About a month ago, I did a post inspired by the LinkedIn thought leaders' series, "Things I Carry." My post was entitled, "What Things Do Lawyers Carry," and I was hoping to get some comments or responses from lawyers so that I could create my own slide presentation of the indispensable tools carried by lawyers.
I didn't get any comments or responses except for one, from Kelli Proia, who actually sent me her own slideshow of the things she carries every day. You can see Kelli's presentation here.
I still love the concept, so I decided I would do my own presentation of five "tools" I carry with me every day. You can see it below. I hope that it inspires you to let me know what YOU carry with you every day.
Billing. It's probably the most hated word in any lawyer's vocabulary. But it's a necessary evil. Even small practices need to keep up with their billing and collections, particularly when times are hard. Luckily, there are lots of software products out there that can help law firms of all sizes to keep up with their firm's financials, from timekeeping to invoicing to trust accounting.
Then again, the choices for law firm billing software can become overwhelming very quickly - which product is right for your firm, and what will it really cost? Will it work with the various different smartphones and tablets in use in your firm? Will you be able to access the system remotely? Will your billing program integrate well with your existing practice management system? Should you use a cloud-based product or a product that gets installed directly on your firm's system?
Once again, there's a resource out there to help. TechnoLawyer recently released their TechnoLawyer Research Buyer's Guide to Legal Billing Software. This report takes a comprehensive look at 22 different legal billing software programs, both cloud-based and traditional. You'll learn which programs work with which smartphones, tablets and other devices, what features and reports might be available, and more. They have even developed a way to compare these products on price using the TL Research Price so you can compare software programs based on a specific number of users and a specific length of time.
The best part is that you can get the TechnoLawyer Research Buyer's Guide to Legal Billing Software free if you are a TechnoLawyer member (and membership is free, too). If you're in the market for legal billing software, take a look at this report - it will take a lot of the headaches out of searching for a legal billing program for your firm.
I've written about how to motivate employees before. Usually, the subject comes up when I hear complaints from law firm partners or managers about why their employees (whether lawyers or staff) aren't performing the way the firm expects them to. That was the driving force behind my post, "Motivate Employees: Set Goals, Communicate and Say Thanks," which I still think many lawyers and law firm managers might find enlightening if they're struggling with getting the results they want from their employees.
But even before that, I wrote about how motivating employees isn't all about what you pay them. In "Do Something! Motivating Employees," I talked about 10 factors to consider instead of focusing on dollars when trying to motivate employees. They included recognition, opportunities for growth and choice, just to name a few, but you can read the full post here.
Now I've come across this infographic from Salesforce on the work.com blog. It's not specifically geared toward law firms, but the concepts still apply. The bottom line: employees want to be engaged and they want to be recognized.
What are *your* favorite ways to motivate employees?
In case you don't know about LexThink.1, it's an event that is usually held in conjunction with the ABA TECHSHOW. LexThink.1 takes place the evening before TECHSHOW begins.
Here's the format: 10 speakers, each with only 6 minutes to speak on a particular topic related to the future of law practice (this year's theme was "Disruption"), and each presentation includes 20 slides (which are automatically advanced every 18 seconds by the event host, not by the presenters themselves).
Potential speakers submit proposals to LexThink, and those proposals are put up for a vote on the LexThink website. According to the rules, the top seven vote-getters are automatically selected to speak and the LexThink committee selects the final three.
This year, all of the presenters were men, and only nine presentations were given. The tenth scheduled presenter was Sarah Glassmeyer, whose topic was, "Disruption in Publishing. A Librarian’s Perspective. (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Free Law)," but unfortunately Sarah was unable to present on the evening in question.
I always enjoy LexThink.1, in part because I can only imagine how difficult it must be to whittle a 'big idea' down to only 6 minutes, and to be disciplined enough to stay exactly on track with the scheduled slide changes - not to mention being able to convey the idea articulately during that time. There's certainly no time to get flustered or to lose your place!
As with anything else, whether the ideas and the content are brilliant or not, some people are simply better presenters (in this format) than others. I like watching to see who shines with this format, how they manage it, and whose content would be great if only it were presented in a different way.
But I also enjoy LexThink.1 because it's interesting to see the ideas that come from the presentations and the discussions they provoke afterwards, both online and at TECHSHOW itself.
You can see all of this year's LexThink.1 presentations here, but here's a list of the presenters and their presentation titles.
Eric Hunter: Big Data or Big Brother?
