Have you read these?

A smattering of interesting and relevant posts from the blawgosphere and beyond

• “Scitable – Velvet Rope and a Stethoscope” from Chris Brogan’s Community and Social Media blog. Our last post featured a piece by Kevin O’Keefe on gated online legal communitites, so when I saw this post from Chris Brogan, a review of what he calls a “velvet rope social network,” I had to include it. Read it to find out Brogan’s take these communities. The bonus? Scitable – check it out.
  
  
• “Change or Die: Reflections on Richard Susskind's ‘The End of Lawyers?’” from The AmLaw Daily. Yes, Richard Susskind’s vision of the future, The End of Lawyers? has been written about more times over the past few months than just about any other subject involving the legal profession (save, of course, layoffs and related news). That doesn’t mean you should skip this post from Michael Stern, newspaper reporter turned BigLaw partner. Why? Precisely because Stern is a BigLaw partner, who sees the world changing around him as he searches for new paths to success. But don’t take my word for it. Take Bill Henderson’s (yes, that Bill Henderson): “Michael… your review and additional insights are excellent.”
  
  
• “Who are you looking at?” from Enlightened Tradition. “Why do law firms find it so hard to ignore their competitors?” asks Mark Gould, who has put together a thoughtful analysis of how this attitude (obsession?) influences the decisions and decision-making process of lawyers and law firms. Virtually every lawyer will have similar stories to those Gould cites, but few will have drawn the same conclusions (and even fewer will have acted on those conclusions). Read it. You’ll be glad you did.
  
  
• “Spend wisely” from Law21.ca. Another great post from Jordan Furlong (are there any other kinds?), which looks at the current state of the legal profession from the perspective of the consumers of legal services, both corporations and individuals. How do the wants and needs and fears and misconceptions of the buyers influence the menus of the sellers? And what does that mean for the profession and its future?
  
  
• “Breakdown: The Five Ways Companies Let Employees Participate in the Social Web” from Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang. Companies need social media policies. More importantly, they need to be aware of what their employees are doing / could do / might do on Web 2.0 sites, and develop some guidelines for that activity that may help avoid unpleasant surprises in the future. Law firms are no different. If you haven’t given a lot of thought to your policy, you’ll find this post useful. (PS: you’ll find it useful even if you already have social media guidelines for your employees. Really.)