The Posts of Christmas Past: The LOMAP Blog’s Calendar Year in Review

Everybody needs a break, sometimes. Perhaps that explains the popularity of those old Kit Kat commercials. (Damn, I could really go for a Kit Kat right now, after watching that! . . . Oh my God! (Subliminal) messaging does work! Break me off a piece.)

After roughly forty-five 2009 blog posts, covering roughly 225,000 words, all I have to say is that: “My typing fingers are tired”.

So, I’ve tried to take a lesson from television sitcoms, and the movies: What are some of the things that you can do to attempt to revive a tiring, flagging franchise?

Well, we could introduce a child blogger, a la Cousin Oliver, of Brady Bunch fame. That’s a tried and true method. But, I figure, if we’re gonna jump the shark, we might as well do it up right. I think . . . We Need a Montage!!

What’s that . . . ? We don’t have the budget for a montage? . . . Um, okay then.

Sharks with laser beams on their heads? No. Sea bass? Are they ill-tempered? Alright then.

Without further ado, then, the Best of the LOMAP Blog, for the calendar year 2009:

In the twelfth month of the year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . a post about the free data privacy all-day conference we’re co-sponsoring on January 27, 2009 in Springfield that you should all come to . . . bring along twelve drummers drumming, if you want . . . as long as they can stay quiet during the presentations, not drumming, ya dig . . .

In the eleventh month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . information and analysis on how to advertise as a new lawyer while not holding yourself out as a specialist . . . eleven pipers are going forth to pipe the news to the legal community . . . (Not in the budget either? Ok.)

In the tenth month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . an overview of the SJC’s interim guidelines for the protection of personal identifying data in court documents . . . and ten lordly lawyers leapt out of their tights because they were concerned over what they had to do now; but, I told them that it wasn’t that big a deal, and everything was chill again . . .

In the ninth month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . practice management software options . . . nine ladies were hanging out, and dancing, but then they left, because the party got lame . . .

In the eighth month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . a guest blog post about the use of lawyer referral services . . . although we had an intern, we never had eight milking maids; in fact, I don’t want to even touch that one: I drink skim . . .

In the seventh month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . Rodney’s take on how podcasts can help your practice . . . you can listen to podcasts on your iPod, while walking around the park, and, that’s right: watching seven swimming swans . . .

In the sixth month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . advice on bra-a-a-nding, your law firm . . . like the six geese that laid six golden eggs . . .

In the fifth month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . fiiiiiiiiiiive goooooold rings . . . and one post on Google tips and tricks . . .

In the fourth month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . pros and cons of establishing a virtual law office . . . which is a sight better than making four calling birds your receptionists . . .

In the third month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . suggestions for beefing up business cards . . . I can’t think of anything here that has to do with three French hens . . .

In the second month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . Rodney wrote about the importance of finding a mentor . . . you and your mentor, cuddling like two turtle doves, around the warm fire of the law . . .

In the first month of this year, the LOMAP Blog gave to me . . .

. . . a review of the 2008 edition of the ABA’s “The Legal Career Guide: From Law Student to Lawyer” . . . my first post . . .

. . . And a partridge in a pear treeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

(Damn, that’s catchy. I should remember that.)

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

. . .

Liner Notes

I’ll tell you, though, I never get to bed on time. Especially on Christmas Eve. I love Christmas. I wish every day could be Christmas. Literally. If every day were Christmas I would be happy. I wouldn’t even mind the cold. I love Christmas like Ray Liotta loved Christmas on “Just Shoot Me”, in that creepy-weird sort of way. I listen to Christmas music in the summer.

The fact that my love for Christmas would dovetail with my love for music will not surprise regular readers of the LOMAP blog. And, it should probably not either be a shock that this is my Christmas songs edition of “Liner Notes”. Yup. You’re in it right now. Surprised? Don’t be. That just happened.

There are many singers of many Christmas songs; but, for my money, the best of all-time is Perry Como. The Perrydactyl could lay it down for the season. His bass voice, unfounded these days, in popular music, worked perfectly for the production of Christmas classics. A barbershop singer, though the story is less dramatic than it might otherwise be told, Mr. C became one of the most popular artists and television personalities of his generation. Everything about him was smooth. I mean, just look at his Wikipedia photo: Is that not the most pimped look ever? Is that a woolen gray button-down shirt? Seriously? One time, they took Perry Como’s car in for “Pimp My Ride”, but they were like, “Sorry, There’s nothing we can do. It’s already taken care of.” Honestly, if Perry Como ever propositioned me, I’d have a tough time saying no.

My favorite Christmas song of all time is Perry Como’s “Home for the Holidays”. Owning a Perry Como Christmas CD is something like owning Christmas. Many of his other songs belong in the Christmas pantheon, as well. “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, “Santa Clause Is Coming to Town” and “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” have all become standards.

