In their written communications, lawyers need to use the right words and the right number of words in the right way. If you circumvent your content, malign your meaning, dangle your modifiers or otherwise mangle your sentences, you might very well alienate your partners, anger your clients or annoy the judge and jury. But let’s put this in positive terms. If you can write clearly, concisely and correctly, you can impress your partners, engage your clients and win over the judge and jury. Lawyer, writer and writing instructor Gary Kinder has taught more than 1,000 writing programs at law firms nationwide — to rave reviews. He knows the difference between clean, clear and crisp writing and muddled muck. Unfortunately, too often he sees the latter coming from lawyers, especially young attorneys. “Often first- and second-year associates try too hard to write like, well, lawyers,” Kinder says. ... READ THE REST

The wait to hear about an online job application is often too long, and the process is often discouraging. If you don’t have a personal connection to the employer, it will be difficult to get through the screening process without matching most of the job's posted requirements. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t apply if you feel you're a good fit, but rather that you should keep your expectations in check — and try not to do anything that will harm your application. Of course, you should try to find a connection through LinkedIn and your other network. Even if you don't have a connection that will usher your application quickly through the online gauntlet, however, there are things you can do to significantly improve your chances of getting it into the right hands. Below are just a few. READ THE REST

Let me tell you a secret — the biggest distraction in my life is me. No, I’m not wasting time playing Angry Birds or watching Netflix. My challenge? I’m so well-trained to react the moment my laptop or phone lights up, chimes or rings that it’s become a time-suck. My response is almost Pavlovian. And every time I look at my phone or check my email, those are seconds or minutes that I’m not working on my current project. Then I have to use up more time refocusing on the task at hand. It’s not a lot of time in each instance, but in aggregate it adds up. So here’s what I’ve done ... READ THE REST

An earlier post talked about the importance of getting a professional headshot as a smart way to introduce yourself online and establish your brand. But do you know what potential clients are looking for in a photo? Leigh McMillan does. As vice president of marketing for Avvo, an online guide that offers legal advice and helps consumers research and find attorneys, her company recently investigated the top factors in how consumers choose an attorney. Research included results from a survey of 10,000 consumers along with focus groups and real-time observation of the choice process online. The top criteria? Responsiveness. When probed further, consumers overwhelmingly said “what the lawyer looks like” is wrapped up in this. “In fact,” says McMillan, “looks are more important than where they went to law school.” READ THE REST

So you made the decision to go paperless. You've grasped the concepts and technology you need and your systems are mostly set. But when you need to get someone's signature on a document, your best-laid plans come to a screeching halt. That process typically involves printing the document, hand-signing it yourself, mailing or scanning or faxing to the other party — and then waiting for them to print, sign and mail, fax or scan and send it back to you, where it's printed yet a third time and filed away in a cabinet forever. It's anything but paperless. It's antiquated busy work. And, yes, there is a better way: Use e-signing tools. ... READ THE REST

If your firm doesn't have vast experience in marketing, or in any of its parts, you have no way of knowing what to expect from your marketing efforts. Why shouldn't anyone expect a rush of clients, for example, from a single ad — unless you have been educated very specifically in what an ad can and can't do? Why shouldn’t a marketing campaign produce a rapid return of inquiries from a well-developed ad campaign? There are too many cases of law firm partners expecting that press releases will be printed verbatim, that interviews will be reported accurately, that a three-day sales training course will double the size of the clientele within weeks. ... READ THE REST

Apparently the jury’s out on whether traffic to your website's homepage is declining. My own analysis shows law firm homepage traffic has been relatively unchanged over the past two years, though law firm website strategist Robert Algeri says his clients have experienced a 17 percent decline, and well-known legal blogger Kevin O'Keefe says homepages, as the "foyer" to firm websites, are in demise. I don’t dispute Algeri’s numbers. We were measuring different things in our analyses. Algeri was intent on capturing the number of people arriving to a site via its homepage, while I really didn’t care how they arrived. If homepages were truly “dying,” I reasoned that it didn’t matter whether the homepage was the 1st, 2nd or 10th page viewed. Instead, I looked at total homepage visits versus the rest of the website. But, ignoring the numbers for a moment, let’s ask the more important question: “So what?” ... READ THE REST

Nobody likes talking about money with clients. Nobody. But the conversation gets a whole lot easier when you are confident in what you do, and what you're worth. Right? Maintaining the needed level of self-assurance, though, might be the hardest part when talking price. Well, at WordCamp Chicago last month, Chris Lema and Steve Zehngut offered their philosophies on fees during "15 Tweets About Pricing" — along with some great stories that were right on point. WordCamps are community-organized meetups where developers, coders, designers and "casual users" hone their skills and share advice on improving their businesses. Not exactly the place you'd expect practice tips for lawyers. But Lema, who is VP of Software Engineering at Emphasys Software and a popular blogger, and Zehngut, who heads Zeek.com, had advice on fee setting that any enterprising lawyer can use. ... READ THE REST

Whether or not you consider yourself a mobile lawyer, we’re all part of a professional community and society that embraces mobile technology. That means our clients and opposing counsel expect us to be able to access files and research at any time and anywhere — just like they do. Once I would have called myself “old school” with respect to technology, but my practice and work habits have evolved, by necessity, to suit a mobile world. These days, if I get a call from a client or opposing counsel, it's simply not acceptable for me to say, “I don’t have the file.” I've had to take my practice to a new level. And now, thanks to my smartphone and iPad, I am able to work any time and be much more productive. If I am waiting for a deposition to begin, for my case to be called, or even to pick up my kids’ carpool, I can be drafting a quick memo or returning calls because I can get what I need and I'm prepared. ... READ THE REST

I recently read an article, Why old school attitudes to technology are hitting law firm profitability, by Neil Cameron, who beautifully sets out the profitability argument for lawyers and staff to properly use the legal technology at their disposal. I recommend you head there and read it (don’t worry – it’s not very long!).