TechnoLawyer

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 51 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

Should You Buy the Neat Receipts Scanner?

Virtual Law Firm Offers Affordable Attorneys

From Twitter to Book Deal for Lucky Lawyer

Don't miss this issue or future issues.

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Originally published on August 24, 2009 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

A chilly breeze has blown over the legal profession for the last year. Did I say "chilly breeze"? Make that a hurricane, with gale-force winds. But recent reports indicate that, while the storm is far from over, the winds may have slowed. The hurricane, it seems, is now a tropical storm.

The prospect of a meteorological shift raises countless questions about what large law firms will look like when we emerge from our storm cellars. Will the leveraged business model survive? Is the billable hour dead? And what will become of the famously — or infamously — generous associate salaries?

Salaries Stand Still …

According to the National Association for Legal Career Professionals ("NALP"), its recently released 2009 Associate Salary Survey "reflects what is likely to be the apogee of large firm salaries, and represents the culmination of increases since 2006." In large markets, NALP announced in a press release, the prevailing salary stood at $160,000 — a figure that, two years ago, had been reached only by firms in the New York market. But, NALP warns, "the fact that during the period following April 1, 2009, some large firms were cutting salaries means that the $160,000 figure may not be sustained in many markets."

Indeed, for firms nationwide the "overall median starting salary was $130,000, and ranged from $70,000 in firms of 2-25 lawyers to $135,000 in firms of 501-1,000 lawyers, and $160,000 in firms of more than 1,000 lawyers."

While some in the legal profession (i.e., associates) view pay cuts and freezes as yet another piece of bad news, a degree of salary depression may be just what the doctor ordered. According to some consultants, inflated salaries and the traditional lockstep system lie at the root of the economic problems experienced by large firms this year.

It's All Good (Macroeconomically at Least) …

"What has hampered the legal profession is the competitive constraint on recruiting," says Tim Leishman, who advises law firms on issues such as strategic planning, compensation, and professional development strategy. "When firms are competing for top talent, they don't want to do anything that sets them apart from their competitors. But this kind of thinking leads many firms to follow the market, in terms of starting pay and lockstep increases, when they really shouldn't be offering such high salaries."

"The legal community tends to judge a firm by its salaries," says Leishman. "The top students from law schools tend to apply to the firms with the highest salaries. Regrettably, there is a misconception that if a firm lowers salaries, in-house clients and others will assume that their hires are of lower quality." In response to that perception, Leishman explains, lower-tier firms began offering higher salaries to appear "competitive" and to attract talent, even when doing so was ill-advised.

According to Leishman, "this dynamic made no economic sense for a lot of firms, but they followed it anyway. Of course, it might be the right approach for some firms which, prior to the recession, were highly leveraged and had a lot of business. But many others simply didn't have enough work to sustain their associates. Thus, the firms were paying big market salaries for associates to do a fraction of the billable work generated at a big market firm."

Firms in the second and third tiers, says Leishman, need to be realistic about how many hours their associates can bill, and adjust salaries accordingly. If associates are not "working New York hours" for New York billables, Leishman asserts, the firm needs to reevaluate its pay structure.

But, while stagnating (or declining) salaries may seem like bad news, they may leave firms — and associates — better off in the long run. If a firm is paying its associates too much, Leishman explains, there is no buffer if business slows down. If, however, "salaries are leaner, and reflect a firm's projected business — rather than a somewhat arbitrary market rate — an economic downturn wouldn't necessarily result in widespread layoffs."

In other words, the massive layoffs and lower salaries offer a valuable lesson, and may provide a roadmap for firms in the new, post-Great Recession era.

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Originally published on August 24, 2009 in our free SmallLaw newsletter.

I'm back again with five more technology hacks for small law firms. While technology is not necessarily a bastion of hope in these dark economic times, it can give the small firm practitioner a leg up on the competition and level the playing field for client service and communication compared to a larger outfit. If you missed my first five hacks, you can find them on TechnoLawyer Blog.

