Like This: Facebook as Business Marketing Utility

Yeah, it’s like that. Per my last week’s post to ye olde LOMAP blog, you learned that we published a Facebook page the week before. If you haven’t “liked” us yet, “like” being the equivalent of a Facebook stern handshake relationship, well . . . What are you waiting for? Get on that. It’s easy. Log in, click the “Like” icon (“Likon”?) at the top of page, and our updates will appear in your newsfeed, and you’ll be able to communicate fully with us, across the platform. Just, please note, I am not interested in finding any black sheep that have strayed from your farm's ville. I don’t care. I am not the good shepherd.

But, my promoting hand becomes sore with all of this pushing of the LOMAP Facebook page. (That’s www.Facebook.com/MassLOMAP!) For now, let’s assume that you all know we have a page, and that you’ll eventually come to “like” us, if you haven’t already. (I’ m starting to think that the quotation marks are making me sounds like a “loser”. I’ll stop.)

What I intend to write about today, is Why you (yes, YOU), attorney starting your own practice/engaged in managing your own practice, should have a Facebook page for your business, too. Maybe I’m a crackpot (and, it could probably be argued effectively), but I think that Facebook represents a uniquely effective business marketing opportunity for professionals, including attorneys. Let’s first address the basics, then we’ll move on to some more of the theoretical arguments that I like so well, before I pull the rug out from under some hastily constructed strawmen arguments. Then comes the bow from below.

The creation of a Facebook page for business is fairly straightforward. (I don’t get the impression that they are calling them “fan” pages anymore (damnit!), because no one is fanning anyone anymore. Everyone is liking everyone else now, which I guess is meant to be easier to do/less intrusive/more difficult to remember to undo.) Constructing a Facebook page for business is really as simple as going to this webpage, and following the instructions. Really. If you’ve created your own Facebook page, or could, you could certainly, also, hypothetically, create a Facebook page for your business. (When are you ever going to learn to trust me?) Some distinct advantages of a Facebook page for business are that: Once it’s appropriately established, it’s a pretty slick-looking website in its own right. It’s also going to have your logo plastered all over it, which is great for branding. And, it will, hopefully (but only if you push it), engender much discussion, making for an active page that really reaches a community of interested persons, ideally. Neither does a business page arbitrarily limit the amount of followers/friends/likers you can surround yourself with. (Personal pages cap friends at 5,000 total, which is certainly a problem for a dude like me.) Once you get 25 likers (I’ve decided that that is the term I am going to use . . . while hoping I don’t misspell it), you can select a unique url for your page. www.facebook.com/MassLOMAP sounded better, and was much easier to market and reference than www.facebook.com/Yrbd75LKhgd69oNBn. And, since Facebook does provide you with a pretty durn nifty-looking page, it could even be your primary website, if you were so bold, and if you added disclaimers, and some bells and whistles. (With the caveat that, although your Facebook page for business could be your primary page for site visitors, it should not be your page for client communication and collaboration. More on this later.) Your main advantage in the creation of a Facebook page for business lies in the power of the newsfeed. Every Facebook user’s primary page is not their profile, contrary to some old people’s crazy beliefs. Nay, the page that Facebook drops you off at, and the page that people most frequently monitor is the newsfeed. What’s the newsfeed? Well, the newsfeed is where all of your friends’ status updates stream. (Think of it as Twitter on Facebook.) Once you are liked by someone, they get your updates in their newsfeed. And, when I say that people monitor their newsfeeds, I mean that they are glued to their newsfeeds like white on rice on a paper plate in a snowstorm on the back of a polar bear leaning against a snow-covered albino zebra with a bad case of dandruff eating vanilla pudding with a plastic spork. My wife will, casually, hold her phone in her hand, and check her newsfeed regularly, when she is the car, or sitting around the house, and at many other places and times (trust me, it’s a lot); in fact, her phone is actually built to work with Facebook, and all she has to do is shake the phone, while the Facebook app is open, to update her newsfeed. There’s a whole lot of shaking going on. Trust me. People dig the newsfeed. If you want to do anything on Facebook, you’ve got to get on the newsfeed. This is the way to reach younger persons, your next generation of clients. Did I mention that this extremely powerful opportunity: the creation of a Facebook page for business, is completely free?

If you’re thinking: My, Jared, that was a fairly cursory review, and you didn’t really tell us anything about creating a page, well . . . Fret not, loyal reader! Rachel is taking care of that next week. (Really, though, thank God Rachel is here, right?) And, while the design and interface on Facebook can sometimes be wonky, that is no reason to remove yourself from such a vibrant online conversation.

