Posts tagged ‘lawyers’

December 9th, 2008

10 Things Lawyers Can Do Today in Web 2.0

by admin

In this economy, your personal and business networks – and your reputation – are more important than ever. And there is no better, and far more efficient, way to build yours and your firm’s online profile than via the Web. And yet, an ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, released in September 2008, found that lawyers are still not using the Internet to market themselves.

Only 2% of all lawyers in this country maintain professional blogs. 8% of law firms maintain firm blogs. And, while 15% of lawyers have joined social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, only 4% of firms are using them to their best advantage.

The dearth of penetration in social media by members of the legal profession indicates that there is a huge opportunity for lawyers today if they can get into the 2.0 game as quickly as possible. It has become clear already that the lawyers who are actively online are reaping the benefits daily and this is only the beginning. Here are 10 things that you can do today:

Get smart. Learn about RSS (Real Simple Syndication) readers and set up one on your computer and your smartphone. You can quickly track information that is of interest to you, your clients and prospects and stay abreast of new developments in real time. Google reader is free and easy to use.

Own a Web site. According to a recent post in Lawyerist, that’s how your future clients are going to find you. Forget about the phone book…that’s old news. So, if you’re not easily Google-able (findable on Internet search engines), you’re off the short list.

Build your online network. Create your online profile on LinkedIn and Legal OnRamp today and update it every few weeks to keep the content fresh. Make sure that you use the key words that people searching for you or your services would use to find you. Join the group “Legal Blogging” on LinkedIn. There are currently over 1300 members, and it’s growing daily.

Start a blog. Blogs aren’t just about gaining readers, they are a great tool for online networking, enhancing your reputation and growing your business. Help your blog go viral by offering it as an e-mail newsletter, as well as providing RSS feeds of new content.

Join the conversation. Once you start blogging, get your name out there as a thought leader. Actively join in the conversation. Get into the habit of regularly adding content across the Web, and start commenting on the blogs that you regularly read. Be strategic: target 10 blogs that you already read and start consistently contributing to them. Then, target 10 more and keep commenting.

Build your blog roll. Once you’re known as a contributor, get the word out about your blog and ask the bloggers you admire to include you on their blog roll, and you include them on yours.

Share a paper you just delivered or an article you recently wrote by embedding a video of it on your blog or Web site. Use Slideshare for PowerPoints, and add audio to create a webinar. The technology is easy and either free or cheap. You may already own it and don’t know that you have it.

Microblog with colleagues on Twitter. Yes, Twitter! Find out who’s saying what by searching for relevant conversations on Twitter Search, and then sign up to join the conversations on everything from global legal issues of the day to legal marketing.

Attend a conference. In person. Using social media is all about the social piece. Expanding your network in person is critical to success. But, after the conference is over, use your new contacts, and old ones as well, to start an Internet conversation about the subject you all found important. Turn the conversation into a blog or put together a group on a social network to keep the conversation going. Be the thought leader on that subject.

Be passionate. In professional circles, enthusiasm, smarts and passion play well to any audience. Use the Internet to spread that passion more efficiently and less expensively. It makes you human.

I know that all of these things take time to do and the new technology may be a little daunting. But, AARP found me so I guess I’m considered a senior and as busy as any of you are. And, I do it. I mean, you are reading this, aren’t you?

By Jay M. Jaffe

President & CEO. Jaffe Associates. Inc.
Jay M. Jaffe can be reached at jaffej@jaffeassociates.com or at 301-881-6991.
Jay can also be contacted at http://www.linkedin.com/in/jayjaffe or at Twitter @jaffej.

Reprinted with permission

Jaffe Web 2.0 Marketing for Lawyers
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October 29th, 2008

Some Useful Stuff for Lawyers

by admin

Words are a Lawyer’s tool therefore it is no surprise that when it comes to technology, what is uppermost in a Lawyer’s mind is how it may further enhance and elucidate those words.

Microsoft word plays a remarkable role in the Lawyer’s professional life. Although a few people are defecting to other free word processors like Star Writer, Microsoft Word still remains the prevalent word processor of choice, at least in Nigeria.

The aim of The Nigerian Lawyer is to enhance the fluidity between Law Practise and Technology; we will concentrate on Microsoft Word. Microsoft Word is a word processor which most Nigerian Lawyers have more than a passing acquaintance with. The majority of the functions are familiar to us such as saving a document, working with margins and fonts and other overt functions. However there are quite a few which even Word veterans might find novel.