As my unrequited love for Perry Como can attest, I am a staunch Christmas traditionalist. I like the old stuff. Perhaps this is because, for the first many years of my life, I only listened to Christmas songs on my grandmother’s massive, ancient, dusty record player, playing her old records. If you, too, love the old Christmas tunes, and you do not yet own the Time-Life Treasury of Christmas, buy it: today. You will not be sorry. It’s a ridiculous value at $10, like you are stealing on old Saint Nick himself.

A very partial list of some of the best of the Christmas standards include:

“Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” by Brenda Lee

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” by Gene Autry

“Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” by Nat “King” Cole

“A Holly Jolly Christmas” by Burl Ives

“Mele Kalikimaka” by Bing Crosby, featuring The Andrews Sisters

Ah, yes. That makes you feel warm inside, like you just drank a steaming hot toddy.

But, just because I like the old songs doesn’t mean that I’m a hater. How could be, on Christmas!

There are a number of more contemporary Christmas songs that I also enjoy, including:

“Step Into Christmas” by Elton John (my wife and I played this song at our June wedding; no kidding)

“White Christmas” by The Drifters (why I did not include, above, der Bingle’s classic version)

“Fairytale of New York” by The Pogues, featuring Kirsty MacColl

“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” by Alvin and the Chipmunks

“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen/We Three Kings” by the Barenaked Ladies, featuring Sarah McLachlan

“Circle of Steel” by Gordon Lightfoot

In consideration of my having to save some ammunition for next year’s Christmas songs post, I should stop here, I feel like.

It’s almost time to eat my twenty-fourth chocolate of Advent.

Planning Your Pre-Holiday Work Scheduling: Making a List, Checking It Twice . . . or Thereabouts

Christmas is a time for giving. Gifts, not yourselves coronaries. Of course, the workweek hardly has time for a break; consequently, neither do you. The demands for your time certainly do not subside just because you have to take a day off to go Christmas shopping, or because you need to take an extra hour at lunch to finalize an online purchase, or to finally define a joint family gift contribution amount. (Hey, we’re in a recession.) The hours stubbornly tick down, waiting to settle up, to seek their own recompense, in billing just as you would. And, whether you’re processing new business, or clearing out old, here at the end of 2009, you’re likely busy, in reaching for that shining proverbial clear slate for the beginning of the New Year, that arbitrary designation of time that makes us want to go to the gym more often (at least for a couple weeks), and to generally be and do better.

But, on Christmas Day, Will part of your relaxation lie in the fact that you have left behind a nice, clean desk with a fresh-crafted to-do list awaiting your return to your holiday-empty office? Or will you be sitting in your new Old Navy sleep pants, pondering a fresh piece of coal, the dark chalky residue on your hands, while you’re shifting nervously, and wondering just how, next year, you might really (no, really, this time) accomplish something near like what you’d like to get done before you hit your adult Christmas break.

. . .

To the continued amazement of my friends, and to the stubborn confoundment of my enemies, (leaving, to my frenemies, any number of mixed emotions), I continue to run my work and home life, like a beginning contestant on “The Biggest Loser” (my man Danny won this year!), upon a most rigid system. Being OCD, despite the lack of sleep, and the inordinate amount of time it takes me to be sure that I have locked a door, has its advantages. My systems are based on subordinate lists. Why am I telling you this? Well, it’s early, but I guess I can do it now. I guess so. Yeah. Well, alright . . . I made you a list. I know, it’s early, it is, but I just can’t wait for Christmas. Go ahead and open it now. We’ll split Christmas like Chanukah lights. See the wrapping paper. Neatly cut and taped down tight. The taut bow. The neatly printed name card. . . . Go on. It’s yours.

Here it is: Your very own list, to make sure you’re making the most of your pre-holiday worktime, really rip-ping, and not wasting a significant opportunity to catch up, and to catch on. (After all, you know, the big guy’s up there, always monitoring, seeing whether you’ve been naughty, or nice, before checking again, to make sure; so, you know, just do your best.)

(Imagine that this was printed upon a scroll with fancy lettering):

Stick to a Budget. The same as you would Christmas shopping. If you don’t stick to your established budget (which should have some give in it to begin with), it’s a surefire way to end up putting a decent chunk of money on your credit card, when all is said and done. And then where will Kris Kringle be, when you realize how much your interest rate sucks? Feeding reindeer, that’s where; and not thinking about how loud the toy that he brought for your kid can be when the appropriate level of force is applied. So, stick to your budget at Christmas . . . even when you’re buying yourself stuff. And, that’s alright. This isn’t an uncommon Christmas pitfall, and it isn’t really so bad. It’s the ol’ one for me, two for you deal. Buying your wife a bowling ball with your monogrammed initials and wrapping it up, following, uncleverly. You know, you’re spending so much on everyone else, perhaps your reward should be that second monitor you’ve wanted. Or a scanner. Well, that’s all well and good; but, don’t get caught up in the spending frenzy. Make any office purchases, even those made during the holiday season, in a manner that is consistent with your budgeting, and your general purchasing philosophy. It’s alright to take advantage of some of the great deals available this time of year for yourself, as long as those purchases are consistent with the way that you make purchases throughout the rest of the year. Otherwise, you might be wondering why you have two untoasted waffles for lunch December 28.