Oh, and I haven’t even talked about the best part yet: EVERYONE is on Facebook. So, all of those advantages arrayed above, by using those, you’re going to be deploying your message to your largest potential group of followers. Don’t believe me? Well, then, believe the Boston Globe, when they report that Facebook surpassed Google in U.S. hits earlier this year. This obviates, as well, a real problem that I see here addressed all the time: People come in constantly, telling me about how they have no contacts. Well, everybody has contacts, beginning with their friends and families, and emanating therefrom, to the friends and family of their friends and family, and so forth. This is where most attorneys starting their practices begin anyway. So, why not begin with the web gathering spot for friends and families, generally, including yours. Facebook is beginning to skew older, too. In my particular group of friends, a bit out from the initial Facebook generation: my friends are already on, or coming on, and their parents are coming, too, to look at, and to comment on, baby pictures. And, Facebook makes it easier for you to find others, and for others to find you. It’s built into the system, where you can spot mutual friends, search for long-lost friends and even discover new friends through the Facebook feature that suggests people for you to friend based on shared connections. Social networking, in its broadest sense, means that we’re all a part of the largest Kevin Bacon Game ever; and, Facebook is one of the main platforms for the playing out of that game. What this (that your contact base is so strong, and so dedicated personally to you) means to you, to begin, is that you’ll have a group of followers who are absolutely invested in your success, right from the start, and who will work to promote you zealously, to anyone who will listen. There is some automatic goodwill here that you can access with very little effort. Why is this better than a traditional announcement card? Well, the latter gets thrown away, while the former becomes a continuing collaboration place/piece, a collection for your content, a reference point for referrals and a permanent (well, relatively speaking) advertisement for your firm.

Some folks are nervous about using Facebook, because of legitimate privacy concerns. (Yeah, Facebook is not so good with the privacy thing. Just search for “Facebook privacy concerns” and you’ll have much reading to do.) For my part, I’ve seen more spam friend requests of late, spam friend requests I have never gotten before; so, it appears that Facebook, as reported in the news and as captured by my own experience, is not as tight on the privacy side as it perhaps once was, if it ever was. But, the expectation that you would utilize Facebook for the passing of confidential information, is, perhaps, a misunderstanding of what Facebook is and does. I’ve never expected Facebook to be a private medium. Any conversations that I want to be private, I direct through my GMail account; and, I never message anyone, or post anything to anyone’s wall, or generally to Facebook, that I would not want someone else to see/I would be embarrassed if it received general circulation. Operating under those constraints, I’m really not ever worried about my use of Facebook, because I use it as a public exchange place, and not as a private one. There is, also, the danger of placing too much personal information on Facebook; but, you can limit that information released by censoring what you publish. For example, if you don’t want people to know where you live, then don’t put your address information on Facebook. (Of course, you should realize that anyone can find out where you live through a Google search anyway. Or . . . forget I said that.) You can lock down your profile by applying certain privacy settings for non-friends, or for friends who are shady, as well. People run into problems on Facebook, re: privacy, because they have this expectation that their privacy will be protected by Facebook. I don’t know about you, but I don’t know Facebook, and I never expected that my privacy would be protected through Facebook. If you operate as if Facebook is a medium completely exposed to the public, you will be better off, and will, to my mind, be using it in a more effective way.

If you operate on the above principles, you are not releasing any sensitive personal information via Facebook, whether through wall posts or private messages. Some people also worry, however, about people posting confidential information to their walls, or about learning personal information about someone through the posts of others with whom there is a mutual connection or network connection. As to the former situation, the best you can do is to delete that post from your wall. In those instances, there is nothing you can do but to limit the damage done. After all, is it really your obligation to prevent other people from being stupid? (And, this probably argues for a disclaimer on law firm Facebook pages that addresses wall posting information specifically.) Ditto for the latter situation. As I’ve said above, this is the greatest Kevin Bacon Game of all time. And, you can’t be expected to protect against threats existing that you have no earthly idea of, nor could be expected to have any earthly idea of. It’s sort of like being blamed for stepping on a buried land mine, on the argument that you should have disarmed it first. As a soldier, you’ve got to be in that minefield; as a law firm marketing itself, you’ve got to be on Facebook/on the web. It’s just the rules of modern engagement. (And, this is an issue of the general web, as well, is it not?) If you’re treating Facebook appropriately, which, to my mind, means that you are using it as a marketing tool to engage a specific set of interests in open dialogue, and not as a secure portal/client collaboration tool, then I think you’ll be fine.