1. Track Your Time Writing Emails With MonetaMail

MonetaMail is an Outlook add-on that tracks the time you spend on email activities.

MonetaMail is inspired by the following facts:

Email is the most popular communication tool. Much email activity is of short duration (certainly under the 6 minutes for the 0.1 hour minimum time tranche). Many users do not actually know how much time they spend in email and usually grossly underestimate their email activity time. Moreover, users do not want to leave the workflow of reading and replying to email to track their time.

The solution, prior to MonetaMail was to either ignore or forget about billing for email time, make some wild guesses, or sift through your Sent folder and reconstruct what happened.

MonetaMail tags, tracks, and reports your email time by two different user-selected descriptors (you need set up a descriptor only once per email address). The basic idea is to track the time that slips through the cracks by seamlessly integrating into Outlook. The reporting function enables you to evaluate email productivity by client, project or time-period, on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. The captured time should eclipse the $99 price.

2. Send Video Emails With Eyejot

Even in the hands of a gifted writer, the written word can prove difficult to decipher. Enter video messaging service Eyejot.

Eyejot enables you to send video messages by simply signing up, logging in to your account, uploading or recording your video, and clicking "Send." There is no software to install or download. It works with all major browsers.

A free account enables you to send an unlimited number of 60 second email messages, and provides support for RSS feeds and iTunes, and a visual address book. Upgrading to the Pro version for $29.95 per year extends the video length to 5 minutes and provides an inbox perpetual in duration (the free account stores email for only 30 days).

For $99.95 per year, the Pro Plus version enables you to add your own logo and color scheme to Eyejot's notification elements, receive alerts when recipients view your video messages, and attach documents to your video messages.

3. Tweet From Outlook

Twinbox is a free Microsoft Outlook plugin that seamlessly integrates with Outlook to enable Twitter users to update, reply, archive, search, and receive their friends' tweets.

After download and installation, simply visit the "Options" menu and enter your Twitter username and password. What sets this app apart from stand-alone Adobe Air based Twitter applications such as TweetDeck is the ability to archive, manage, group, and search your tweets the same way you manage your email. You can also upload photos and Outlook attachments and automatically download all tweets matching the keywords you specify, similar to a supercharged Google Alerts for Outlook. Thus, Twinbox enables you to monitor what people are saying about you and your firm.

4. Backup Your Browser Settings With FavBackup

FavBackup is a free portable utility (meaning it does not have to be installed, just executed) that will backup your browser preferences, passwords, extensions, and sessions.

It works with all major browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome. Backing up is as simple as running the downloaded file and following the guided prompts.

5. Set Up Advanced Voicemail With YouMail

YouMail is a free voicemail service that will blow the pants off your cell phone carrier's default voicemail package. Think Google Voice without the extra phone number.

YouMail provides visual voicemail, personalized greetings based on the caller, voicemail sharing, caller blocking, and voicemail alerts by email and text. For a fee of $3.99/month, you can have voicemail messages transcribed and emailed to you. Another nifty feature is the ability to make folders to organize your voicemail messages as you would your email. You can also download your voice messages in .mp3 format.

What better way to organize client communications, send notes to yourself, and compartmentalize all communications? Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Written by Will Geer of JDhacker.

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.

Coming today to a special issue of Fat Friday: Christel Burris defends her recent TechnoFeature on Macs in a law office, Jason Barnes analyzes Christel's article point by point, Malcolm Pearson discusses the pros and cons of Macs in a law firm, Craig S. Clark explains why he eventually had to give up his Mac, and Steve Pena discusses why it doesn't really matter what operating system law firms use.

