

Judge Scriven's 43-page opinion is noteworthy for the following reasons.…

The Advantages of This Style of Blogging

Sharing and commenting on articles:

• Demonstrates to your clients, prospective clients, referral sources, industry leaders, bloggers, and reporters that you stay up to speed in your niche. You see things your competitors are not following or at least not blogging about.

• Enables you to learn about developments in the law as well as the industries and groups you serve.

• Engages the influencers and amplifiers — the 5% of people who influence 95%. You need to engage and build relationships with bloggers, reporters, association leaders and conference coordinators who your clients, prospective clients, and referral sources follow. Do this and you will be cited and quoted by influential bloggers and reporters. You will be speaking at conferences led by the association leaders you've engaged.

• Creates a strong online identity and reputation for you. The most important Google search for you, as a good lawyer, is not one based what you do and where you are located (e.g., Seattle real estate lawyer). Instead, the most important search is on your name. People turn to a trusted source for the name of lawyer. They'll then Google the lawyer's name. A search returning citations of what you have blogged, reporters quoting you, conferences where you have spoken, and people sharing your blog posts on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook beats the heck out of results returning just your Web site and LinkedIn bio.

Don't Let Any "Experts" Dissuade You From Blogging

You can publish a law blog that enhances your reputation, grows your network, establishes you as a domain expert, and brings in quality clients without it consuming your life. Think quality over quantity, brevity, listening to relevant conversations, and sharing your insight and commentary.

Written by Kevin O'Keefe, CEO and Publisher of LexBlog, the leading provider of social media solutions and strategies to law firms.

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Small firm, big dreams. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, SmallLaw provides you with a mix of practical advice that you can use today, and insight about what it will take for small law firms like yours to thrive in the future. The SmallLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

This special edition of TL NewsWire was originally published on December 15, 2011.

In 2011, we reported on 212 new products in TL NewsWire — far more products than any other legal publisher to my knowledge (TL NewsWire is one of nine TechnoLawyer publications).

For each product we cover, we track the number of clicks. Not for nefarious reasons mind you. We track clicks in the aggregate so that we can see which products you and your fellow subscribers find most and least interesting to help guide our future coverage. We also track clicks so that we can engage in one of publishing's most enduring cliches — the annual top 10 list.

Wait. Did I say top 10? Silly me. At TechnoLawyer, we always give you more for your money (even though TL NewsWire is free). Below you'll find the TL NewsWire Top 15 Products of 2011.

1. TrialPad

In the year of the iPad, it seems fitting that an iPad app tops the list. TrialPad replaces an ELMO for displaying documents. Lit Software recently released version 2, which contains more advanced trial presentation features. Will TrialPad disrupt incumbents Sanction and TrialDirector? Only time will tell, but Lit Software appears to be the leader among companies developing legal-specific iPad apps.

2. Workshare PDF Professional

You have to give Workshare a lot of credit for its insane pace of software development. It's the Adobe Systems of the legal industry. Speaking of which, Workshare PDF Professional takes aim at Adobe's Acrobat with a low price of $79.

3. Canon imageFORMULA DR-C125 Scanner

As someone who appreciates elegant design and feels there's too little of it in our industry, the imageFORMULA DR-C125 captured my attention because of its space-saving upright design and U-turn paper path. Apparently, many of you agreed by ranking it third.

4. LexisNexis Firm Manager

SmallLaw columnist emeritus Mazy Hedayat (Crazy Mazy) is a tough lawyer to please. So imagine our surprise when he praised Firm Manager, LexisNexis' cloud practice management system. Thanks in part to Firm Manager, 2011 marked the turning point for cloud applications in the legal industry.

5. Workshare Point

Document management remains the most popular topic among TechnoLawyer members, but I didn't realize how many of you have an interest in Microsoft SharePoint until we covered Workshare Point, which transforms SharePoint into a legal-specific document management system. Kudos to Workshare for having two products in the top five.

6. MyCase V2.0

The second cloud practice management system on the list, MyCase uses Facebook-like technologies for interacting with your clients, including billing, communications, and document sharing. Perhaps the more apt comparison is Salesforce.com's Chatter.

7. Smartsheet

Another hot area — project management, especially for law firms charging flat fees or under pressure from clients not to exceed engagement letter estimates. Traditionally, you practically needed the equivalent of a medical residency to use project management software. Smartsheet is a cloud application that attempts to simplify this once obscure (for law firms) discipline.

8. Kodak SCANMATE I920 Scanner

Too little too late for this troubled American icon? Well, many of you found Kodak's entry into the sheetfed scanner market of interest. Like Canon's scanners, the SCANMATE i920 supports supports TWAIN and ISIS applications.

9. Nylon Sleeve With Handles

Easily the biggest surprise on the list. Why? Because it's the only product among the top 15 that we covered in a roundup article as opposed to a feature article (roundup articles appear below the feature article in each issue of TL NewsWire so they're not as prominently, um, featured). Incidentally, I have two of these sleeves — one for my iPad 2 and one for my MacBook Air. It was my search for a sleeve with handles that led to our coverage of this product.

10. RogueTime Version 1.1

RogueTime ties into your iPhone's Phone app so that you can convert phone calls into time entries (iPhones capture the time of each call). Apps like RogueTime could persuade lawyers to use their iPhone as their only phone.

11. KnowledgeTree

KnowledgeTree is a cloud document management system. In our coverage, we focused on the new KnowledgeTree ExplorerCP, a desktop application that connects to the mothership.

12. Doxie Go

I think we covered this portable scanner before any other legal publisher. Its cable-free and PC-free design seems liberating. Doxie Go will soon have some competition. We received a pre-release demo this week, but I can't tell you about it yet. Stay tuned to TL NewsWire.