Beyond what you can and cannot control with respect to privacy on Facebook, there is also the issue of whether people say bad things about you on Facebook. And, again, this is a question of the internet world that is not unique to Facebook. My take on this has generally remained unchanged for quite some time, whether I have published that take or not: You can’t stop people from posting stuff to the internet about you. You just can’t. On Facebook, you can delete defamatory posts to your wall. You can block crazy people, or put them on limited profiles. You can even respond to the crazed poster. (Although, I’m not a huge fan of this strategy, especially outside of a single response, because, thereby, you’re sort of lending some credence to the report by your doth protesting too much, methinks. Morons usually end up exposing themselves. (Well, not like that, but you catch my meaning.)) Beyond monitoring your business Facebook account, I think that this question begins to resolve itself when you think of this all as a free and open dialogue, and spin out what that means. The first thing to remember is that you have to be active if you are going to be online, especially if you are going to be online marketing. If you’re not going to be active, you’re better off just avoiding the endeavor altogether. The second thing to remember is that you can control the dialogue in active and passive ways. Actively, you can respond to posts and engage persons, even those persons who are haters. Passively, you can drown the bad noise with good noise, generated by you, and others. You can also apply blocking and filtering and deletion techniques, as appropriate. The internet can help create your reputation, but then your reputation no longer exists in a vacuum--you must actively manage it once you’ve released it. I mean, look at the cautionary tale alternatively known as “The Modern Prometheus”, the lesson being that you must always take ownership of your creations, lest disaster befall the townsfolk.

But, it’s not all bad news when it comes to Facebook and privacy; creating a Facebook page for business can, in fact, be a boon for your privacy. If you’re on Facebook personally, without a business presence, you may have found that many of your work associates have tried to friend you, even those folks that you just pretend to be nice to. Before the application of a business page, that can be an awkward situation. Do you reject their request? Do you put them on a limited profile? (They’ll figure out that they’re on a limited profile, by the way.) Do you just ignore their overtures until they get the hint? Or, even if you don’t mind the friender in question, maybe you just don’t want them seeing your personal profile. Wouldn’t it be great if there were an easier way? Well, now you have one: your business page. With a business page, it becomes much easier to say, “Hey, we can do the Facebook thing, but come in on my business page.” The creation of separate work and personal pages on Facebook means that you can create both personal and professional personae, and direct frienders to the appropriate channel. This is one way to control the dialogue, and is, another way, to achieve some of that sought-after work-life balance. Depositing dialogue sets and persons into dedicated buckets is not so bad a thing, as long as the buckets are roomy enough, and not too damp.

As I’ve said previously, I think there are tremendous advantages to the utilization of a Facebook page for business to market your law firm. If I were starting a law firm tomorrow, the first step that I would take in the direction of a web presence would be to establish a Facebook page for my firm.

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Liner Notes

I know you’ve missed “Liner Notes”, you don’t have to tell me.

Have I told you about the Jared Correia Listening Project yet? Oh, I haven’t? Well, it’s sort of like the Pepsi Refresh Project, only without a charitable purpose, and, on the whole, rather pointless. Anyway, the Jared Correia Listening Project (not to be confused with the Alan Parsons Project) involves me listening, in alphabetical order, by artist then album, to all of my songs on iTunes. Considering that I currently have 7,097 songs on iTunes (= 18 ½ consecutive days of music), this is a more in-depth undertaking than you might realize. I started about a month ago, and I am currently on “B”, rating songs as I go. Since iTunes defaults to the first name of the artist, I have just cycled through a heavy segment of the “B”’s: Billy Joel.

Bill Joel (as I call him--no, I’m just kidding, I don’t know Billy Joel) is another one of these guys whose entire album collections I have acquired. I love everything Billy Joel has ever done. From his lost first album, “Cold Spring Harbor”, through the last song on “River of Dreams”, “Famous Last Words”. “Famous Last Words” is a pretty baller title for your last pop output, you have to admit; even better was that Joel delivered completely on the significance of that pronouncement. (So, yeah, Billy Joel has put out a classical-style album (he wrote the music, but didn’t play the piano), a couple of singles (only one of which he played on) and a box set of (mostly) rare and unreleased tracks, including demos of popular songs, since his pseudo-retirement; but, he has pretty much stayed in the background otherwise, and has never released a full pop album since “River of Dreams” almost twenty years ago now. And, I like people that keep their word, even if “keeping one’s word”, in this case, essentially means that I hardly ever get to hear anything approaching new music from Billy Joel ever again. What a downer, my principles, are.)

