In the first two installments of "Blurred Lines," Tom Lambotte explained why you need a mobile device management policy and a fully encrypted Mac hard drive. In this last installment, he points to a security fail that's easy to overlook. Tom will be speaking at the session “Home-Mac; Work-Mac” at ABA TECHSHOW this week! The security of your backups isn't often discussed, but that doesn't mean you should ignore the issue. Backups are critical, but just as important is ensuring your backups are not at risk. Many home users have a local backup hard drive — and many Mac users use the built-in backup, Time Machine, because of its simplicity. Others go the route of making a bootable clone — a bit-by-bit copy of their entire hard drive. And some users do both the Time Machine backup and the clone. ... READ THE REST

We're seeing a record number of law firm mergers these days. Primarily this is because so many firms fail to recognize and adapt to the big changes in the profession — and then, ultimately, they realize they can't survive on their own. Attorney at Work invited me to give my best advice to law firms that want to thrive in the changing legal marketplace. So I'll give it to you straight, in five basic steps. ... READ THE REST

The parade of presidential candidates across my television screen has reminded me of the transactional analysis best-seller, "I’m OK, You’re OK." Transactional analysis is a psychoanalytic therapy method. It defines three ego-states: Child, Parent and Adult. While in their Parent ego-state, speakers tend to use patronizing speech patterns and gestures.

Many lawyers create Facebook pages for their law firms because they know it’s something they "ought to do" for their online marketing. Set up website. Check! Write blog posts. Check! Have a presence on social media. Check! What often happens, though, is the lawyer completely misses the purpose of this social networking site, which is to interact with other Facebook users and build relationships that may eventually lead to new cases or referrals. Instead, they create a Facebook page and then abandon it, checking in now and then to publish the occasional post. Or they use the page solely as a publishing platform, constantly pushing out content and never paying attention to their Facebook fans. Don’t be that lawyer ... READ THE REST

If this sounds like a thinly veiled excuse to write an article about "The X-Files" that is only tangentially related to law practice management, well, it is. So, sue me. (See what I did there.) It worked out with the Eagles, right? This is, after all, kind of my specialty. Hang in there.

Last week in "Blurred Lines, Part One: Using Macs at Work and Home," Tom Lambotte explained the reasons your firm needs a mobile device management policy. In Part Two, the Mac IT pro explains why you need to embrace full disk encryption. Tom will be speaking at the session "Home-Mac; Work-Mac" at ABA TECHSHOW this month. Just because you use a login password on your laptop does not mean the data is secure. You must also fully encrypt your Mac's hard drive. Why? A standard password-protected computer leaves the contents of its hard drive accessible to anyone with the patience to remove the drive. ... READ THE REST

I work with a lot of solo lawyers, both in my client base (unfortunately, ethics cases arise more frequently in solo practice), and in my network of professional colleagues. My colleagues in the ethics defense bar are frequently solos, and I cultivate a network of other lone wolves to compensate for the fact that I do sit alone in my office much of the time and have no one to bounce ideas off of, commiserate with when things go wrong or celebrate with when things go right. Being thus figuratively surrounded by solo lawyers, I'm always curious about where other lawyers work and why — partly because people set up shop for reasons I have never considered, and partly because it helps me better understand the solos I advise. Here's what I've learned when I ask about where a colleague works. ... READ THE REST

A year ago, we thought social media couldn't get any hotter as the marketing mode of choice for lawyers. Comparing results from the recent "Attorney at Work 2016 Social Media Marketing Survey" to last year's shows we may have been right. In our second annual survey, we again asked lawyers about their social media habits, preferences and attitudes. Still hot? Sure, but ... READ THE REST

The following is an excerpt from the MyCase e-book “Starting a Law Firm: Never a Dumb Question” by Edward Poll. “There is no such thing as a dumb question.” This has been the commonly repeated mantra of teachers everywhere. This sentiment is true in the legal context, too, when starting a law firm. In fact, you are encouraged to ask as many questions of yourself as you can think of to make sure that your business is successful. ... READ THE REST

Your prospects and clients are interacting daily on social media channels, regardless of your opinion on the matter. It’s time to get over yourself and invest a little time and money in this marketing platform, because it’s about your prospects — not you. A healthy marketing strategy does several things at once, like growing brand […]