Dan Pinnington: Legal Services in a Global Village – Jurisdiction Changes Everything
Phillip Rosenthal: Flattening the Legal Tower of Babel: Fishing for a means to remove language barriers from the law
Chad Burton: The Future of Virtual Law
Will Hornsby: Gaming the System: Are lawyers ready to game-up?
Roe Frazer: Knowing Unknowns – The Key to Intelligent Lawyering
Jay Shepherd: Don’t Do What You’re Good At
Mark Britton: LegalZoom is Eating Legal’s Lunch
Matt Spiegel: The Death of the Office
Matt Homann: The Decline of the Machines – What the Unabomber Can Teach Us About Legal Learning
(In case you're interested, although I thought there were a number of great presentations this year, one of my favorits was Jay Shepherd's. Maybe it's because he starts off by pointing out how many unhappy lawyers there are, but then moves to showing lawyers that they need to take advantage of their 'outstandingness' - you can see Jay's presentation below, or watch it here.)
Let me know in the comments which presentations were your favorites.
Finally, if you're into the six minute 'thing,' here's a six minute video the TECHSHOW folks put together of the "60 sites in 60 minutes" presentation from this year:
If you haven't seen them yet, get ready - changes are coming to Facebook (again).
Facebook's "What are you doing?"
The latest addition? When you click in the status update box to post to Facebook, in addition to options to indicate who you're with, where you are and when your post will appear on your Timeline, Facebook has added a new option: what you're doing.
The new option is designated by a smiley-face icon at the bottom of the status update box (like the others mentioned above, it only appears once you click inside the box to begin writing your post):
Once you click on the smiley face, you'll see a number of different options to respond to the question, "What are you doing?"
As you can see, each category has an arrow next to it which provides additional options. For example, clicking on the "feeling" section will bring up a menu of icons to choose from that express all different kinds of emotions. Similarly, clicking on "reading" will bring up a list of books. But you can also add your own by simply typing into the space that appears under the dotted line.
If you post in one of the categories such as reading" or "listening to" these items will also be added to your About section that corresponds to that activity.
As of this writing, you are restricted to one feeling or activity per post.
New Guidelines for Facebook Business Page Cover Photos
Facebook has also recently updated its guidelines for cover photos for Facebook Business Pages. Previously, Facebook restricted cover photos for businesses to prevent them from including contact information, pricing information or calls to action (such as "Contact us at: 555-1212" or "Download your free report here") as part of the cover photo.
The new guidelines simply say that your Business Page cover photo cannot include more than 20% text, and that text cannot be "deceptive, misleading, or infringe on anyone else’s copyright." And you cannot encourage others to upload your cover to their personal Timeline.
Facebook is also rolling out a new, less-cluttered version of News Feed. You'll have more options for filtering what you see in your Feed, and the experience across desktop and mobile applications will be more consistent. You can find out more about the new news feed here.
If you've been on LinkedIn lately, you may have noticed that LinkedIn now features some influencers (they call them "Thought Leaders") who have the ability to post longer, article or blog-style items on LinkedIn. Thought leaders include people like Jack Welch, Richard Branson, Meg Whitman, Barack Obama, Deepak Chopra, and Guy Kawasaki, among others. You can follow these thought leaders and get updates from them on your LinkedIn home page.
Recently, some of these LinkedIn thought leaders or influencers shared their tools for success in a series entitled, "Things I Carry." Here's an infographic showing some of their responses:
The editor of Slideshare created a presentation presentation entitled, "Things I Carry, My Everyday Tools for Success" (seen below). The presentation encouraged others to share their own tools for success, and I've started to notice several links tagged #thingsicarry from all kinds of people in all kinds of industries on the web.
I thought it might be fun to hear from lawyers about the things they carry and what tools they think are essential for their success.
Let me know what tools you think are essential for your success (even better - send me a photo) and I'll put a presentation together about the tools lawyers find indispensable for getting work done and helping their clients.
For inspiration, I've embedded the aforementioned Slideshare presentation below.
Now it's your turn! What things do you carry? You don't need to be as ambitious as Kelli and put together your own presentation - just send me your list.
On Monday the New York Times posted a story online about a suit against mega-firm DLA Piper alleging that the firm padded its bills. According to the story, lawyers at the firm engaged in email discussions about bills on this particular client's case which included comments about "churning" the bill.
The story goes on to note that, "Legal ethics scholars said that it was highly unusual to find documentary evidence of possible churning — the creation of unnecessary work to drive up a client’s bill."