Don’t Overeat. I read somewhere the other day that people eat an average of 600 extra calories per day during the holiday season. (So, maybe those waffles for lunch ain’t such a bad idea.) That’s just ill. So, How do you avoid looking like Orson Welles post-the Cici’s Pizza buffet the day after Christmas? Self-restraint, my friends. Don’t deviate overmuch from your general eating habits, if those be well eating habits. Add an extra couple small snacks a day if you need to, but don’t require of yourself the polishing off of the entire packing of chocolate-dipped pretzels at the table, lest you want to be drooling all over your new Old Navy sleep pants, unable to move, and wondering where you went wrong, whether it was by the cranberry sauce or the olive bowl. Similarly, don’t bite off more than you can chew at work. Realize that you only have a limited amount of time to accomplish what you want before you’re on work release. Understand that, in that limited amount of time, you will be inundated with Christmas-related distractions. You ever hear the expression “underpromise and overdeliver”? Well, fool yourself in the same way. Set a reasonable, limited number of objectives, and attempt to meet those. If you have some more time left over at the end, great. Work on some more stuff, but not in a pressurized tank; instead, then, just “do what you can,” which you can afford to do, because you’ve already done everything that you “had to do.” See how easy this is? Just play some psychological games with yourself, and you’re golden. And, you know, if you force yourself to create a short list of limited objectives, you’ll find that you’re really thinking about what it is that you need to do to move forward, what it is that is representative of the most important things for you to do. That funneling process really does grant you some perspective going in, as well as providing you some better idea of your holistic situation coming out.

Stay in Touch. Your cousin from Tuscaloosa sends you the Christmas card with his snot-rosed, rednecked, plaid-wearing kids plastered across the front, accompanied by a letter, updating various statuses, with scanned copies of a number of 4-H awards appended. And you wonder about all the various relationships between man and all of God’s creatures. Before you throw that note away, though, take note. For one, isn’t it kind of nice that they thought of you, you ungrateful toad? Well, yeah, in a way, right. Similarly, don’t forget about your clients during the holidays. Don’t drop your status calls, follow-ups and check-ins just because Christmas is coming on. Heck, check in with some of your folks just because it is Christmas. Rarely will you find them in a better mood. And, now, pick up that Christmas card again, and wipe the root vegetable peelings off of that sucker. It’s sort of a backwoods, down home kind of marketing gig, is it not? Yeah it is. (Cue Dueling Banjos.) Why not get your own marketing out there? Put out a holiday newsletter, your year’s update for your firm. Whether that newsletter be paper or email, you’ll reach some of your clients and contacts, reengaging them, at a time when they are more likely to be open to taking a look at something that may appear frivolous, because they’re frazzled, too, and probably need a break. When you get those opens, you’re top of mind, at that moment. And, people will be more likely to remember you for the end of 2009, and for the beginning of 2010. This be a good way to get an early start on your New Year’s resolution of getting a year-end newsletter out. Oh, and then you can hit the treadmill.

String Your Lights. Beyond general marketing opportunities, think of engaging specific, traditional ones. Send out your Christmas cards. It may seem old-fashioned, and maybe something that old people do. But, old people do it for a reason. No, not because they have nothing better to do, but because they’re smart. (No fussing now, I’m already holding Willard Scott back, and he’s ornery. He never got your Christmas card.) So, get your Christmas cards out, too. Think of what people do with Christmas cards, most people. They open them. They show them to their friends. (--Oh, Martha, Just look who sent along this absolutely wonderful Christmas card. His handwriting is like a woman’s.) They paste them up somewhere, or stand them up in a crowd somewhere. They take them down, and look at them some more while doing so. That’s gold. That’s like four references right there. Even with the cost of stamps and the time taken in creating handwritten notes, it may be worth the investment. Just be careful about what you send. I say “Christmas” cards because that’s what they are. But, you know that the PC police are always lurking. Despite the fact that Christmas is probably the most secular holiday there is, and despite the fact that now the only persons being discriminated against are the Christians, it’s somehow no longer correct to say “Merry Christmas”, or to send Christmas cards anymore, which I think is garbage, but let’s leave that for my other blog, the one in my mind. Rather than sending your Christmas card emblazoned with “Merry Christmas” and a life-sized painting of Jesus riding his new scooter about the manger without a helmet while mother Mary scolds him, just go with a nice “Season’s Greetings” card with some pictures of snowed-over trees. That way, you won’t offend the people who actually get offended over this stuff; you won’t, either, offend the people who think they have to get offended over this stuff; and then, the people who don’t care, will continue not to care.