I’ve always liked Billy Joel because he always seemed authentic to me. He wasn’t put-upon like so many other pop stars; and, I got the general impression that he never gave much of a damn about what other people thought of him. (Both good things, by the way.) He always seemed to write for the common people, the working man, the true middle class, what have you, but not in a condescending, but rather, in a genuine, manner. I can and do relate to that. (Hell, I mean, you can take the boy out of New Bedford, but you can’t take the New Bedford out of the boy.) Permit me three Billy Joel stories: (1) I used to listen to Billy Joel on vinyl. The “Piano Man” album cover scared the living hell out of me. It looked like the ghost of a fictional Medusus staring out blankly at you. (That and the negative version of the front cover on the back? Not cool. I had nightmares for weeks, when I was a kid . . . or, um, now.) (2) I must have watched the “Billy Joel: Live at Yankee Stadium” VHS about 4,000 times with my Dad. It was the only piece of Yankees-related memorabilia to ever cross the threshold of my house. (3) In 1994, I owned a pimped-, but rusted-, out 1980 Mazda 626, that we kicked the idle up on to, like, 35 mph, just so it could move reasonably well when the speedometer would not move past 12 mph via depression of the gas pedal (a more frequent occurrence than you might otherwise guess). Anyway, one time I heard something rattling in the heating component, and, for days, I couldn’t figure out what it was, but I thought I could pinpoint the sound: So, I reached into one of the heater vents, and pulled out a cassette tape of Billy Joel’s 1987 Russian Concert live album. Well, I popped it right into the cassette deck, and it played, damnit. (By the way, here is what a “cassette tape” looks like, for anyone wondering. What the hell is “high bias”?)

If you want to learn more about Billy Joel, I would recommend reading the incredibly robust Wikipedia page covering his career.

Alright, time to array the listening pleasures, like so many brilliantly-constructed appetizers at that fancy obscurantists’ restaurant you like:

“Why Should I Worry (performing as the Dodger, a dog wearing trademark Billy Joel sunglasses, for the Disney movie “Oliver & Company”)

“Getting Closer” (featuring Steve Winwood)

“All for Leyna” (Yes! I love cheesy 80’s videos. Bonus!)

“Christie Lee” (This was my jam back in the day.)

“Stiletto” (Really, she’s already cut you twice. What’s your problem?)

“Back in the USSR” (Beatles cover, live in Russia)

“Scandinavian Skies” (The only pop song I know written about this particular geographic area.)

“Travelin' Prayer (countrified, Willy Joel)

“The Great Wall of China” (You never should have done Billy that way.)

“That’s Not Her Style” (One of the “Christie Brinkley songs” from "Storm Front", along with “When In Rome” and “State of Grace”.)

“Vienna” (This song should have been a number 1 hit.)

“Root Beer Rag” (That’ll melt your face off.)

“All You Wanna Do Is Dance” (It’s so true.)

You didn’t think I’d come up with some standard Billy Joel hit songs, like some amateur, did you? I don’t bring that weak stuff around. Your face looks like the way people’s faces looked at the James Taylor concert the other day, when JT tested the depth of the crowd’s catalogue knowledge by playing “Machine Gun Kelly”. That, my friends, is crowd sourcing.

Billy Joel was also an early leader in pushing the dress suit-white tennis shoes combination, to which look I am sincerely and utterly devoted.

LOMAP Launches Facebook Page

Never ones to absent ourselves from the leading edge of technology, LOMAP has launched its Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MassLOMAP.

Have you heard of this thing . . . this, Facebook? I mean, apparently, everybody’s on it. It’s crazy. When my mom told me about it last week, we decided that we had to design our own page, too.

(Disclaimer: Facebook is not to be confused with the popular social networking site, Bookface.)

Our Facebook page is your stopping place for all of our aggregated content. There, you’ll find: LOMAP events, our blog posts, our Twitter feed, new episodes of our podcasts, other unique information and another way for you to access our services, to start discussions and to comment on our wall and to send us messages. If you use Facebook already, the interface will be old hat, and you can just jump in; if you’re new to Facebook, we’ve made the page robust and fulsome enough that you won’t get bored discovering.

If you, like, like us, then really really like us, by logging onto Facebook and clicking the “Like” icon at the top of our main page.

Incidentally, if you’re the lucky 100th person to “like” our page, we’ll give you a free copy of the ABA’s “Smart Soloing: How to Build Your Practice”. Let the (reindeer) games begin!

. . .