It may be highly unusual to find a case in which such evidence has been uncovered, but that may be because many disputes over legal fees don't get this far or warrant the large amount of electronic discovery that would be required to determine whether associates at the firm were exchanging messages about the firm's billing practices. Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me if there are plenty of lawyers engaging in these kinds of discussions whether bills are being padded or not. Similar emails might be an expression of frustration on the part of lawyers about the pressure to bill more hours.
"Padding" legal bills, even unintentionally, is an inherent problem when hours are used as the basis for fees. It is human nature to want to make more money, and hourly billing encourages making more money by putting in more hours, whether those hours are valuable to the client and the ultimate result or not. Instead of emphasizing results, service and outcomes, hourly billing rewards expenditure of time - and that is always going to result in some level of 'padding.'
When a firm charges a client by the hour, the firm is also going to emphasize hours as a basis to measure performance of the firm's lawyers. In a system that rewards expenditure of time, it shouldn't come as a big surprise that padding is the result as lawyers try to find work to do on files to add hours to their timesheets, rather than focusing on excellent service.
The economic downturn has also created problems for law firms facing pressure from clients to reduce their fees, which may result in hiring less experienced attorneys at lower rates who provide an inferior work product or who take longer to perform tasks than a more experienced (and more expensive) attorney would.
The plaintiff in the suit referenced in the New York Times article complained that when he first started working with the firm, one of the partners was his regular contact, but as the firm grew, more and more attorneys who were unknown to the client were working on the client's files. Ultimately, this resulted in subpar work and higher fees.
One of the DLA Piper lawyers quoted in the article lamented the practice of lowballing bills while adding more and more lawyers to a case. He also complained about the length of time it took for associates to complete assignments and questioned whether paying more for associates would result in higher quality work.
The article doesn't specify whether the client's complaints about fees began before the change in staffing of the clients files. Although some clients may not want to pay a high hourly rate, they don't realize that the consequence of the pressure on rates can often lead a firm to sacrifice quality or to change the personnel working on a client's matters, achieving the opposite of the client's desired result.
The majority of lawyers are honest, ethical professionals who genuinely want to do right by their clients. In any profession, there will always be a few individuals who make a bad name for others by their bad behavior. But both lawyers and clients could curb at least some of this behavior by changing the way fees are charged and the emphasis placed on hours and hourly rates.
Time management isn't just about working more efficiently; it's also about being more effective and choosing the right tasks to work on in the first place.
In Time Management Tip #5, we talked about creating a "Don't Do" list. Your don't do list may include tasks that need to be accomplished in your practice, but that don't require your specific knowledge, expertise or personal touch. You'll need to delegate some of those tasks to others.
While it may take longer in the short run to explain a task or project to someone else (and then fix it later) than it does to just do it yourself, if the
task is one that truly should be delegated, the overall return on your time is
well worth it. Not only will you free up more of your own time to focus on your priorities, but you'll be building up and empowering your employees.
Steps to effective delegation
In my experience, there are five main steps to effective delegation. These steps are all crucial when starting out, whether you're new to delegation or you're delegating to a new person. Some of those steps can be curtailed or eliminated entirely as you and your team progress in your working relationship and get to know one another's expectations, but until you're both comforable, you'll want to go through all 5 steps each time.
Step 1: Give clear, comprehensive instructions
This may be the single most crucial component of effective
delegation, and it is harder than it sounds.
Try creating checklists or other written instructions,
particularly for tasks that will be performed repeatedly, where turnover is
likely, or for tasks that are performed by more than one person.
Be specific about the scope of the project – how long, how
much time, how many, etc. If the employee finds themselves spending more time
on it than you anticipate, they can check back with you to determine whether
they should keep going, cut the project short, or go in another direction.
Communicate why this assignment is important and how it fits
into the overall work of the firm. How does it affect clients or fit into the
overall strategy of the case? How does it help the firm function?
When an
employee knows that their role is important and how it fits into the work that
you do for your clients, they are more ‘invested’ in the project – and more
likely to get it right.
Step 2: Ensure that you’ve been understood
Miscommunication is inevitable. ‘Memo’ to one lawyer might
mean one page of bullet points outlining the current state of the law. ‘Memo’
to the newly minted associate may mean a legal brief complete with a full recitation of the facts, case citations and extended legal analysis.