Don’t Be a Scrooge. Remember your staff. Remember that person who handwrote all your Christmas cards while you were playing Minesweeper. Hello there. Yes. That’s your staffperson. Introduce yourself. It’s Christmas for your staff, too. Don’t make ‘em feel like Bob Cratchit, huddling for warmth over a single coal, worrying over coldcuts for Christmas dinner. Be a good doobie. Budget for a gift for them, too. Even if your budget is small, they’ll appreciate the thought. Some kind of bonus is better than no bonus at all, be that bonus movie tickets, one of those Edible Arrangement bouquets, real flowers, or even old-fashioned dollar, dollar bills y’all. Don’t forget the people that have helped you out all year. Making someone’s day with a deserved reward for a job-well-done is a guaranteed way to make the karma police happy going into the new year.

Happy . . . Chanukah!

(That’s right. I know about Chanukah. I have Jewish relatives. I light the menorah. I remember the Maccabees. Being a believer in none of the organized religions, I have a veritable buffet plate of religious festivals from which to choose to engage. Most frequent tiebreaker: best food.)


Chanukah blessings to you. And, mazel tov for your new year.

. . .

Liner Notes.

Sometimes I forget just how obscure some of the music that I listen to becomes as the years pass. The other night, I was watching “The Sing-Off” show (finale tonight!), when one of the a cappella groups intent on butchering some of my favorite songs decided to put a cleaver through Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”. “Sledgehammer” is just a great song, and featured one of the best companion videos ever. My wife tells me she’s never even heard of the song. Of course, she was only 2 when it came out. Now, we see a lot of younger attorneys here, and it makes me wonder how many of them have some knowledge of any song that was released in 1986? How many of them have ever seen Loggins & Messina in concert? Oh dear Lord, I am getting old.

Well, even if you’re young, and I’m old, you’ve likely heard the song “Cat’s in the Cradle“. If you think that that is a Cat Stevens song, you’re just killing me. Please, stop. Cat Stevens is great, but that’s not his song. That’s a Harry Chapin song. (Well, actually, his wife, Sandy, wrote it; but . . .)

Now, if you know that Harry Chapin sings “Cat’s in the Cradle”, you probably know that he also sings “Taxi”, a long-form rising arc of a song about long-lost lovers reunited unexpectedly in a cab in San Francisco on a rainy night. “Harry, Keep the change.” How intimately connected to the taxi industry has Harry Chapin become: there are “Harry Keep the Change” cab services out of Houston and Hunstville. No word yet on whether such a clever name results in tips representing $20 on a $2.50 fare.

Add “Cat’s in the Cradle” (a #1 song, originally penned as a poem, as referenced, by Chapin’s wife, Sandy) and “Taxi” to “WOLD” and the sequel to “Taxi”, “Sequel”, and you have the sum of the popular Harry Chapin, but not the sum of Harry Chapin.

Harry Chapin is one of my favorite singer-songwriters of all time; and, it is disturbing how little of his catalogue touches us, remaining actively engaging upon the public consciousness. As you uncover the rest of what Harry has to offer, you’ll begin to see that there is far more to Harry Chapin than four top forty hits, and the fact that he had one of the most insane white man’s afros of all-time.

Harry Chapin was the master of the long-form pop song in much the same way that I am the master of the long-form blog post. If you’re not reading down to here, you’re probably not listening through to the 10th minute of the alternate-endings-included version of “30,000 Pounds of Bananas” anyway. Harry Chapin’s story-songs never got played on the radio, which is not surprising. They had some depth, featured often-striking arrangements, addressed important social issues and were never easily categorized, or digestible.

Over the course of his musical career, Harry Chapin released 11 solo albums, and one other group album, in performance with his brothers, Tom and Steve. I could spend this entire segment writing about one of Harry’s 10-minutes opuses; but, I’ll spare you. I’ll instead give you some listening suggestions for some deep catalogue Harry Chapin songs that’ll blow the other 90% of your mind. Although Harry has some of the those cringe-inducing moments common to all 70’s singer-songwriters, the depth of his writing and the passion with which he sings his writing, more than make up for that, and both aspects contribute to his having lifted the craft of pop-singing to something of an art form in a picture gallery.

“Greyhound”, off of the “Heads & Tales” album that also produced “Taxi”, is the last summoning of strength as mustered against a never-ending commuting, made always for the purposes of others. The apology never rises above the level of a general malaise until such time as the song suddenly shifts into gear, with a driving part that accompanies the protagonist’s revelation over what it is that he has been doing.

(Also, on the “Heads & Tales” album, is “Dogtown”, a song about the wives left behind to the whaling history of my adopted hometown of Gloucester, which whaling history is a junior version of the whaling history of my real hometown, New Bedford.)

