From a shel of my former self: An open letter to leaders of companies who block employee access to social media

"An open letter to leaders of companies who block employee access to social media" from Shel Holz' a shel of my former self. I've noticed a number of "an open letter to..." blog posts lately. This is one of the better ones. What starts out as an argument in favor of opening the workplace to social media quickly evolves into an eloquent description of the role that social collaboration plays in the decision-making process. Read it and you'll agree.

Legal Business Development: What every lawyer needs to know about project management, Part 1 of 5

"What every lawyer needs to know about project management, Part 1 of 5" from Legal Business Development. Project management, the real kind, the kind that corporations spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars teaching their employees to do, isn't easy. It's not just a matter of picking up an outline and checking off the action items as they come in. It's about striving to achieve maximum efficiencies, about studying problems and developing tactics to resolve them, about managing resources. This post, the first in what should be a useful series, offers lawyers a valuable perspective on applying project management techniques in the context of alternative billing arrangements.

Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?

I attended the Georgetown University Law Center Conference on “Law Firm Evolution: Brave New World or Business as Usual?” this week. It was tremendous. The presentations, the discussions, the ideas and the overall energy made this one of the best conferences I have ever attended in my career, and a powerful reminder of why I do what I do. Sound over the top? Read these articles, blog posts, papers, and other commentaries on the conference, and then tell me what you think.

Conference Papers and Related Documents

• “Abandoning Homogeneity in Legal Education,” Thomas D. Morgan
• “Business Models in Legal Practice: Toward Definition and Assessment,” Stephen Mayson
• “Chinese Law Firms After the Financial Crisis: The Case of Shanghai,” Sida Liu and Xueyao Li
• “Coase, Schumpeter, and the Future of the (Law) Firm,” David McGowan and Bernard A. Burk
• “The Consolidation of the Global Advertising Industry: Lessons for Law Firms?,” Andrew von Nordenflycht
• “The Death of BigLaw,” Larry Ribstein
• “Evolution and Revolution in the Governance of Law Firms,” Laura Empson
• “Hiring Teams from Rivals: Theory and Evidence on the Evolving Relationships in the Corporate Legal Market,” Michele DeStefano Beardslee, David Wilkins, John Coates and Ashish Nanda)
• “Law firm of the 21st century: The clients’ revolution,” Eversheds
• “Layoffs, Lawyers, and Learning,” Paul Oyer and Scott Schaefer)
• “Make or Buy Decisions: Theory and Evidence in Legal Services,” Mari Sako
• “The New Normal,” Paul Lippe
• “The Return of the Apprentice: New Lawyer Training Models for the 21st Century,” Jordan Furlong
• “Supply Chains and Porous Boundaries: The Disaggregation of Legal Services,” Milton C. Regan, Jr., in 78 Fordham L. Rev. 101 (2010) (forthcoming).
• “Third-Party Litigation Funding,” Anthony Sebok
• “Will There Be a Changing of the Guard? Law Firm Lessons from the Great Depression,” Peter Sherer

Session Recaps from Ron Friedmann at Prism Legal

• “Emerging Relationships Between Law Firms and Clients (Tweeted Conference Report)”
• “Creative Destruction and Innovation (session report, Georgetown Law)”
• “Business Models: Strategy and Governance (Session Report, Georgetown Law Conf)”
• “David Wilkins on Mega Trends for Legal Profession (Session Report, Georgetown Law Conf)”
• "KM in Action (After Action Review at a Conference)"

Articles and Commentary

• “The Change Agenda: Are We There Yet?” from Aric Press at AmLaw Daily
• “The Change Agenda: Is Mega Law a Dead Man Walking?” from Aric Press at AmLaw Daily
• “Calls for New Model of Law Firm-Client Relations at Georgetown Conference” from Law.com's Small Firm Business
• "Extreme Makeover: Law Firm Edition" from Vault's Law Blog
• “From Georgetown Law: ‘Law Firm Evolution-Brave New World or Business as Usual?’” from The Posse List
• “From Georgetown Law: ‘Law Firm Evolution’ – a video interview with Richard Susskind, author of ‘The End of Lawyers?’” from The Posse List (see also video interviews below)
• "From Georgetown Law: 'Law Firm Evolution-Brave New World or Business as Usual?' -- our review of the conference" from The Posse List
• "Georgetown Law School evokes Punk rock" from Joshua Kubicki on Legal on Ramp (registration required)
• “Is the Law-Firm Model Dying? Not Yet, But It Might Be On The Clock” from WSJ Law Blog
• "Law firm evolution at Georgetown" from Larry Ribstein's Ideoblog
• “Law Firm Evolution Conference at Georgetown in the US: my take” from Robert Sawhney’s Marketing Asia blog
• "Law Firm (R)Evolution & Gaps" from Joshua Kubicki's Legal Transformation: The Changing Legal Profession
• “Law Firm Time Bomb: You Have 18 Months To Try And Keep Your Clients”, from Business Insider Law Review
• “Lawyer Layoff Patterns: Young Go 1st, and Top 10 JD Is No Shield” from the ABA Journal
• "Layoff Patterns: was there a method to the madness?" from Above the Law
• "Murmurs of Change, but Where's the Proof?" from ABA Journal
• "New Model Evolving: Law Firms Have 18 Months Maximum to Adapt" from Law and More.
• “Panelists Explore New Business Models for Big Law” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Panelists Predict Changes to, Not Death of, Big Law” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Patterns Emerge from Lawyer Layoffs” from The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
• “Paul Lippe, Lewis and Clark, and Google Maps” from In Search of Perfect Client Service
• "Report Finds Power Shift and Declining Support for Law Firm 'Up or Out' Model" from the ABA Journal
• "Secondments will rise if more firms decide they are a prerequisite to become a partner" from Rees Morrison's Law Department Management
• “So Long, Blank Checks: Clients Saying Get with the Program, or Get Out of the Way” from Shatterbox
• "Total median compensation of a group of general counsel was five times salary" from Rees Morrison's Law Department Management
• “Warnings Toll for BigLaw Firms Resistant to Change” from the ABA Journal