Much thanks is to due to LOMAP’s Administrative Assistant, Rachel Willcox, who created, and now maintains, our Facebook page. Big ups to Rachel, who now can never leave.

LOMAP Data Privacy Series Available Through Massachusetts Bar Association’s “Lawyers Journal”

As you’ve likely gathered by now, we love to write about data privacy issues here at the LOMAP Blog . . . well, at least, we do.

And, we’re at it again.

Over a three-month period occurring in the Winter-Spring joint season, LOMAP published a series of articles covering several data privacy issues for the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Lawyers Journal. All of those posts are available online, for free and for articles released in: February 2010; March 2010; and, April 2010.

Why now? You might ask. Even two months later. Well, I’m presenting a small segment on data privacy for the MBA tonight at what has been billed as the-greatest-workplace-injury-CLE-ever-hosted-,-which-is-even-better-than-(-the-World-Cup-. - . - . -of-workplace-injury-CLEs-)-,-I-guess. Of course, it will be, though: I’ll be there. But, seriously, folks, it’ll be cool if I can be like, “Hey, in fact, if you want to learn more about data privacy, why don’t you just go visit our own LOMAP Blog, where I posted on the topic this very morning.” I’d be the cat’s pajamas, surely. You can see me do this live. There’s still time to sign up for the program; Register here.

(You see how I did that? I just promoted like seven things (make it eight) at once, including the World Cup and a dang cat wearing pajamas (which may or may not be the mascot for the World Cup this year)! Damn, I’m good.)

If you like our take on data privacy, as presented through the linked MBA articles, you may ask of yourself, “Wow. Where can I find more? . . . Preferably in the form of 5,000 word blog postings.” Well, are you ever in luck. For Rodney’s last post on the topic, click here. For an aggregation of all of our other posts on the topic, in the context of a discussion of post-effective date considerations, click here.

Outside Counsel: Because You Can’t Spell “Practice Management Advice” Without P-M-A

This week, the fine folks at AbacusLaw were kind enough to feature a guest post of mine at their blog, PracticeSmarter.

If you didn’t catch “Outside Counsel: Because You Can’t Spell ‘Practice Management Advice’ Without P-M-A” (yes, that’s really the title; and, yes, I just unnecessarily repeated it) there, you can catch it here.

If you’ve ever wanted to see me rather gratuitously pimp my own profession, well, here’s your chance. (But, seriously, folks, practice management advisors do some great work, and Rodney and I are certainly not the only ones around.)

This is probably the shortest blog post I’ll ever write; and you thought I didn’t have it in me, but now you’re hollerin’ atcha boy.

Incidentally, I like your beard.

Guest Post: Introduction to Virtual Law Practice and Delivering Unbundled Legal Services Online

A long, long time ago, I promised a three-part series on virtual law “stuff”, in three of its forms: the virtual, physical office (check); the virtual practice of law (uncheck; but, about to be checked off); and, the use of virtual assistants (as-yet-unchecked). Thanks to Stephanie Kimbro, who has authored the guest blog post you will read below, we are about to be nearly 2/3 of the way home. Stephanie has been kind enough to provide her thoughts on the virtual practice of law, in what will become a three-part series on the topic. Part one of Stephanie’s series appears following this introduction.

(That’s right, folks. You get a three-part series within a three-part series. Where else are you going to find value like that outside of the LOMAP Blog, honestly? You’re welcome.)

To hear more of Stephanie’s take on virtual law practice, listen to her appearance on my “Legal Toolkit” podcast, here.

Stephanie is the winner of the ABA’s 2009 James I. Keane Memorial Award, for Excellence in eLawyering. For more information on Stephanie and her practice, visit her blog. And, watch for Stephanie’s book on virtual law practice, to be released by the ABA later this year.

. . .

In this three-part series, we will explore virtual law practice: from the basics, to a more in-depth discussion about the technology and ethics considerations involved in the delivery of legal services online.

Two influential forces are driving attorneys and law firms to consider delivering legal services online. The first is the increase in our clients’ expectations for more accessible and affordable legal services through the use of technology. The second is the changing landscape of the legal marketplace and the need for firms to find different means of obtaining a competitive advantage. Larger law firms continue to downsize and consider outsourcing, and more attorneys, many newly-licensed, are opening solo and small firm practices across the country. Virtual law practice provides a way for the legal profession to meet the needs of the general public for greater access to justice, while also addressing the practice management needs of the professionals who serve the public.

What is Virtual Law Practice?