“Sniper” is Chapin’s ten minute reflection on the 1966 Texas University massacre, perpetrated by gunman Charles Whitman, who, after murdering his mother and wife, killed 14 more people and wounded 32 others in shooting from a tower at the University, before being himself gunned down. Chapin switches narrative voice often in the song, maneuvering from the machinations and motivations of Whitman to those of others, surrounding him. His relaying of the conversations are haunting. His 1975 PBS Soundstage performance of the song is absolutely chilling.

“Six String Orchestra” is Chapin’s take on the budding musician, who never flowers, needing a little help from his friends, that he never quite gets. Understated and humorous, the song was later adopted by the Smother Brothers, as a touring staple.

1975’s “Portrait Gallery” is a very underrated, excellent album. The standout, however, to my mind, is “Dirt Gets Under the Fingernails”, a lovingly-crafted story-song about a husband and wife reversing roles, finding real joy in doing for the other.

The title track off of “On The Road to Kingdom Come” is an indictment of religion, politics, the military, the music industry, sex and old age, among a number of other structures of the world, that prove less true than we thought, and far less important than we had been led to believe, as travelers we are, all along the same road.

“Dancing Boy” is a real weeper, covering, as it does, the nature of the relationship between father and son, when it is that the son grows up, and moves on, the father being left all alone again, despite having learned the lessons of “Cat’s in the Cradle”, the adoption of which lessons, nevertheless, cannot stop the march of time. Harry’s meaning became misconstrued, however, at the ending of his own life, when his intentions became reversed, father leaving son, all alone, the music having gone for good.

Harry Chapin, though, for all of the brilliance of his studio work, was a far better live performer. His phenomenal 1976 “Greatest Stories Live” album is the finest live album ever produced. Harry, who also wrote the scores for Broadway plays, could put on a show. His concerts were family festivals, his brothers and “Big” John Wallace stepping in to sing from time to time, even whole songs; for any other performer, that would be a sure-fire boo-generator, but for Harry, the movement is so natural, the crowd never seems to mind, as he takes a spare moment to rest his spent body. Every song on the album is sublime, and some of my fondest memories of my childhood involve listening to the three-disc live album with my dad, scratches and all, as it is meant to be heard. The high point of the album is the tragicomic epic “30,000 Pounds of Bananas”, the live version containing alternate endings, crowd participation, band commentary, admitted plagiarisms, doctored voices, humorous remarks, all making for a generally rollicking good time, if you’re not “the driver”. “Mr. Tanner” (an alternate take on the career arc of Perry Como), “A Better Place to Be”, “Dreams Go By” and “I Wanna Learn a Love Song” (a score about how Harry won his wife, scandalously: giving guitar lessons to the then-married Sandy) are all required listening. And, you can listen to the entire album, or sections therefrom, here.

Despite the fact of his wife-thieving (and perhaps soul-mating never really happens just as we suspect it will), Harry’s life represents something of a moral exemplar. He was father to five children: two of his own, and three stepchildren. He played over 2,000 live shows, and donated over 1/3 of his profits from those shows to charity. He worked tirelessly in the advancement of the cause against world hunger. The Harry Chapin Foundation is a still-existing non-profit that focuses on providing means and methods of self-sufficiency for marginalized persons. In 1987, Harry was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his charitable contributions to American life; a resulting album was aggregated, to commemorate the event.

As many other good persons before him, Harry Chapin died young. Never sleeping or eating well, he was killed on the Long Island Expressway in 1981, dying of a heart attack sometime before or after his car was struck by a tractor trailer. He was 38.

For all that Harry Chapin was (and he was very much more than the Last Protest Singer) and did, the strength of his character is perhaps most impressive. Despite the fact of his rock stardom, he never gave in to the trappings of fame and wealth, as so many do. He always remembered those less fortunate than he, and worked his whole short story lifetime to help them.

. . .

If you want to “do something” more, to learn more, visit Harry’s family’s website, and help them to perpetuate his legacy.

LOMAP Co-Sponsors Massachusetts Data Privacy Conference

If you’re partial to blog renderings of 2,500 words or more, you’ve likely read through our prior posts on Massachusetts data privacy, which posts can be found here, here, here and here, if you haven’t. If you’re partial to listening to Rodney’s smooth Western accent, and my severely diminished New England seacoast accent, you may have heard us discussing the ramifications of data privacy at episodes 1 and 2 of the Legal Toolkit podcast. If you’re partial to powerpoints that have been updated for the recent revisions to the data privacy regulations, you might like to check out ours, here. Now, if you’re partial to theoretical discussions followed by big announcements, read the next four paragraphs . . . you’ll be super-psyched.