Ask the person to whom you are delegating to repeat back to you their
understanding of the project – in their
own words. Don’t just ask, “Do you understand?” (Most people, particularly if they are your subordinates, are not going to admit that they didn't understand your instructions) Let them tell you what they
think you want them to do.
This is your opportunity to ensure that your
instructions were clear and that you’ve properly defined the scope of the
project. Encourage questions, even when using written instructions and
checklists.
Step 3: Set a definite deadline and establish priority
Delegation often fails due to lack of deadlines or failure
to set priorities. Employees need to know when the project must be completed
and how important it is in the context of all of the other work they must do. Human nature dictates that work that is urgent gets
attended to first. If you have no deadlines or priorities, there is no urgency.
Remember that you may not be the only one delegating to this particular employee. Make sure you both understand waht takes precedence so conflicts can be resolved early or alternate plans can be made.
Step 4: Check in
Don't wait until the deadline to determine whether your
employee is on track, particularly if you're new to delegation or to working
with this particular individual.
Schedule a specific time to check in with the employee when
you think enough time has passed to have uncovered some questions, but not so
far that you can’t rein them in if they’re off-track.
Beware of micromanaging. If you’ve been working with someone
for a while and they are meeting your expectations, the necessity to check in
should be reduced drastically, and perhaps eliminated. You must develop
confidence in your employees, particularly professionals, and allow them to do
their jobs.
Step 5: Evaluate and share the outcome
Completion of the task is not the end of the delegation
process. Feedback is an important part of good delegation. Take the time to
teach and correct your employees so that they can grow and improve. Give praise
for a job well done.
Sharing the outcome with your employees signals that their
contribution is important and that they are an integral part of your success. And it will make them work harder for you in the future. Most employees want to do a good job. Don't miss this opportunity to help them do it.
Internet marketing consultants, social media "experts," and SEO "professionals" seem to be everywhere these days. Lawyers have begun to recognize that they can no longer ignore the internet, even if they think it isn't their main source of business. Many are embracing the internet and are willing to spend money on designing professional looking websites, creating video, and optimizing their sites for the best possible visibility.
But too many well-intentioned lawyers are still falling victim to "black hat" SEO tactics, or tactics that don't present them in a professsional manner - and they don't even know it!
Bad SEO Strategy
When I see this happening, I want to reach out to these lawyers individually and let them know what a mistake they are making. For example, this morning, I received the following email (names and links have been changed, but otherwise the email is exactly as it was received):
Hello Sir/madam,
I'm the Webmaster of http://www.xyzlawgroup.com/. Our website provides the details about Civil Related Law site etc. We are requesting you to provide a link for our website from your site links page. Kindly add and reply your site details.
I'm waiting for your response.
Add this Link in your site:
Title: First Party Insurance Lawyer
URL: "http://www.xyzlawgroup.com/"
Site Description: Mr. B is the owner and lead trial lawyer for the B Law Firm in Large City, Texas. 15 years of civil trial and litigation experience. I have represented thousands of clients nationwide.
Once added my link remind me, I gave link to you in my law related blogspot.com
http://crappylawblog.blogspot.com/
Thanking you,
Webmaster,
http://www.xyzlawgroup.com/
The Response
I wanted to respond directly via email, but instead, I decided to reply here, in an 'open' letter to the attorney:
Dear Mr. B,
I wanted to make you aware of some of the activity on the internet being undertaken on your behalf, including the sending of email spam in your name. This morning, I received the above email message that was sent on your behalf (although it came a gmail address, rather than your regular law firm email address), with your name, your law firm’s name and your website link.
Not only does this message request reciprocal links from another site which has no relation to your site at all, but no substantive reason has been given for the request (Google has made recent updates to its search algorithm specifically to combat these kinds of artificial links), and the message represents both you and your firm poorly with its improper English and sentence fragments.
In addition to referring to your regular website, the email references a blog where the requested "reciprocal link" to my site is to be placed. A quick review of the blog reveals although it is purportedly over two years old, it contains few posts, some of which reference accomplishments by other law firms. Others are about legal topics but appear largely unrelated to the actual law you practice. The internal links on the blog lead to completely unrelated posts. Glaring grammatical mistakes abound.
I doubt that this is the kind of professional presence you intend to project to potential clients.
A quick search of the internet reveals that someone has created several different sites on your behalf, most of which contain very little substantive content, almost none of which appears to be original.