What the Hashtag?! Twitterstream

Video Interviews from Gregory Bufithis of The Posse List and Lisa DiMonte of MyLegal.com

Leah Cooper

Anthony Davis



Jose M. de Areilza

Michele DeStefano Beardslee

Deborah Epstein Harry

Ron Friedmann



Cynthia Fuchs Epstein



Jordan Furlong



David Galbenski



Susan Hackett

Joshua Kubicki

Bruce MacEwen

Stephen Mayson



David McGowan



Marisa Mendez



Thomas Morgan

Mitt Regan



Larry Ribstein



Timothy Scrantom

Reena SenGupta

Paul Smith

Richard Susskind

Laurel S. Terry

What I learned from two days at the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting

It was the Legal Marketing Association’s annual meeting last week in Denver. Two days of informative seminars, of making connections, of strengthening relationships, of exploring new ideas and learning the latest intelligence and understanding the challenges facing our clients, our firms, our industry. But don’t take my word for it. Read these:

Session recaps from Lindsay Griffiths on Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance and Gina Furia Rubel on The Legal Intelligencer Blog.

• "Keynote Event - Insights into the Future" (Lindsay Griffith)
  
  
• "Social Media Strategies for Small to Mid-sized Law Firms" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Leveraging Social Networking - Real World Applications of Web 2.0 That Have Led to New Business" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Examining the Current Use of Alternative Fee Arrangements" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Recovery: Refocusing the Inside Counsel/Outside Counsel Partnership to Maximize Profitability" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Creating and Implementing a Sales and Business Development Culture in your Firm" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "General Session: What We Love Most about Our Lawyers - A Client Panel" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "The Digital Firm 2015 - The Changing Face of Professional Services Marketing Communications" (Lindsay Griffiths)
  
  
• "Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 1 Biz Dev" (Gina Furia Rubel)
  
  
• "Tips for Lawyers from Legal Marketing Experts: Part 2 Competitive Advantage" (Gina Furia Rubel)

General Observations

• "Migrating from Marketing to Business Development" from Karen Lorimer in Canadian Lawyer
  
  
• "Paramjit Mahli reports on the Legal Marketing Association conference in Denver" (video) from Legal Broadcast Network News Blog
  
  
• "The Social Web Revolution and Law Firm Marketing Professionals" from Jayne Navarre's Virtual Marketing Officer
  
  
• “Your People Are Your Brand” from Alli Gerkman’s Beyond Credits
  
  
• “Here’s a story about Social Media” from John Bryne’s The Byrne Blog
  
  
• “LMA 2010 Takeaways” from Jon Holden (video)
  
  
• “Me, Twitter, LMA and Laura Gutierrez” from Heather Milligan’s The Legal Water Cooler
  
  
• “LMA10 Conference part 1: my message to marketers” from Nancy Myrland’s Myrland Marketing blog
  
  
• “The Great Legal Marketing Tweetup of 2010” from Nancy Myrland’s Myrland Marketing blog
  
  
• “Confessions from a Social Networker: How Twitter Shaped My #LMA10 Experience” from Gina Furia Rubel on The PR Lawyer
  
  
• “High on Hashtags” from Russell Lawson on Progressive Marketing
  
  
• “It’s About Relationships” from Lindsay Griffiths’ Zen and the Art of Legal Network Maintenance

#LMA10 Twitter stream

• Twitter Search
  
  
• Twapperkeeper
  
  
• What the hashtag?!

3 Geeks and a Law Blog: Is BigLaw Devoid of Humanity, Culture and Sense of Humor?

"Is BigLaw Devoid of Humanity, Culture and Sense of Humor?" from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Prompted by comments made during a Twitter discussion this week on the Virtual Law Office (organized by Martindale-Hubbell Connected and led by Larry Bodine), this post provides an eloquent response to those who would proclaim the end--or at least the end of an era--of BigLaw. I suspect that the real answer lies somewhere in the middle. Read this post and draw your own conclusions.

Build a Solo Practice @ SPU: 12 Social Media Ethics Issues for Lawyers

"12 Social Media Ethics Issues for Lawyers" from Build a Solo Practice @ SPU. This post is a must read for all lawyers who engage in social media and social networking, from the ones who tweet 20 times a day to those who are just beginning to explore how they can use Web 2.0 tools to raise their profile. It's full of valuable advice on how to navigate the ethics-risks-of-social-media minefield, and while it's far from the final word on ethics and social networking, it does provide a useful perspective on potential dangers and how to avoid them.

Cameron’s Profits for Partners: Strategic Planning for Law Firms

“Strategic Planning for Law Firms – Key Steps in the Process,” from Cameron’s Profits for Partners. Whether or not you're actively engaged in a strategic planning process you should read this post. Why? Because answering the questions Colin Cameron sets forth will provide you with a better understanding of what you want to achieve, how you think you should go about it, and how you will define and measure success.

It's your future, after all. You might as well be the one who defines it.