Rodney and I have done much work on the issue of data privacy, in order to educate as many of the state’s attorneys as we can respecting the coming data privacy regime. If you’ve read our blog, or heard us speak, or done some research on your own, you likely know something of the law, and have a general sketch, at least, of what it is that is going on. In covering the issue of data privacy in Massachusetts, and getting out into the community, we have been greeted with a broad spectrum of reactions; responses range from those people who are nonchalant, either accomplishing much of what will be required already, or understanding that it is just another business process to adopt and apply, to those people who think the requirements are too much to ask of small business (solo attorneys/small firms), and so react with anger, sometimes at us. (I’ve taken to wearing a flak jacket about.) I understand all of these reactions, visceral, considered and otherwise, and my general response is two-fold, as follows: (1) get used to it: data privacy/protection regulation is coming, whether it be this present regulation, set to become effective March 1, 2010, or be it some other Massachusetts rule, or a federal law or a model rule adopted by Massachusetts; and, (2) it’s best practice anyway: you should be taking care to protect your client’s confidential information anyway. Beside being good business, much of what appears in the prevailing version of the regulation is common sense, especially requirements for systems, which many already apply. If you don’t have malware protection on your computer, and if you don’t protect your devices with passwords, you’re missing a much larger boat than that ship of the data privacy laws. Furthermore, the requirements are based on a reasonableness test, and the WISP plan implemented is to be formulated for specific businesses.

But, these general considerations are the shadow bearings for things that we have previously discussed at this blog. And, for all of that: all of our generated content, and presentations made, there is still a rather large gap of coverage of data privacy in this state:

With a shade over three months left before final implementation of the law, no one has yet put on a large-scale, all-day conference, covering these issues at the legal, regulatory, enforcement and practical compliance levels.

Until now. LOMAP, along with the Massachusetts Bar Association, Catuogno Court Reporting, Peritus Security Partners and Whitestone Marketing Group, among others, is sponsoring the Massachusetts Data Privacy Conference, a free, comprehensive, day-long program to take place January 27, 2010 at the Sheraton Monarch Hotel in Springfield. Program information, including a full description, updated faculty lists, specific agenda information, specific time and date information and more information on sponsors, is all available at the Massachusetts Bar Association calendar page and at the official conference website. You can register for the program at either site. And, again, all programming is free of charge, for attorneys and affiliated professionals and for other professionals and for anybody else, really, that wishes to swing by.

Perhaps there’s a reason that this conference will take place following January 1. Why don’t you make a resolution out of it, and take this opportunity to learn all that you can about data privacy issues in Massachusetts, before you’re scrambling to comply.

. . .

Liner Notes

I recently had a birthday. Or, at least, that’s what Facebook told all of my friends to say.

I had an excellent 21st, thanks for asking. It’s great to be able to go into a restaurant, and to order a drink, legally. Four more years, and I’ll be able rent a car. Heady, heady times.

A couple weeks before my birthday, I got locked out of one of my favorite websites: Pandora. It was a sad day: the opening of a Pandora’s Box, if you will, of crappiness. Apparently, you only get forty hours per month of listening to Pandora now . . . unless you pay for more. I don’t pay for a damn thing, if I can help it; so, it looked like I’d only get to listen to Pandora for one week out of the month (since I listen to Pandora all day at work), which would mean I’d eventually forget about using it, or no longer bother to. A sad day indeed, as I’ve said.

Why? Because Pandora is so great. I have been listening to Pandora internet radio for going on four years now. There’s been an Olympics between us at this point, and that’s how I measure time. Pandora is the offspring of the Music Genome Project, which serves to assign various elements to songs, that are, yes, unique (like a gene sequence) to those songs, but which also occur in other songs as well, such that pairs and larger groups of songs share some characteristics and not some others. So, imagine the connections that can be made between songs. (Too many lines to draw here.) Your use of Pandora involves the establishing of “radio stations”, rooted in a song or artist of your choosing. Your station will then play similar songs (songs that share the most elements with) to your artist’s style or to the style of the song that you have chosen. Once your songs begin to play, you’ll be able to bookmark songs and artists alike, share segments of songs with friends and/or buy albums you like direct from Amazon and songs and albums you like direct from iTunes. Read more about Pandora here.

If you haven’t used Pandora, you’ll be surprised how easily readable our programming is. By selecting one song or artist, the system will select a number of other songs that you already like and that you’ll grow to like, rolling, one after the other, like a scroll of your brainworks. But, don’t worry, it’s not really a microchip installed in your head, it’s just your taste recognized. You’re limited in your number of song skips; but, the good part is that you won’t really need them. So, we’re robots; but, we’re robots who listen to great music, with our robot ears.

My robot ears, though, were wilty, like old lettuce. It was hard to work without music in the background. Enter my lovely and thoughtful wife, who purchased for me Pandora One, for my birthday. I understand that she got a great deal, and I am experiencing her bargain vicariously. There are other features for Pandora One (which really is number one), but my favorite is that I get unlimited listening, and there are no advertisements. For $36 a year, and $3 a month, that’s a price I can be quite happy with, especially as I don’t pay for it (!), and especially as that would be the cost of my monthly cup of coffee, if I drank coffee, which I don’t.

My absolute favorite part of Pandora, though, is the discoveries that I can make. As you might imagine, it’s a given that I’ll discover new songs using Pandora; and, given the design of the Pandora system, it’s also a fair certainty, as well, that I’ll like a large percentage of those songs I discover.