Virtual law practice, one form of elawyering, is a professional law practice that is located online through a secure portal and is accessible to both the client and the attorney anywhere the parties may access the Internet. The key features of a secure portal are the requirements that the client chooses a unique username and password and that the portal uses the same high level of security that clients are accustomed to experiencing when they conduct transactions online with their bank, their investment service or a government entity.

The client portal allows the attorney to work with the client to deliver legal services from the establishment of the attorney-client relationship through to the rendering of legal services and payment. Features within a virtual law office will differ depending on the technology solution(s) chosen to create the practice as well as the structure of the firm and the goals that the firm has decided upon for this form of practice management. Some features might include: document storage; legal form and document assembly; file, law and form libraries; online payments and invoicing; billing and calendaring; online discussion threads with clients and others in the firm; conflict of interest checks; jurisdiction checks; and, other client and case management tools.

The technology used to form a virtual law practice is software as a service (SaaS), which is one form of cloud computing. This means that the law office data is stored securely online by a third party. Through the use of SaaS, transmissions between the law firm and the clients are encrypted from end to end. Typically, SaaS providers house their servers in multi-million dollar data centers with the same high level security that is relied upon by government, banking and financial institutions. As security updates and new features are added to an SaaS application, those items are automatically added to the user’s account, without disruption of service and without added cost to the monthly subscription fee for the service. Backups of the law office data and maintenance of the technology used to create the virtual law office are also handled, on a daily basis, by the SaaS provider. There are many things to consider when choosing a technology provider, however--and we will discuss this in the post covering ethics concerns.

Unbundling Legal Services Online

A law firm may integrate virtual law practice into its traditional brick and mortar law practice, or a firm could open up a completely web-based practice. There will be different ethics concerns and best practice requirements for each form of virtual law practice. With both, however, the services offered online will be in the nature of unbundled legal services. Unbundled legal services occur when a law firm breaks down the tasks associated with a legal matter and provides the client with services related to only a portion of those tasks, rather than full completion of the matter. Some court systems and non-profit organizations already provide unbundled services online to pro se individuals; see, for example, Law Help Interactive and A2J (Access to Justice).

Many of our clients are seeking out unbundled legal services from companies selling online DIY legal forms, without attorney review of the documents or analysis of the client’s specific legal needs. Clearly, there is an opportunity here for the legal profession to step up to meet this public need, as well as to find ways to use this sort of service delivery as a way to add revenue to a law practice. Attorneys can unbundle legal services online to work with pro se litigants as well as to work with more traditional, paying clients, through the client portal.

Unbundled legal services are also referred to as “limited scope legal services”, or “discrete task representation”. The ABA Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services has a website encouraging the provision of unbundled legal services and assisted pro se representation. The website also features a complete index of links to state bar rules and procedures for providing unbundled legal services. Many state bars are supportive of unbundling legal services. And, you can find further resources on unbundling in a few places: the ABA Pro Se/Unbundling Resource Center’s list of online self-help resources is accessible here; the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law’s Civil Justice Initiative’s “The Economy and Civil Legal Services” study (published on May 17, 2010) provides a detailed rundown of the need for more accessible legal services in our country; and, Massachusetts has established a self-help center that provides guidelines and associated materials for “Limited Assistance Representation” (LAR) in that state.

A virtual law practice is able to use technology to deliver unbundled legal services online to clients. If a firm with a traditional law office decides to add a virtual component to its practice, it may decide to offer the virtual law office as an amenity to in-person, full-representation clients, as well as for pulling in additional, online clients, the latter of whom may never end up meeting with attorneys in person. There are a variety of ways that a firm could structure a virtual law practice so that it meets the needs of the attorneys wanting the added revenue stream and flexibility, while keeping consistent with the needs of the firm’s specific practice areas and client base.

Delivering legal services online is not appropriate for every firm, or for every practice area; but, there are management features of the backend virtual law office that can be useful to any firm. To list a few benefits of a virtual law practice:

-Lower overhead; eco-friendly
-Greater work/life balance and flexibility
-Ability to expand client base across jurisdictions
-Competitive advantages, including:
tap into a broader market of consumers seeking legal services
serve as an amenity: online access for existing clients of a traditional law practice
-Added security of hosted backups of law office data
-Customer service: clients appreciate the convenience of 24/7 access, the ability to check on the status of their case, pay with credit cards online and communicate with the attorney securely when and where it is convenient for them to do so, without taking time off of work or arranging for childcare.
-Lessen malpractice risks through the use of procedures and checks built into the technology, such as: documented dialogue with the client; clickwrap agreements to define scope of representation online; conflict of interest check; jurisdiction check; online trust accounting; IOLTA compliance; and, etc.

