Today's Law Marketing Resource

Margaret (“Molly”) DiBianca's "Complex Ethical Issues of Social Media" from The Bencher, the flagship magazine of the American Inns of Court. This post provides an in-depth analysis of the ethical impact social media has on the practice of law (and not just as a marketing tool). Although it appears to be written primarily for lawyers not active in social media, all lawyers will benefit from DiBianca's thorough review of these issues.

From My Law License: "The Cause Of The Defenseless Or Oppressed - 15 Years Later"

"The Cause Of The Defenseless Or Oppressed - 15 Years Later" from My Law License. Brian Tannebaum's 15th-anniversary-as-a-lawyer post is full of his passion and satisfaction and pride as a lawyer. It's also full of valuable, first-hand advice that comes in the form of 60 lessons that Brian has learned in 15 years of criminal law, like:

[17] Some people don't matter. Never treat them like they don't matter.

[20] People hate lawyers, think they are greedy, and don't respect them. That will never change. Don't waste your time trying to convince society otherwise. Spend your time convincing your client through your work that they shouldn't hate lawyers, lawyers aren't greedy, and lawyers deserve respect.

[26] Take every opportunity you can to teach a young lawyer something, regardless of their response.

[35] The people you walk by and ignore, notice.

[50] Speaking and writing is a better advertisement than your angry photo next to the words "aggressive," and "Available 24/7."

But that's not the half of it. Read it and see for yourself.

From My Shingle: Sorry, But I'm Not Contrite About Ignite Law (Just a Little Late to Respond)

"Sorry, But I'm Not Contrite About Ignite Law (Just a Little Late to Respond)" from Carolyn Elefant's My Shingle.com. It's been less than a week, but there has already been a slew of debate around Matt Homann's Ignite Law session that took place on the eve of the ABA TechShow, and it's all good. Why? Because even if they disagree on the methods, the debaters are all motivated by a desire to make the legal profession better. For Elefant, it's a place where people passionate about the law can follow that passion and find success, not the "rich beyond your wildest dreams" kind of success but rather the "don't stop being a lawyer just because you don't know how to start and run a solo practice" kind. Read the post. And while you're at it, read Scott Greenfield's "Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud," Antonin Pribetic's "Star Trek, Social Media and Legal Ethics," Brian Tannebaum's "Watching Law Ignite into Flames," and Venkat Balasubramani's "Emphasizing Tech and Social Media at the Expense of the Fundamentals?" You'll be glad you did.

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

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.

The ReTweek I

Busy week. Part I of the notable tweets and retweets from last week:

• Nice post. Relationships are key to success: Intimacy in Law Firm Partnerships. http://tinyurl.com/c3b2au
  
  
• Tom Peters: Super Bowl showdown of advertisers discussed live on Twitter http://is.gd/hWFe
  
  
• Interesting social media community ecosystem slide: http://bit.ly/VlOQ
  
  
• My latest post about that darn billable hour: http://bit.ly/LAQ6
  
  
• Saving the English language, one word at a time: http://bit.ly/gd50
  
  
• Scott McClellan: White House Press Briefing Is Obsolete http://is.gd/hXke
  
  
• Lifehacker's four today. Where would we be without it? http://bit.ly/wHCx
  
  
• I'm reading Adam Smith, Esq.'s well balanced post on the billable hour. You should too: http://bit.ly/of8F
  
  
• Nice post from Seth on "what is school for?" #23 is my fave: http://bit.ly/1jPez8
  
  
• Lawyers: what do the proposed amendments to ABA ethics rules on conflicts mean for clients and profession? http://bit.ly/qX80
  
  
• At least 20 law firm mergers expected in Q1? Wow: http://bit.ly/8PQSX
  
  
• K&L Gates "growing like it was 1999"? Do clients need another megafirm? http://bit.ly/PIwmH
  
  
• Law Shucks' layoff tracker gets another update today - 1487 this year: http://bit.ly/Y36L
  
  
• Latest Legal Tweets thread: Marketing Professionals Forum: http://tinyurl.com/ctch9l
  
  
• Soc Med marketing strategy http://is.gd/hH0p and Soc Med map http://tinyurl.com/a2dn6q
  
  
• UK firms moving into Plan B territory: maybe layoffs not entire solution: http://bit.ly/w8dY
  
  
• legal tweeps: have u seen Law Shucks' layoff tracker? Not for the faint-hearted. Have been 1,311 layoffs so far in 2009: http://bit.ly/Y36L
  
  
• Linklaters set to cut up to 270 jobs including 120 lawyers http://tinyurl.com/cb648r
  
  
• Legal tweeps, if you're not a member of the Law Marketing ning started by @minasirkin, you should be: http://bit.ly/14yAB
  
  
• How's this for an opening: "City partners are preparing for a gruesome year"? http://bit.ly/Igfk

Have you read these?

A smattering of interesting posts from today's legal and other blogs 

• “Leadership After the Layoffs” from Jeffery Connor in Law Practice Today. Connor addresses some of the issues law firm leaders need to keep in mind as they keep their firms together. Not surprisingly, honest and timely communication is crucial.
  
  
• “How to - Step One” and “How To - Alternative Bill” from 3 Geeks and a Law Blog. Toby Brown uses these posts to move the billable hour v alternative billing debate from theory into practice in what promises to be a series of useful how-to posts. I still think the billable hour is being unfairly maligned (that’s a hint that I am working on a response post), but fully agree that lawyers need practical advice on changing the way they bill. 
  
  
• “You Have 500+ On LinkedIN? So What?” from Kyle Lacy’s blog, Sometimes it’s better to be socially creative. I like this because I’m a firm believer in “so what;” but I REALLY like it because he writes “that there is nothing valuable in the social media world that is easy.” Success takes work.
  
  
• “Is Biglaw Planning on Changing the Rules of The Game?” from Carolyn Elefant’s MyShingle blog. Responding to Professor Larry Ribstein’s Ideablog post on the death of BigLaw (mentioned here yesterday), Elefant emphatically refutes Ribstein’s suggestion that ethic rules are to blame for the fall of BigLaw. Still not convinced? See Elefant’s other post on the same topic, “Are Ethics Rules What's Killing Biglaw?,” from Legal Blog Watch.
  
  
• “Take The Plunge!” from Nicole Auerbach in In search of perfect client service. Another piece in the alternative billing conversation, this post argues that clients need to take responsibility for changing the rules by forcing their outside firms to adapt. I’ll have more to say on this soon, but in the meantime this is an important voice in the debate.
  
  
• “Corporate Blogging - Is it Worth the Effort?” from Pivotal Branding. Research shows that few readers trust corporate blogs. The post talks about getting beyond that mistrust to enhance your firm’s reputation. Do you think it would change the game if a law firm currently going through layoffs blogged about their layoffs like Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh did last year? What would it do to their reputation?