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Our most serendipitous offering, Fat Friday consists of unsolicited contributions by TechnoLawyer members. You'll no doubt enjoy it because of its mix of interesting topics and genuinely useful knowledge, including brutally honest product reviews and informative how-tos. The Fat Friday newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to Answers to Questions: Mark Deal discusses how to choose a consultant, Thomas Hutto reviews Fastcase for legal research, Carol Bratt explains how to perform calculations in Microsoft Word, Tom Trottier shares four password management and creation tips, and Frederic Wolfram reviews PureText for use with Word and WordPerfect. Don't miss this issue.

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Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? In Answers to Questions, TechnoLawyer members answer legal technology and practice management questions submitted by their peers. This newsletter's popularity stems from the relevance of the questions and answers to virtually everyone in the legal profession. The Answers to Questions newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Today's issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire covers an online document and records management service (see article below), an Exchange alternative with over-the-air push email, an online court rules service, a dual LCD monitor system, and an iPhone credit card app. Don't miss the next issue.

From Paper to Pixels to Searchable Text

You buy a scanner intending to scan years worth of records. But regardless of the scanner's speed, you soon realize the enormity of the task at hand. Time for some outsourcing, but who can you trust with your firm's documents?

Pixily … in One Sentence
Pixily is an online document and records management service with document scanning included in its monthly fee.

The Killer Feature
Pixily provides you with postage paid, waterproof envelopes with which you can send documents for scanning. Pixily scans your documents and also makes the text searchable, and then mails the originals back to you. You can keep the documents in your online account and/or download them in PDF format to store locally. Pixily provides end-to-end 256-bit SSL encryption.

Other Notable Features
You can upload Microsoft Office and PDF documents to Pixily as well as images in a variety of formats. You can also add documents to your account via email. If you snap a photo of a document and upload it, Pixily will make the text searchable.

Pixily offers a Google-like search tool. However, instead of listing your documents by title, Pixily also displays a thumbnail and the top of the first page, making it easier to find the document you seek. Once you find a document, you can view it within Pixily, and also email, print, or download it.

What Else Should You Know?
Pixily offers an iPhone-optimized version of its site for accessing your documents on the go. Pixily offers four plans — Free (1,000 pages), Value ($14.95/month; 1 envelope/ month, 3,000 pages), Value Plus ($29.95/month, 2 envelope/month, 6,000 pages), and Select ($59.95/month, 4 envelopes/month, 12,000 pages). Learn more about Pixily.

How to Receive TechnoLawyer NewsWire
So many products, so little time. In each issue of TechnoLawyer NewsWire, you'll learn about five new products for the legal profession. Pressed for time? The "In One Sentence" section describes each product in one sentence, and the "Killer Feature" section describes each product's most compelling feature. The TechnoLawyer NewsWire newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to TechnoFeature: The word "concordance" implies "harmonious mutual understanding." LexisNexis' new Concordance 10 litigation support software lives up to this billing thanks to its Unicode support. But how well do this and the many other new features work for lawyers knee-deep in discovery documents and transcripts? We asked litigation support expert and longtime Concordance user Paul Easton. Paul ended up delivering a twofer, reviewing both Concordance 10 and Electronic Legal Software's Native Review for Concordance.

How to Receive TechnoFeature
Our flagship newsletter never disappoints thanks to its in-depth reporting by leading legal technology and practice management experts, many of whom have become "household names" in the legal profession. It's in TechnoFeature that you'll find our oft-quoted formal product reviews and accompanying TechnoScore ratings. The TechnoFeature newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.

Coming today to BlawgWorld: Our editorial team has selected and linked to 59 articles from the past week worthy of your attention, including our Post of the Week. Here's a sample:

7 Steps to Smarter Law Firm IT Purchasing

Does Law Suffer the Same Over-Consumption as Health Care?

Post Title Makeover: Good Post Titles Are the New Black

Don't miss this issue or future issues.

How to Receive BlawgWorld
Our newsletters provide the most comprehensive coverage of legal technology, practice management, and law firm marketing, but not the only coverage. To stay on top of all the noteworthy articles published in blogs and other online publications you could either hire a research assistant or simply subscribe to BlawgWorld. The BlawgWorld newsletter has received rave reviews and is free. Please subscribe now.