Here , then, are some of my favorite Pandora discoveries, of recent, as well as dated, vintage:

Bob Seger’s “Wreck This Heart”, from his 2006 comeback album, “Face the Promise”;

The Shins’ “Gone for Good”;

The Outlaws’ “There Goes Another Love Song”;

The Jayhawks’ “Save It For a Rainy Day”; and,

Chris Knight’s “Spike Drivin’ Blues”, Track 4 off of “The Trailer Tapes” album (no, not that Chris Knight, of “The Brady Bunch” and “My Fair Brady” sort of fame: this Chris Knight)

Now, if you’re thinking, “Wow, those songs sound really good, Jared has such great taste in music . . .” (I know), and you’re wondering, “How can I continue to discover”, you could get your own Pandora account, even starting with a free account. You can also view my Pandora profile, where you can see my radio stations, as well as the songs that I have bookmarked.

Past is Prologued: LOMAP Marketing Group Both Ends and Begins, Same Time

A long, long time ago, I promised a sixth, and final, installment of a series of posts covering the progress of our inaugural LOMAP marketing group. I bet you thought that I forgot. But I didn’t. I’m like Santa Claus in that way. Previously, I had posted five installments, covering the five phone-in conference calls that the marketing group (Rodney Dowell, myself, special guest star Alan Klevan and 12 disciples other) undertook together. (For the sake of perpetuity, or at least until the sun burns out, you can find those five archived posts here, here, here, here and here, that order being that of their appearing.) This is the sixth, and final, installment, of that series.

For the final meeting of the LOMAP Marketing Group, we tried something crazy: old-fashioned, in-person networking. We called each other up on our rotary dial phones, and got together for lunch. The Bat Place (Cave)(Channel): G’Vanni’s Ristorante in the North End, a swinging little jointed, that was secured for us by LOMAP Marketing Group veteran, Matt Trask, of Kelsey & Trask P.C. (Thanks, Matt!--And, don’t forget to check out Kelsey & Trask’s new bankruptcy website, and blog.) The Bat Time: October 1, 2009 at 12 pm. So, yeah, I’m a little late.

Anyway, I’m fresh out of new ideas for structure, so I think that my best bet is to play it safe, and to continue with the theme that I have always exhibited within these sorts of posts.

So, thinking back, What is it that I learned, and, really, What is it that we can all learn (in the form of marketing tips and tricks) from this meeting of the LOMAP Marketing Group?

Well, I can come up with five things before I can’t think of anymore. And, I like lists, so here we go:

(1) The Importance of In-Person Marketing. We preach quite a bit, here at LOMAP, on the virtues of the use of social media and non-traditional marketing options for attorneys. The advantages to these is fairly obvious to us. People aggregate online, and, increasingly, in social networks, online, meaning that online is where your potential clients and referral sources will find you, and where you will find them. Further, these online marketing tool options are free or cheap and easy to use. And, if you’re a regular reader of the blog, you’ve heard me say these things many times over. However, I still believe that the vast majority of attorneys, especially more experienced attorneys, and even those younger attorneys in large firms, are not exploiting social media to the extent that they can. Steve Seckler, in his initial post to this blog, wrote about the solo and small firm advantage of the use of alternative billing. A similar advantage exists in the use of non-traditional advertising. You just need to leverage it. That being said . . . that ain’t all. Just because you are utilizing new forms of advertising yourself and your practice doesn’t mean that you should leave those old, tried and true methods behind. You should use those, instead, in conjunction with, and in agreement with, the new tools in your belt. It’s one thing to send someone an email, it’s another to shake their hand. It’s another thing to Tweet a mention of someone, it’s yet another thing to talk to them, in person, and to reference friends and colleagues, and their ideas. It’s quite another thing altogether to add someone to a Twitter list . . . wait, scratch that, I haven’t done that yet. Anyway, the point is that people, attorneys included, despite their general social awkwardness, ultimately do get more out of a personal engagement, than a tenuous, online one. Despite the fact that we have created thousands of inventions to help us to keep apart, we still want to get together, and perhaps even more now than before, because of the added novelty of it all, found in the context of the present day. And, beyond meeting with other lawyers, for the purpose of increasing your expertise, finding mentors, for collegial talk and gaining referrals, remember that your potential clients will be more comfortable with you, and I believe sincerely, more likely to hire you, the more personable you are; the more human you can become, via the more you get out. So, remember to market yourself abroad, as well as at home. And, think of the last person you emailed. Now, think of the last person whose hand you shook. Who was more memorable to you? (If you just got a really memorable email, that won’t work; so, try again later. Just after you shake someone’s hand.)

