Every lawyer needs a good network. With fellow lawyers, yes. But you need lots of other people in your network as well. And not just because it's a source of good new business. Smart lawyers draw on (and give back to) their networks for ideas, introductions, information, collaboration and plenty of other things critical to a healthy law practice. Unfortunately, the oft-used term "networking" has become a mere buzzword — intimidating to the uninitiated and off-putting to many.

Solo and small firm lawyers are very much like "baseball men" prior to the Moneyball conversion. Once certain teams started making decisions based on hard numbers, rather than suppositions and unrefined projections, the new-school teams were able to pluck valuable players at a deep discount (and place them in better positions to succeed, ultimately) because the old-school teams did not have them appropriately valued. Now, that competitive advantage doesn’t last forever (although there's something to be said for being the first mover). If the data analysis structure is in place, though, it also becomes easier to pivot toward new, as yet unrecognized, value propositions. Of course, the analogy extended from baseball to law practice is not perfectly apt. Clearly, there are differences in drafting a baseball player versus targeting client marketing. Data appropriately defined, however, can help both baseball GMs and business owners make more informed decisions. If a solo attorney, for example, creates a statistical breakdown that represents a hypothetical best client, doesn’t that make it easier for her to market her law firm and position it to reach more of those clients? The old saw is that knowledge is power; and that is the thrust of the argument here as well. ... READ MORE

Black must be the most beloved wardrobe color ever. Just look around at your next large-ish attorney gathering and bear witness to the devotion to black. But beware: Wearing black can either be badass or blah. Here are some tips to ensure your black isn’t lost in the crowd.

I've got good news and ... er, weird news. First the weird: Whether you like it or not, you have become a media outlet. If you don't believe me, think for a minute about all the stuff — pictures, posts, emails, videos, opinions, reviews — that you post to the Internet each day. Even if all you do is Facebook vacation photos, you are as much a source of "content" for your public as HBO, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Daily Beast.

Who are these “enterprising lawyers”? Actually, they are easy to spot. Look for the more engaged and happier lawyers in the crowd. Deeply invested in the power of the work they do for their clients, they have ample interests beyond the practice of law as well. And they seem to have more energy for getting things done than anyone in the crowd. In today's interview, we talk with Mark Unger, a family lawyer, mediator and technologist — with a touch of the poet and a semi-permanent office in a San Antonio coffee shop. He's surprisingly analog for a digital kind of guy. READ MORE

When sanctioning lawyers who have violated the rules, ethics regulators typically consider a set of aggravating circumstances that can increase the punishment, as well as a list of mitigating factors that may reduce it. These factors may include prior discipline, or lack thereof; harm, or lack of harm, to clients; or extreme mental or physical duress on the attorney's part at the time of the misconduct. Not every state agrees, however, on how to treat the attorney's length of time in practice. Should mature attorneys have known better and thus be sanctioned more harshly? Or having gone so long in practice without discipline, should they be cut a break? This lack of agreement among the states raises an interesting question ... READ MORE

Trust: It’s a quality that supports ease of communication and smooth case management and secures your colleagues’ and clients’ loyalty. But with so much happening today in the online space, how do you establish it? Here are four building blocks of establishing a trustworthy persona in your online legal communications — one that will stick with you offline as well. ... READ MORE

If you know their names — and there's a good chance you do — you may think of Peter Giuliani and John Remsen as consultants who advise AmLaw 200 firms. But today they are also the experts for the Association of Legal Administrators' edition of "Ask the Experts," answering the question: "We hear about big law firms and their strategic planning processes, but what about smaller firms and solos? What process do you recommend?" ... READ THE ANSWERS

To grow your law practice, you have to get more clients, right? But is that really the best growth strategy? Not necessarily. For many law firms, the right strategy is to get better, not bigger. Pursuing growth — more clients, more billable hours, more staff — for growth's sake is often counter-productive. Good growth — sustainable, manageable, profitable, enjoyable — requires a different approach.

Let's say you're an average Joe who needs to find a local lawyer. Finding the right one can certainly be a difficult quest. Where do you start? Many might think a person's automatic first step would be to ask a few friends if they've used a lawyer they can recommend. But according to a new FindLaw survey, consumers are more likely to head straight to the Internet. Thirty-eight percent of people in the 2014 FindLaw survey said they would use the Internet to find a lawyer, compared to 28% who said they'd ask a relative or friend. That's a big shift from a similar survey less than a decade ago, in 2005, when only 7% said they'd use the Internet and 65% said they'd ask a friend or relative. The problem there for lawyers? The Internet is such an overcrowded space that the only thing more difficult than finding the right lawyer might be getting found if you’re that lawyer. Enter the solution: Learning how to win at "local search marketing" ... READ MORE