13. Sohodox

Cloud skeptics at small law firms rejoice — a document management system for 1-20 users that runs on your own damn hardware.

14. NetDocuments R1-2011

Yes folks, another document management system. And none other than the undisputed champion of cloud document management systems. NetDocuments redesigned its user interface this year.

15. ClearContext Professional 5

This Outlook add-on learns your habits so that it can start taking care of tasks for you. It can even make email messages disappear for a specified period of time so that you can fool yourself into thinking you've achieved zero inbox.

You Want More?

So there you go. The top 15. What's that? You want a top 20? Okay, okay. I won't write about them, but numbers 16-20 were (drumroll please):

16. AdvologixPM

17. ActionStep

18. Pathagoras 2011

19. Credenza Pro

20. Chrometa

How to Receive TL NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TL NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The newsletter's innovative articles enable lawyers and law office administrators to quickly understand the function of a product, and zero in on its most important features. The TL NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Originally published on October 18, 2011 in our free BigLaw newsletter. Instead of reading BigLaw here after the fact, sign up now to receive future issues in realtime.

Law firms, lawyers, and recruiters all expect the best in any lateral move. The firms expect a superstar with a massive portable book. The lawyers expect a better platform — broader footprint (better technology, stronger cross-selling, etc.) on which to display their talent. Recruiters expect fat commissions, usually in the neighborhood of 25% of the moving lawyer's projected total annual compensation.

But sometimes lateral moves don't work according to plan. This month, we thought we'd catch up on recent lateral moves gone awry. And to make this task more challenging, we've avoided the low-hanging fruit. Suits over placement commissions are a dime a dozen. The stories below address some of the more-novel aspects of lateral moves gone wrong.

Look Before You Leap

Chris Gilbert's career was going swimmingly at K&L Gates, but he was happy to field a cold call from recruiter Diane Caldwell who told him he needed to escape from K&L Gates' lockstep compensation structure and move to a firm where his skills would truly be appreciated. According to Gilbert, she spun a tale of becoming a practice leader and making more money. According to Caldwell, he was a big boy — a partner no less — capable of making his own decisions.

Starry eyed, he left K&L Gates for Patton Boggs, but it didn't work out. Gilbert doesn't provide too much detail in his complaint of what went wrong, but the relationship didn't last long. He's now at Bryan Cave and has sued Caldwell for fraud, negligence, breach of contract, etc. She denies any responsibility.

Runaway Bride

Sometimes taking that extra day to think about a move causes a sea change in expectations. Much like a runaway bride, Stephen Kon just couldn't make that walk down the aisle. The SJ Berwin EU and competition boss was all set to move to Milbank Tweed, but at the last minute, he and partner Cameron Firth called the whole thing off. Kon and Firth were pretty well down the path, having tendered their resignations and been voted into the Milbank Tweed partnership.

SJ Berwin has a pretty good reputation, and is well within the top 20 UK firms, but Milbank Tweed is a global behemoth, which would have been quite the culture shock. Kon, as one of the founding partners of SJ Berwin, probably had more of an emotional attachment to the firm — although he was also one of the leads in the aborted merger discussions with Proskauer Rose. Kon is now likely one of the strongest contenders to take over as senior managing partner in the spring elections.

You Can't (Usually) Take It With You

Lawyers, perhaps because we write the rules, enjoy some unique benefits in our mobility. Unlike other professions where non-competes of various strictness may be enforced, lawyers have largely unfettered rights to take their files with them, all under the guise that the client's right to counsel of her choice shouldn't be restricted.

Some limits exist though, so departing lawyers have to make sure they're playing by the rules. Not surprisingly, spurned firms already feel insecure, which can cause them to react angrily when the files, and fees, walk out the door. Just ask Hunter Shkolnik who was sued by his former firm, Rheingold, Valet, Rheingold & McCartney.

Even more rare than seeking a TRO for the return of files as Rheingold Valet sought is an injunction against a lawyer's practicing for a period of time. Philadelphia personal-injury firm Kline & Specter recently sought one against an associate, claiming he had failed to give the required notice. An associate's departure might be one of the few cases in which a court could convince itself that the client still had access to the partners, although this case certainly seemed like a close call.

Making Them Pay

While we can't restrict our clients' access to the counsel of choice (notwithstanding the cases above), firms have figured out one way to keep wanderlusting lawyers around — cutting their retirement benefits. That's what Stroock & Stroock & Lavan did to Michael Perlis, a 20-year partner. Just weeks after taking his securities litigation team to Locke Lord, he sued for the retirement benefits the partnership agreement purported to cause him to forfeit.

Conclusion

Other than personal bonds and loyalty, both of which are apparently in short supply at many law firms these days, very few tools exist to keep a partnership together. It's no surprise that firms like Stroock have created contractual attempts to prevent departures.

Partner departures individually tend to have very little effect on large firms, but they are often early indicators of firms in trouble, and can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Looking back, early departures from firms like Brobeck and Howrey signaled something wrong beneath the surface. Then, people started connecting the dots and speculating. Partners started looking at their own options, worried they'd be left holding the bag, which kicked off the vicious cycle that led to the demise of these firms. One of the benefits of this BigLaw column and the Lateral Tracker is that they enable you to spot these trends early.

Written by Law Shucks, which curates and analyzes data on large law firm lateral hiring.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Answering this question requires digging up some dirt, but we do with the best of intentions. Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw analyzes the business practices, marketing strategies, and technologies used by the country's biggest law firms in an effort to unearth best and worst practices. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.