If you want to find out what social media and can really do for you in the professional world, it’s time to pause and consider who the world sees when it looks at you through the online lens. Pull up the search window at Google.com. Type in your name, surround it with quotation marks and hit Enter. (Run the search twice if you use different versions of your name — say, with a middle or maiden name.) And there you are. That’s how you look to a stranger seeking information about you.

The mind is not a marathon runner. It's a sprinter. When you push it too long, decision fatigue sets in and performance suffers. Filling the mental energy tank back up is easy. Just take a break. Think of it this way: The mind is a product of the brain. The brain is an organ. Organs need rest and nutrition to perform at peak levels. As straightforward as this seems, we persist in believing that working longer and harder produces the highest performance. The reality is that success — of any kind — comes from working better and faster. The first step to better and faster is ... READ THE REST

Even in the biggest cities, the legal community can be surprisingly small. Within a practice area everybody seems to know everybody else. Walk down your city’s legal Main Street or hang out at the courthouse, and you can’t seem to avoid the gossip. So how does that translate to money? Have you ever had a friend refuse to hire you because “Our organization has always used Ollie Oldtimer, and that is never going to change”? Yeah. Me, too. Sometimes keeping up with legal gossip can help you overcome that kind of objection.

Question: We’re all working hard to increase revenue from new business and reduce overall spending, but we just can’t seem to improve the bottom line. What is the best thing we can do to improve the profitability of our law practice? In this edition of "Ask the Experts" from the Association of Legal Administrators, Dean Boeschen and Pamela Woldow have advice on improving your bottom line . . . READ THE REST

Just because nearly everyone knows how to send email doesn't mean they use it well. In my previous post ("Most Dangerous Outlook Features for Lawyers"), I showed you two frequently used Outlook features that trip up even seasoned users: Auto-Complete and Out of Office (aka Automatic Replies). Here are two more features you'll want to be wary of, lest you accidentally breach attorney-client privilege. ... READ THE REST

It’s difficult to see the connection between starting a blog, which is essentially dropping your words into a space on the Internet, and actually increasing the amount of business coming your way. Much hay has been made about search engine optimization, but all blogging comes down to is sharing your life online in a way that the public can appreciate. Translating this into business is as simple as being yourself. ... READ THE REST

For this edition of Friday Tech Tips, we asked law practice technology experts who were on-site — and at the podium — to share a mix of hot tips and take-ways from the annual ABA TECHSHOW.

There are a lot of theories about what it takes to bring in business. One I always like to mention to lawyers is that it takes 10 to 15 good contacts to produce one client. Why so many? Because most of your contacts will not turn into clients.

Of all the Microsoft Office applications in law offices, Outlook is hands-down the most frequently used. But lurking in the shadows of your email routine are dangerous Outlook features that could jeopardize your law practice. Here are two that trip up even seasoned Outlook users. Auto-Complete. You probably use the Auto-Complete feature every day, and take it totally for granted. ... READ THE REST

The Eagles are one of the best-selling bands of all time. "Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)" is the third best-selling album of all time. The Eagles also kind of suck. Don’t believe me? Listen to "Disco Strangler" or "James Dean." Now, granted, some of the Eagles’ songs are downright fantastic, like "Already Gone" and "Take It Easy," though those are the exceptions, and not the rules. But if the Eagles suck, how did they achieve such staggering monetary success? ... None of the Eagles’ success occurred by accident. The primary reason the Eagles made so much money is because they set out to make it, and the band was run accordingly: like a business. ... READ THE REST