Watch the Video

TechnoScore: 1.0
1 = Lowest Possible Score; 5 = Highest Possible Score

This video from Locks Law Firm, which has offices in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, caught my attention because it looked different. I didn't know how different until I watched the video, which features a client testimonial.

In this testimonial video, we see a woman speaking to someone off-camera. Unfortunately, I cannot understand most of what she says. The problems stems from a combination of poor sound and the woman's accent. Even when I can understand her words, there is no logical flow to her story. I can't make out the details of her case, nor do I hear anything about how this lawyer or law firm helped solve her problem; only that she is happy she got to keep her rented furniture.

The video is confusing. I had to read the sidebar to learn about the details. Creating a video in which the viewer has to read what the video describes misses the entire point of creating a video. This video failed miserably to accomplish this simple task.

This video was created by a company that has, in the past, created some very good attorney videos. They like to put their name prominently in the opening scene and the exit scene. I don't believe that a company which creates your videos should promote itself anywhere except perhaps in a footnote. You are the star, not your video production company.

Tip #1: Select a Client Who Can Speak Clearly

Why use a testimonial? Because a satisfied client is more believable than an attorney praising himself. A testimonial should praise the attorney , extoll the virtues of the lawyer and the law firm, and explain how the lawyer solved a legal problem.

Just as importantly, the person talking in the video should communicate clearly. It does you no good to have a satisfied client on video if viewers cannot understand the nature of their case and how you helped them. If you can't find such a client skip the testimonial.

Tip #2: Provide a Back Story

You, as the attorney, know the case. Your viewer doesn't. Explain the back story of how and why this client approached you, the nature of the problem, and how you helped solve her problem.

Tip #3: Want Credibility? Provide the Full Name of Your Client

What's with only a first name? How about a town? There's no last name or town listed here. Why the secret? Just as in a jury trial, credibility is key. If there's no last name and no town, I might think there's a credibility problem. If the satisfied client doesn't want to give their full name or the town where they live, it's time to select another client for your testimonial.

Conclusion

Testimonials offer a powerful way to tell the world about your talent without you having to say it yourself and look like you're bragging. Line up your satisfied clients and have them explain to the viewer (1) their problem, (2) what you did to solve their problem, and (3) how they would eagerly refer their mother or brother to you for any legal problem.

Till next time, see you on video!

The Back Bench

Certified Family Law Specialist and online video producer Kelly Chang Rickert says: "Client testimonials videos can be very effective — if properly used. The problem with this video is that we did not hear anything from the attorney at all. I would be interested in how he looks, sounds … who is the guy that represented this talking head?"

Lawyer, journalist, and legal media consultant Robert Ambrogi says: "I give this a high grade. The client testimonial comes across as sincere and unscripted. Even though the client stumbles over her words a couple times, which only underscores her legitimacy. I like the camera shots, the lighting, the audio, the transitions and the graphics. The message of this video is clear: Consumer got screwed by big corporation and lawyer saved the day."

TechnoLawyer publisher and online video producer Neil Squillante says: "Considering that every law firm has clients, I find it surprising that we don't see more videos in which clients discuss their case and praise the lawyer who helped them. One small quibble — the lawyer should have closed the video with a short message."

About YouLaw
YouTube offers law firms a free advertising platform with tens of millions of potential clients. But a poor video can hurt more than help. In this column, lawyer and online video expert Gerry Oginski reviews and rates the latest law firm videos. A panel of fellow experts (The Back Bench) add to Gerry's reviews with pithy remarks. We link to each new YouLaw column and all other noteworthy law firm marketing articles in our weekly BlawgWorld newsletter, which is free. Please subscribe now.

