The Internet is many things to many people. For some, it’s an educational resource. For others, it’s a place to socialize or attract customers. Unfortunately, still others view the Internet as their personal battlefield. Blogs, social media communities and online review sites have become platforms for anyone with an axe to grind, or for taking swipes at competitors. It may be hard to imagine yourself or your law practice as the subject of an online hit job. After all, if you provide your clients with the best legal representation possible, what do you have to worry about? A lot, unfortunately. Clients can fire off an impulsive unfavorable review, while a misinformed blog post can mix up names or trial outcomes and saddle you with a permanent and inaccurate online record. Even a photo of a college night out can be the first thing a prospective client sees when searching your firm if you don’t keep close tabs on your online reputation. ... READ MORE

You are a member of an organization that holds quarterly dinner meetings with a speaker. You look at your calendar and realize the next meeting is Wednesday night — drat! But, dutifully, you show up just in time to sit down for the meal, chitchat briefly with the people to your right and left before the speaker starts his address, and then sneak out during the applause. If you are like most lawyers, you will give yourself credit for going. In my book, however, you get a failing grade. ... READ MORE

Meeting tight deadlines for filing motions is stressful by itself. But it's even more nerve-rattling when legal research, drafts and comments are scattered all over the place and not accessible when needed. In a typical law firm, email-based workflows are a big part of the problem. Substituting a secure cloud collaboration system for the email workflow can overcome this problem, helping law firms save time and money throughout the process. To illustrate, let's say your firm is working on a motion for a personal injury case, in which emotional distress is one of your main arguments. Here are three ways the right cloud program can make motion drafting more efficient. ... READ MORE

If you like this sort of thing (and I really do), the P3 Conference was an energizing, cutting-edge event that, for the first time, brought together three traditionally discrete disciplines — pricing, practice improvement and project management — to compare notes on some big trends in the practice of law.

Krebbs came to me for advice. It seems one of his associates had called in sick the day they were to prepare massive final documents for a filing, leaving Johnson high and dry to finish it by himself. That very same night, however, Krebbs saw this guy's Facebook status — complete with selfies, mind you — about the romantic day he'd had with his girlfriend in the city. Needless to say, Krebbs was pissed, but he couldn’t figure out the best way to react. Should he fire the associate for lying? Make him take vacation instead of sick leave? Berate him for leaving Krebbs in the lurch? All — or none — of the above?

Once you know that no one is looking at your law firm website, it’s time to get serious about turning that around. How?

If you’ve turned to the web to shop, reserve a hotel room or even sign up for a guest pass to your local gym, you’ve likely become a recipient of the vendors’ e-newsletters. From mega-corporations like Kellogg all the way down to one-person flower shops, businesses across a multitude of industries are spending big bucks on e-newsletter […]

Some of the legal profession’s foremost thought leaders gathered last week at the College of Law Practice Management’s 2013 Futures Conference, October 4-5, in Chicago. This year, a new format combined brief TED-style talks with longer breakout sessions on three topics: "The Market for Legal Services from the Buyer’s Point of View," "Innovation in the Law Firm" and "The Future of U.S. Law Schools." Here are some of the things I learned. ... READ MORE

"Stephanie hated me at first. She thought I was really annoying." – Chad Burton "I thought Chad was trying to pump me for free information. He was on his iPad the whole time." – Stephanie Kimbro Whatever scenario by which a small law firm is built in your dreams, it is probably not the way it plays out in reality. When Stephanie Kimbro, a solo attorney from North Carolina and 2009 winner of the American Bar Association's annual award for Excellence in eLawyering, decided to join Chad Burton’s Ohio-based Burton Law LLC, they’d only met in person one time. No matter. They had plenty of other methods to get to know each other. ... READ MORE

Virtual Law Practice. The legal industry has not experienced such a trendy concept since "per stirpes" hit the scene back in the day. The virtual concept must be doing something right, though, because it is both embraced and disliked. What is it? Over the past few years, virtual law practices have been defined on a sliding scale — from solos delivering services exclusively online, to multi-lawyer, multi-jurisdictional firms providing traditional and online services, and everything in between. READ MORE