In the next post in this series, we will discuss the website design features for a virtual practice and the most effective methods of marketing for the growth of an online client base.

Farther Time: Review of Chrometa, Time Capture Software

For the current, June 2010 issue of the ABA General Practice, Solo & Small Firm Division’s excellent GP|Solo magazine, I reviewed the time capture product Chrometa.

Sometime around two weeks ago, I had a realization about not writing more than one review: one for the blog, one for a magazine. (Was I stupid before? You could say that. Only, if you did, I’d resent you for the rest of your life. So, if you can live with that, sure, you can call me stupid.) The upshot of all this being that you can find the full version of my Chrometa review here, just as it appears in GP|Solo this month. (Well, not just as it appears; it’s on your computer screen, not in a magazine; but, you know . . .)

Given the demands of national magazine publishing, I originally drafted this review of Chrometa back in February. (Remember February? Winter. The Groundhog’s Day. That thing with my toe. . . . Oh, um. Sorry. Never mind.) So, be sure to check the Chrometa website from time to time for continuing updates on product improvements. The folks over at Chrometa, as I understand it, are deep in development mode as we speak, with some nifty new features to come from their efforts soon; so, keep tabs on their web workshop.

Even four months after writing my review, I still like Chrometa; I think it can be a useful product for attorneys. If, after reading my take, you think you might like Chrometa, too, you can try it free for thirty days. If you decide to buy Chrometa, you’re entitled to a 20% discount on the purchase price as a reader of the LOMAP Blog. Just enter the discount code MASSLOMAP for the discount to apply. Don’t say I never did nothing for you. (You can thank me at Christmastime, with a nice Christmas card that includes enclosed a substantial check. Actually, it doesn’t even have to be Christmastime. And, you don’t even need to send a card.)

I do have positive things to say about Chrometa, mind you, despite the fact that the company’s principal is an insufferable Lakers fan. I can understand why someone would like the Lakers, though: They’re a class organization, and they almost never lose in the Finals. Oh, my bad, that’s the Celtics.

If you’ve read down this far in the post, you probably don’t have a whole heck of a lot going on today. Since that’s the case, you should check out the remainder of the articles included in the June issue of GP|Solo. Lots of really good stuff in there, as per usual, much of which will serve as a boon to your practice efficiencies and organization.

Guest Post: The Solo and Small Firm Advantage: Be Open to Serendipity, and Your Referrals Will Grow

We are fortunate to welcome back Stephen E. Seckler, principal of Seckler Legal Consulting, for the third edition of his “The Solo and Small Firm Advantage” guest blog post series. Stephen is an attorney coach with twenty years of experience in consulting with lawyers. (Stephen’s full profile is available at his website.) Stephen’s own Counsel to Counsel blog has twice been named to the ABA Journal’s Blawg 100 List. In this edition of “The Solo and Small Firm Advantage”, Stephen tells us to be open to serendipity.

Be sure to spend some time navigating Stephen’s recently redesigned website, where he has done some nice work, particularly with video.

. . .

Relationship building is the cornerstone of growing a professional services practice. In the legal profession, building trusted relationships with potential clients and referral sources is particularly crucial. Clients hire lawyers they trust. Prospective clients will either trust you because they have gotten to know you over time or because someone they already trust has made a referral to you.

There are many different ways to build trusted relationships. For starters, it is important to get out of your office and make time to meet other professionals. But beyond that, there are many paths to success. For some, getting involved in a non-profit organization or trade group is a good way to meet potential referral sources. For others, being active in a recreational activity or hobby can be a powerful source of connections. And some people are just good at continually growing their networks by leveraging their existing networks (by spending a substantial amount of time socializing over breakfast, coffee or lunch.)

The best way to generate referrals is to think strategically about your network. Where are you most likely to meet the kinds of professionals who know your potential clients? Beyond that, it is also very helpful to plan out your involvement in a relatively deliberate and quantifiable way (e.g.--decide you will meet at least one person for lunch or coffee every week; volunteer to spend 5 hours a month serving on a committee in a charitable organization).

Taking the time to write up a plan has a number of benefits. It forces you to think strategically about the most effective way to spend your time and it increases the likelihood that you will follow through. But, when you get right down to actually having face to face conversations, it’s time to drop the planning and focus instead on the here and now.

