Last year I went to a reunion of sorts with a couple dozen former colleagues from my college newspaper. Itinerant profession that it is, journalism had scattered us across the country into a broad range of media industry jobs. Over the years I kept in touch with a few of my closer friends, and followed others’ bylines, but had lost touch with most of my former peers. A funny thing happened as these familiar faces gathered at our old post-deadline watering hole: I immediately struck up long conversations with a couple of reporters that I didn’t know particularly well. There were many closer friends and acquaintances in the room, but I found myself strangely at ease with these guys I hadn’t seen since I pulled up stakes for Chicago and my first legal magazine job in 1996. Then it struck me why that was: The power of video. ...READ MORE

Everybody knows more consumers are going online when searching for legal services. It follows that a good way to reach new clients is by showing up in their online searches—and it's particularly important to be in the top on the search engine results page, or SERP, on the likes of Google, Yahoo and Bing. A child custody attorney in Oxford, Ohio? Then you want your law firm to show up—right on top—when somebody types "child custody oxford ohio." Your strategy needs to include both paid search and organic results, so consumers can easily find you. Here are some ideas for how to make that happen. READ MORE

Future of lawyers: Five big ideas from Suffolk Law Institute. With Professor Andrew Perlman at the helm, Suffolk University Law School in Boston recently created the Institute on Law Practice Technology & Innovation. Its purpose: To “study how technology is revolutionizing the practice of law.” Professor Perlman plans to accomplish this by offering programs to the community and […]

Other people talk about the classic maxim that people should "know, like and trust" you—or something like that—and that gets you business. I’ve heard it attributed to Dale Carnegie and it must appear in some business book somewhere. I’ll be honest, though: I have no idea where it comes from. I don’t think I’ve ever read an entire business book in my life—unless you count as being "about" the business and science of whaling. That’s probably exactly how it works, though: People have to get to know you before they like you; and they’ve got to like you before they can grow to trust you. But this is true of any of the relationships you’ll have, business or otherwise. Now, as a lawyer, your most important business relationships are those you maintain with your clients. But do you really maintain those? Do your clients know, like and trust you?

The recent post here about whether lawyers' paper business cards are obsolete reminded me that, yes, there are important things to be done with all the cards you collect at a conference or meeting. First, let’s talk about business card management while you are at a conference or a similar event.

Who are these “enterprising lawyers”? Actually, they are easy to spot. Look for the happier, more engaged lawyers. 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. You probably know one or two—you may even be one yourself! In this interview, we talk with Kelly Phillips Erb, who you may know as Taxgirl at Forbes.com. ... READ MORE

As you know, it’s nearly impossible to accurately track your email time with merely a start/stop timer. You’re probably bouncing from email to email in rapid fire mode. The last thing you want to worry about is timekeeping, especially if you switch from one client to another as you reply to email messages. The “magic” […]

If you use WordPress for your blog or law firm website, you may know that this month the WordPress community faced perhaps its largest brute force attack. Reports from around the web confirmed a large botnet was using brute-forcing passwords to attack WordPress and Joomla sites. While there are a variety of ways hackers can try to attack your site, if you follow some basic security measures, you can protect it and avoid the overwhelming majority of common attacks.

You never stop learning. And with so many big conferences this time of year, there's no shortage of opportunities. This week the Association of Legal Administrators held its 2013 Annual Conference and Exposition, covering a wide spectrum of law practice management topics, from leadership to finance to, yes, social media. We asked Lorri Salyards, a longtime law firm manager and ALA leader, to share five things she learned there. ... READ MORE

Question: "What’s the current thinking on business cards? They seem like an anachronism in a digital world, yet I don’t know how else to invite someone to contact me without them. What do lawyers 'in the know' do?" In this edition of "Ask the Experts" we hear from Legal Marketing Association members Tina Emerson, David McCann and Stacy Smith ... READ MORE