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In my inaugural monthly column for Web Marketing Today (WMT), I discuss how the Internet has changed the legal profession. The article serves as an introduction of sorts to an entirely new audience for me. Many people have come to know me from the Internet Marketing Attorney web site (with the IMA awards and reviews, and the Nifty Fifty lists) that I first started espousing about in 1997. I can’t say that I’ve been reading WMT since its inception a few years earlier in 1995, but it is pretty close. When they came to me and asked if I could serve as the voice of the legal profession on Internet marketing, I thought it would provide a nice change of pace, replacing the IMA site.

There is no cost to subscribe to WMT (you’ll see the subscription box on the home page). And you can find all my columns neatly tucked away on one page. Look for them around the middle of each month. If there is a particular Internet marketing topic (pertaining to the legal profession), give me a shout.

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The American Bar Association’s only standalone law marketing conference happens just once every two years, and it is less than two weeks away.

For a few hundred dollars and less than two days of your time, bring back to your law firm the latest in business development tools and information-on social media, measuring return on investment, lawyer rankings, ethics, use of video, business development training and many more topics.

The conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia includes five networking meal functions–two breakfasts, two lunches and a cocktail reception.

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This was my submission for the 2011 ABA Journal Ross Essay Contest. The theme revolved around what “big law” can do to positively impact the practice of law.

On a daily basis, there are success stories in regard to client representation by solo practitioners, boutique and midsize law firms. At the same time, perusal of the Wall Street Journal or New York Times serve as reminders that most “bet the farm” situations still fall in the laps of the nation’s largest law firms.

As an attorney, I have had the opportunity to work with and interact with the “large law firm” from numerous vantage points. I’ve been the “client” as an in-house attorney. I’ve had the opportunity to watch colleagues as an adviser to friends and family. In recent years, I have worked with large law firms on business models and strategies. All of those experiences color my belief that they are uniquely positioned to have the greatest positively changing the practice of law.

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If your law firm is not yet sending people to the ABA’s New Partner and In-House Counsel Conference in Philadelphia on February 25-26, you are missing out on one of the premier business development opportunities that will come your way.

Besides a ridiculously low registration cost for a two-day conference at the Four Seasons Hotel ($385 before February 1), there are two tracks-one for new partners and another for new in-house counsel. The networking opportunities, including dinners and receptions, afford a chance to mingle with many major in-house corporate attorneys that are looking to work with firms like yours each and every day.

This is designed as an intimate conference that allows for a lot of interaction among people in positions to give out work and refer work to others. Consider forwarding this information to your firm’s newest partners and professional development staff. They will find that it is a low-cost, high impact, CLE opportunity.

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A quick look at my blog will confirm to you that I need to practice what I preach…and that I’m a terrible blogger. The problem with playing in the online world of blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and their brethren is that they do not work for a lot of people like me–that have no billable time left in the day for business development.

Of course, I basically teach business development for a living. So you would think that after a day of yelling at the attorney who tells me he or she can not find the time to market that I might set a better example.

So while preparing a law firm’s lesson plan for a how-to on utilizing social networking effectively, I decided to try and set a better example. First, I negotiated with the wife to take the kids out of the house on a Saturday for a few hours. Second, I in turn had to trade off a weekend visit to the gym to conduct this bold experiment.

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What better place to repeat the ever-popular “online marketing ethics” course for lawyers than in my old stomping grounds, before a Sixers game at the Wachovia Center…where I was an in-house attorney back in the day.

This new PBI program includes an hour of ethics CLE and a Sixers game against the San Antonia Spurs. To learn more or to register, visit the PBI Site.

The possible tools are endless – web sites, blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, search engine optimization, referral resources, e-mail, etc. – and so are the ethics opinions, rules and interpretations of state bars coast-to-coast. Thinking about the states where you are licensed, where you have offices and where you seek clients…and staying compliant is enough to make your hard drive crash. This one hour program will examine the tools and the rules, so you can go out and use the business development opportunities on the Internet without running astray of the Rules of Professional Responsibility.

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The ABA Law Firm Marketing Strategies Conference takes place November 12-13, 2009 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Philadelphia, PA. If you want to attend the nation’s leading “by lawyers, for lawyers” marketing and business development conference, the expiration for the $595 early bird registration expires August 31.

Compare the program, faculty, venue and cost to any law marketing program…including two breakfasts, two lunches, networking reception, and two elite keynote speakers.

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