In my own experience, I am at my best when I drop my agenda. When I focus on learning more about someone (i.e.-- rather than thinking about how I can build a closer connection with them), good things happen. If I come to a networking function thinking there is a particular person that I must speak to, I’m usually disappointed. If I simply allow myself to talk to other attendees in a more organic way, it becomes much easier to connect. The pressure is gone, and by simply listening, I sometimes discover that there is a way I can be helpful to the person(s) with whom I have ended up speaking. We uncover common interests, and the connection I make is stronger than if I tried to orchestrate it more directly.

So, think strategically about your relationship building. Set specific goals that relate to growing your network. But, when you are actually in the saddle, meeting people, allow conversation to flow, and get yourself out of planning mode. You will come away with much better results, and you will feel better about the way you comported yourself.

LOMAP’s Start-Up Meetings Offer Free Crash Course for Those Establishing Practices

With the unofficial start to summertime following the long Memorial Day Weekend, everyone is looking forward to some kind of finish line, for the end of some kind of working. If you’ve graduated from law school (you’re in it now), you’re fully ramping up to studies for the bar examination. Perhaps you’re considering, even, following your certification as a new attorney, establishing your own firm, rather than going the more traditional route, in apprenticing under an experienced attorney. If you’ve been working all year, you’re looking forward to a slower summertime: moments to catch your breath, while everyone else is away on vacation. And, perhaps, if you’re tired of working for someone else’s purposes, and sick of everyone else being on vacation, you’re considering establishing your own firm. If you’re starting as a new solo , or creating a new partnership, straight out of law school, or straight out of somebody else's practice, we have a deal for you:

LOMAP offers, at the end of each month, a group start-up meeting for you and your similarly-situated colleagues, at which LOMAP Director Rodney Dowell and/or I run down the basics of establishing a new practice, take your practice questions and allay your practice concerns . . . the last with the kryptonite of good and useful information. Our start-up sessions have proven to be popular, not only because of the crash course in start-up offered, but because of the group dynamic: attorneys establishing new practices are introduced to, and can establish the beginnings of professional relationships with, other lawyers, who share the same (essentially) goals and the same (essentially) struggles.

While it might be easier to tell you to relax for the summer, and to put these considerations off for the fall, the easiest route is, most often, not the most effective. Starting a new law practice takes a tremendous amount of hard work and virtual elbow grease; but, everyone is so busy these days that they can never find the time to do anything: the laundry, let alone creating a new business. So, when you do find time to execute on your dreams, you must apply yourself. Think of the summer as, rather than a relaxing pacing down of your general activities, a series of months that free you up to act upon the establishment of your new practice. If you don’t take advantage of this down time now, you may have to wait until next year at this time for a similar opportunity--and you may then find yourself smack dab where you are right now, only a year older.

To that end, Rodney and I are deranged enough to hold a couple of start-up summer sessions, as follows: Friday, June 25, 2010 @ 1 pm and Friday, August 6, 2010 @ 1 pm. Both programs will be held at our downtown Boston office. If you (and that can be you (pl.) if you have prospective partners) are interested in attending one of these sessions, contact our administrative assistant, Rachel Willcox, via phone at (857) 383-3250 or via email at rachel@masslomap.org. Again, these meetings are free of charge; all we ask is that you sign our service agreement and contact form sometime prior to the meeting date and time. And, the summer sessions will not be the only sessions--we'll ramp up to monthly meetings again come the fall.

If this all sounds vaguely familiar to you, it should: we have posted previously on this topic. (I’m tired myself, alright--and, I couldn’t think of anything else new to write about this week; I’m not a damn machine, you know.) In that post, we described these meetings, as well as linking out to the materials that make up our “Start-Up Kit”, which materials serve as the basis for our start-up group meetings. But, really, you gotta see us do it live. I lay down a wicked solo (and, by that, I mean the whole dang song) for “Jessica”. And Rodney just slays the intro for “Moby Dick”.

(Do we really play music? No. We mostly just wear Dave Trumble-style plaid shirts and act goofy. But, it sounded a lot cooler the other way, so that’s what I went with.)

. . .

In lieu of “Liner Notes” this week, I would prefer to drop my NBA Finals prediction for this year, in advance of Game 1:

Celtics in 7

Look for a repeat of the 1969 NBA Finals.

There’s just something about June rolling around, and another soft Lakers team gagging in the Finals against another defensive-minded and mentally tough Celtics team. It’s one of the finest sporting traditions there is, really.

Hey, Will someone get that stupid llama off the court? . . . Oh, that’s Pau Gasol? My bad.

(I can’t even begin to tell you how much I hate the Lakers. I had to edit out much of my Lakers vitriol for this post, as I strive, as always, to keep this blog family-friendly, much like the bleachers at Fenway.)