Before You Make New Year’s Resolutions…
There’s an old story about a guy who walked down the street and fell into a giant hole. He yelled for help for a long time, but no one came. Finally he managed to scratch out some notches in the wall, and with some difficulty, he clambered out.
The next day he walked down the same street and fell into the same hole. He didn’t yell very long before he remembered the notches he had scratched before. He dug them out a little more, and then climbed out much more quickly.
When he walked down that street the third day, he caught himself as he teetered on the brink of falling into the hole again. He walked gingerly around the hole and went on his way.
On the fourth day… […]
How New or Re-tooling Lawyers Can Get Experience They Need
Many lawyers today find themselves in the unexpected position of trying to practice law in an area where they have insufficient experience and are finding it necessary to develop a new area of proficiency due to not being hired after graduation, downsized in the recession, a slow market for their existing expertise, or just wanting to make a change into a different type of practice. Here are a number of ideas on how to gain the needed experience through Texas programs (other jurisdictions have similar options) when you don’t already have the support system to provide it.
How Lawyers Can Capitalize on Foursquare and Geotagging
Jim Calloway posted about The Dangers of Photo Geotagging. He referenced a New York Times story describing how a television personality accidentally revealed the location of his home when he posted a photo on Twitter, because of the geotagging embedded in the photo. Geotagging adds geographical metadata to some media such as photos, videos, websites, and social media postings.
Calloway posited a few circumstances in which photo geotagging might be relevant to a lawyer’s case, such as evidence of “harboring a fugitive” based on a photo geotag. Posting a geotagged photo on Facebook could result in the arrest of someone with an outstanding warrant. Remember, other people can post photos on Facebook and tag them with someone else’s name, unless they have blocked that feature. And, if you think fugitives would not be foolish enough to post their own photos on Facebook, check out this Huffington Post story. […]
Why Lawyers MUST Get Their Heads Out of the Sand about Social Media
The mushrooming popularity of social media creates novel legal issues to be resolved, as well as a lot of opportunities for mistakes by lawyers and their clients. Wake up! How can you answer your client’s questions or warn them about potential legal infractions, if you aren’t familiar with the medium? Could you be completely missing a good business development opportunity?
Many lawyers tell me their clients don’t use social media, but have they really checked? Or is that just an assumption? How do you check, if you don’t engage in social media yourself? Not long ago I spoke to about 50 lawyers, most of whom knew very little about social media. The room got very quiet when I started putting up on the screen the logos of their clients who had Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. If you asked your clients last year whether they used social media, they may have a different answer now. Could your competitors be enhancing their relationships with your clients via social media, while you remain oblivious?
Even if your clients don’t officially have a social media presence, their employees, customers, or competitors may be posting things that affect your clients. When they ask you what to do about it, how will you be able to advise them if you don’t understand what they are talking about?
Here are some examples of how you might be called on in your law practice to address social media issues.
Sleepless in Seattle: A Lawyer’s Occupational Hazard?
“If a man had as many ideas during the day as he does when he has insomnia, he’d make a fortune.” ~Griff Niblack
In my law practice I often began morning instructions to my staff with “In the middle of the night, I remembered that we need to . . . .” One day, my paralegal responded, “Don’t you ever sleep through the night?”
Taken aback, I stammered, “Uh…no. Do you?” I was surprised to learn that she usually did. Perhaps I thought waking in the middle of the night was an occupational hazard of working in a law firm. I had awakened for so many years that I forgot that some people don’t.
Waking is not really a problem, unless I can’t get back to sleep for hours. I appreciate my faithful spirit guide — or whatever it is — for the midnight alert that something is about to fall through the cracks or for gifting me with brilliant solutions to thorny problems. John Steinbeck said “It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it.” I just wish The Committee would wait until morning to give me the good news. Who knows? Maybe the dark of night is the only time I am quiet enough to hear whispered answers or warnings. In any event, if I don’t get back to sleep until an hour before the alarm rings, I start the day in a fog and I’ll probably react irritably to someone by 3:00 p.m.
If this sounds too familiar, here are a few tips from an experienced wee-hour-waker that may help you get back to Snoozeville more quickly.
Debra’s Now Guest Blogging for SPU
Recently Susan Cartier Liebel, founder of Solo Practice University, invited me to become a regular guest blogger for the Build A Solo Practice @ SPU blog. Although I had previously been a guest blogger there, my inaugural post as a team member was published on August 19, 2010. Got Clients? How Did THAT Happen? explains why lawyers should keep records tracking their marketing efforts, as well as ask new clients how they came to the firm.
In addition to the blog post, check out the comments for even more ideas on how to identify what really works in your business development efforts. And while you’re there, if you’re trying to get a solo practice going, check out SPU. It has a lot to offer.