(2) Social Media Leadin’s. In addition to allowing you to do more marketing from home, to save you more time, and a number of other attendant benefits, social media also allows you access to persons of note within and without your community, persons to whom you would never have had access to even five years ago. Want to talk to a law practice management consultant in California? Friend her on LinkedIn. Tweet a public message hello. Post to her Facebook fan page. But, the uses of these new technologies do not only mean that you can access those persons you cannot travel to, unless expensively so. This all also means that you can find and communicate with the luminaries in your local area, as well. Now you have more options. Parlay that online relationship into an offline one, and so solidify it. Offer to buy your grail carrier lunch, or a coffee, when you’re in the same general area. Take an instant connection and turn it into a more lasting one.

(3) Putting Down (for) Stakes. The folks in your community, the legal community, that you wish to talk to, unless we’re talking about direct colleagues, with similar experiences, have, let’s face it, something that you want: experience that you wish to access, contacts that you wish to be placed into closer touch with, ideas and suggestions that you have not yet stolen . . . When you’re leveraging these online, and building these offline (whether generating from an online contact or not), relationships, you must conceive of the respective positions of those you are contacting. Even if you are agnostic enough to want to talk to persons for the sheer interest of it, and wish to access nothing more than their wisdom for the direct pleasure of being exposed to it, keep in mind their positions and niches within the community. One of the things that stakeholders can provide you with is, not only their thoughtfulness passed on, but a closer connection to their own contacts, persons and institutions that you may not have easily accessed on your own. The term “lead” is instructive beyond the first instant, because leads lead to leads lead to leads . . . and on . . and on.

(4) And Theeeeen . . . People love free food. Failing free food, people love cheap food. We had cheap food. We got people out to lunch. See how simple networking is?

(5) On Inclusion. We began the LOMAP Marketing Group as a closed group. Mostly we were afraid of being overwhelmed by the administration of a large group. The smaller group worked well, and we have succeeded very well in becoming overwhelmed in other respects. Check. But, since we’re crazy, we’ve decided to open the marketing group to more participants. Why you ask? Well, we had some folks with mild interest that we had to close out of the group the first time around. And, we had some people outside of the initial group attend the wrap-up lunch, and that went quite well. So, we’ve scheduled some informal, one hour long, “check-in” style calls, over web conference, over the next six months. If you’re interested in jumping in on these calls, great. We’d be happy to have you. Just send me an email at jared@masslomap.org, and I’ll provide you with all the info you need. Keep in mind that these sessions will be participant-driven; so, if you do come, come with questions, for group discussion. Should these next six months’ sessions prove popular, we will likely offer further closed versions of marketing groups, which will proceed as more formal presentations, more along the lines of topic-driven participation groups. But, that is for another day, and pending some other days.

Will I write another series of blogs based on these new calls? Probably not. I have not the strength.

This is Friday, and the weekend cometh.

Shibby.

. . .

Liner Notes

Since last week’s version of “Liner Notes” was so well received, I might as well empty some more of the vault. Here are some more of my favorite cover songs, uncategorized, and now, as well, uncovered, so to speak:

Other Covers

“Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)”--original by Phil Collins, cover by The Postal Service

“Dancing in the Moonlight”--original by King Harvest, cover by Toploader

“Baby, Now That I’ve Found You”--original by The Foundations, cover by Alison Krauss

“Smooth Criminal”--original by Michael Jackson, cover by Alien Ant Farm

“Boys of Summer”--original by Don Henley, cover by The Ataris

“Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”--original by Hank Williams, cover by John Fogerty

“Land of Confusion”--original by Genesis, cover by Disturbed

“Last Kiss”--original by J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers, cover by Pearl Jam

“Wichita Lineman”--original by Glen Campbell, cover by James Taylor

“Summertime Blues”--original by Eddie Cochran, cover by Alan Jackson

“Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon"--original by Neil Diamond, cover by Urge Overkill

“Raspberry Beret”--original by Prince and The Revolution, cover by Hindu Love Gods

“If I Were A Carpenter”--original by Bobby Darin, cover by Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash

“Umbrella”--original by Rihanna, cover by Taylor Swift

“Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat”--original by Bob Dylan, cover by Beck

“Signs”--original by Five Man Electrical Band, cover by Tesla

“ . . . Baby One More Time”--original by Britney Spears, cover by Fountains of Wayne

“I Will Survive”--original by Gloria Gaynor, cover by CAKE

Some of my favorite covers, however, are not even available on YouTube. Yeah, I’m that eclectic. I am talking stuff like: the Traveling Wilburys’ cover of Del Shannon’s “Runaway”; The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s cover of Hank Williams’ “Honky Tonk Blues”; The Gourds’ cover of Snoop’s “Gin and Juice”; and, of course, the High Class Family Butchers’ cover of Boney M.’s “Rasputin” (off the “Saturday Night Hay Fever” album).

Last week, I thought I found the greatest cover songs websites out there. I was wrong. The Covers Project is the greatest covers songs website out there, “there” being the world wide web.

Having fully covered the covers genre. I think I will retire from the game, Brett Farve-style.

Anyone want to cover my covers columns?