Your main website, xyzlawgroup.net, at first blush appears impressive because of the updated design and available videos, but even a cursory further investigation of the site reverses that impression almost immediately due to the canned or copied content from outside sources and the distracting ‘slideshow’ at the top of the home page which repeats the same photo and text over and over, distracting the viewer from the information on the site, among other issues.
You should also be aware that some of the marketing tactics employed on your behalf may be a violation of your jurisdiction’s ethical rules. Although I am not a Texas lawyer and am not an expert in the Texas advertising rules or the Texas ethics rules, I would suggest that you review your internet presence in light of these rules. For example, the cumulative claims regarding results (“Completed over 3000 cases. Won 3000.”) on the blog my be a violation, even if a disclaimer were included (which it is not).
I would urge you to contact your webmaster or other internet marketing/ SEO consultant and find out exactly what is being done on the internet on your behalf, using your name and your firm’s name, to be sure that the measures being taken are not ‘black hat’ SEO tactics (which could result in your site(s) being penalized by the search engines) or a potential violation of ethical rules, and that they convey the proper professional presence and tone in their presentation.
It is clear that you have spent time and money on your internet presence, but it is not clear that you are aware of the other steps being taken on your behalf or the potential implications they may have for you and your firm.
Please note that I have marked the received message as spam, and would be willing to bet that others that received similar messages have done the same.
Best of luck with your website and your internet presence.
P.S. If you want more information about SEO tactics and what lawyers should be concerned about, you may want to look at these posts:
Optimizing your website with correct alt tags, title and meta tags and ensuring that you are using keywords to attract your ideal clients and drive traffic to your website are important. But it is even more important to ensure that once your ideal clients arrive at your website, they are receiving quality, original content that reflects who you are and how you can help them. Using canned content or content that makes you seem as if you're simply stuffing your site with keywords or sound like you can't put a complete sentence together in proper English isn't likely to impress anyone, let alone paying clients.
Don't let your webmaster or consultant destroy your reputation or make you look incompetent. Keep tabs on what they're doing, be aware of your jurisdiction's current ethical rules, and require anyone sending emails or placing content on the web on your behalf to get your approval first.
And for goodness' sake, if you receive an email like the one I received this morning, don't agree to the 'reciprocal linking' arrangement!
Your Profile is your “home” page on LinkedIn. It helps new connections or potential followers decide whether or not to connect and interact with you. It’s where people on LinkedIn will get information about you, and the information in your Profile is what LinkedIn will use to help you get found when someone searches on LinkedIn.
The “Summary” section of your LinkedIn Profile is just what it sounds like – it’s a place for you to summarize all of your experience. It is a mini bio of sorts, and the rules for creating an effective Summary on your LinkedIn Profile are the same as the rules for your website bio.
The Summary is an opportunity for you to define who you are and what you do in a global way – not compartmentalized into sections, like the rest of your Profile. Consider it a chance to give your “elevator speech.”
Although you can rearrange your Profile so the Summary field does not appear at the top (see LinkedIn Tip #3: Rearrange Profile Sections), I recommend that you keep it right at the top and take advantage of the space LinkedIn provides in this section to give LinkedIn users and potential connections a snapshot of your professional expertise.
Make it interesting
Your summary and experience sections should not read like a flat, boring resume. They should be interesting and entertaining. Inject some personality. Make your experience come alive. Use stories or examples to illustrate what you do for clients or to provide additional insight.
Include keywords
LinkedIn has great SEO “juice” on the regular search engines like Google, but it also has its own powerful built-in search engine. Business owners and other professionals use LinkedIn’s search feature to find and connect with professionals they want to do business with. If your Profile (and your Summary) doesn’t include the keywords they’re looking for, you won’t get noticed.
Speak your clients’ language
Don’t fill your bio or about page with industry jargon and legalese unless you’re sure that your clients understand and appreciate it. If they don’t talk that way, you shouldn’t talk that way in your Profile. Use the language your clients use to describe their legal problems.
Provide information of value for potential contacts
Your LinkedIn Profile is about you, but it is not written for you – it is written for the people you want to read it (or even better, to contact you after they read it). And that means it must address what is important to them – what they most want to know. And that isn’t necessarily the same as what you think they should want to know. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential client or your best referral source and ask yourself what you would need to know before making a decision to hire you, or what would motivate you to pick up the phone if it was included in your Profile.
(LinkedIn has made several changes to its platform in the past several months that you might want to explore. Follow my LinkedIn tips to learn how to get the most out of LinkedIn)
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