About Gerry Oginski
New York trial lawyer Gerry Oginski has created more than 150 informational online videos for his medical malpractice and personal injury practice. Realizing that most video producers don't have a deep understanding of the practice of law and what potential clients look for, Gerry launched The Lawyers' Video Studio, which provides free tutorials and video production services. If you need help producing a video, please contact Gerry now.

Contact Gerry:
T: (516) 487-8207
E: lawmed10@yahoo.com

Originally published on August 17, 2009 in our free BigLaw newsletter.

For every large firm attorney recently laid off, another exists who probably relishes a pink slip. A layoff would provide the kick in the pants needed to leave the large firm world forever and pursue a more personally satisfying career. But with the economy (supposedly) turning around, that hoped-for layoff may never happen. But that doesn't mean you've lost your only valid excuse to leave.

With prospective employers more sympathetic to career changes and more open to applicants with divergent skill sets than in recent memory, now may be the perfect time for you to depart — voluntarily. If you're considering breaking away, note the following do's and don't's courtesy of someone who herself voluntarily made this transition — yours truly.

Don't Listen to Legal Recruiters

If your experience was anything like mine, you've probably heard from legal recruiters that you have two career options: lateral from your current firm to another similar firm where you would practice the exact same type law you've been practicing for the past few years, or go in-house.

None of the recruiters with whom I spoke placed lawyers in non-legal jobs or even knew of agencies that did so. I was told repeatedly that given the economy, my resume, and skill set, it would be extremely difficult to transition out of law. One recruiter even recommended that I call up my old firm and ask nicely to be reinstated in the job I had just quit.

Legal recruiters, of course, have a great financial interest in keeping you in the large firm world, and, therefore, little interest in recommending resources that might help you find your way out. Don't rely on them for guidance.

Do Take Classes

If prospective employers (and legal recruiters) tell you that you don't have the skill set they seek, don't lose hope. You can build a new skill set almost immediately by enrolling in business-specific continuing education classes or non-matriculating certificate programs.

Another easy way to boost your marketability is to take one or two day courses in Web design and graphic design from computer training companies. Listing "proficiency in Microsoft Office suite, HTML and inDesign" on your resume is more eye-catching than plain old "mastery of Microsoft Word." Employers often pay a premium for candidates with computer skills, even if such skills are only tangentially related to the job you seek.

Do Set Realistic Expectations

Unless you want to pursue a career in finance (specifically, investment banking or hedge fund management), you'll likely have to take a salary cut, at least initially. You may also have to enter a new career on the ground floor to get the experience needed to eventually command a higher salary. Don't waste time searching for an entry-level job that pays a large firm salary sans the hours and drudgery — it doesn't exist. Before you leave your cushy (financially speaking) law firm gig, understand that you may have to adjust your standard of living. What you lose in salary you'll (hopefully) make up for with better hours and/or more fulfilling work.

Do Keep Your License Current

In addition to having computer skills, another way to obtain a higher starting salary in your new career is to keep your legal license current. Even if a new position doesn't require you to practice law, most prospective employers (especially small businesses) prefer an attorney who can assist in a legal pinch, all else being equal. A current license also enables you to perform contract attorney work if you're between jobs or otherwise want to earn cash on the side.

Most Importantly, Don't Live With Regret

It took me a year and a month to find a full-time employment in a new career following my departure from a large firm. At times I thought no employer would ever give me the chance to prove that I had skills beyond analyzing ERISA clauses, but even as months of unemployment dragged on, I never regretted my decision to pursue more fulfilling opportunities. Leaving the large firm world is a major decision that involves being proactive and readjusting you financial expectations, but if you're unhappy in your career, you may find it worth the effort and sacrifice.

How to Receive BigLaw
Many large firms have good reputations for their work and bad reputations as places to work. Why? Published first via email newsletter and later here on our blog, BigLaw goes deep undercover inside some of the country's biggest law firms. But we don't just dish up the dirt. We also mine it for best and worst practices and other nuggets of knowledge. The BigLaw newsletter is free so don't miss the next issue. Please subscribe now.