In his article on Pcmag.com, Neil J. Rubenking mentioned 8 of these easily overlooked tools. Read the article here.

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October 17th, 2008

How the Traditional Role of Lawyers will Change

by Sharon Famonure

After years of talking with a wide variety of lawyers, I have found that many practitioners have one thing in common: they seem to want to deny that they are, well, lawyers. They downplay the legal content of their jobs.Private client lawyers (for example, those who advise on divorces or draft wills) tell me that their job is not really about the law; rather, they insist, they are experienced counsellors, confidantes, therapists even, in whom their clients have unwavering faith in relation to their personal problems.

In similar vein, litigators say that their primary role in life is that of project manager rather than provider of legal advice; corporate lawyers claim to be deal-makers and negotiators much less than legal draftsmen; capital market lawyers suggest they are transaction managers rather than gurus of finance law; in-house lawyers maintain they are risk managers more than legal counsellors; banking lawyers assert their clients come to them not for legal advice but for their market knowledge; and high street solicitors insist that they rarely undertake legal research. Even judges say that they are becoming . . . case managers.

Where have all the lawyers gone? Why are lawyers not undertaking the rarefied legal work that our law schools led us to expect (and many still do)?

A variety of reasons might be advanced for lawyers denying they are lawyers. One response might be that being a lawyer is, bluntly, not the coolest of jobs, and perhaps not as prestigious as once it was. There may even be a stigma of sorts attached to being a lawyer – hence the wealth of lawyer jokes. And so, in response, lawyers might be holding themselves out as belonging, at least in part, to another discipline.

I do not accept this line of thought. It may be that the ill-informed and the disconnected will trash the legal profession but in most walks of life lawyers remain well respected. In any event, I cannot imagine according to what scale it is cooler or more prestigious to be, say, a project manager than a lawyer, with all due respect to project managers.

It may be that lawyers often genuinely forget how much they know about the law and so do not regard themselves as especially lawyerly. Or perhaps they do not feel that it is their legal knowledge that differentiates them in the marketplace and so they point to complementary skills of which they are proud.

There is something different here, I believe, from yesteryear’s traditional role of the lawyer as the “man of affairs”, the all-purpose rock of an adviser upon whom clients could unfailingly rely. That old boy (and these chaps were invariably male) regarded the law, in contemporary jargon, as their core competence, around which they built more general business acumen.

In contrast, the modern lawyer, who is in denial of being lawyerly, seems to want argue that they have some different core competence and relegate their legal ability to the background or periphery. I believe this is an indicator of profound forces at play, forces that are lessening the need for the traditional “black letter” lawyer. When it becomes possible to standardise, systematise, package and even commoditise the law, the need for the traditional bespoke handling by the conventional lawyer lessens considerably.

Lawyers’ denial of their lawyerliness is an early but crucial indicator that they can sense there is less purely legal work to be done and so they are beginning to adapt. Whether they are fully conscious of this phenomenon or not, in order to survive, many are widening their range of skills, broadening their sphere of impact, and are anxious that the world does not pigeon hole them as detached analysts who sit in ivory towers. Most lawyers, in other words, can no longer eke a living from the law alone. >>>more.

Richard Susskind is Emeritus Professor of Law at Gresham College, IT adviser to the Lord Chief Justice and consultant to leading law firms. He was awarded an OBE in 2000. This is an extract from his forthcoming book, The End of Lawyers? Rethinking the Nature of Legal Services. For more information click here

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July 11th, 2008

Book Review: Sisters in Law

by Sharon Famonure

Title: Sisters in Law: Career Choices for Nigerian Women Lawyers

Authors: Boma Ozobia & Elizabeth Cruickshank

Review By: Sharon Famonure

Buy Online at Amazon


When I first saw this book, my first thought was that it was about the lives of some sisters-in law. Having read it through (twice), I have come to the conclusion that this is not just a book but a practical guide for Nigerian women lawyers.

The women portrayed in this book cut across diverse backgrounds and inclinations. They however had one thing in common…the Law and family. They each successfully combined both and achieved outstanding results.

One of such women is Uju Aisha Hassan Baba, the Direcotr General of the Legal Aid Council. After several years as a prosecutor in the Ministry of Justice, She made the move from prosecutor to ‘Chief Public Defender’ in 1999. After an initial adjustment period, Uju Aisha Hassan Baba rolled up her sleeves and went to work with such zeal and enthusiasm; from Prison yard to Court Room, her passion spills over.

During my stint as a corp member with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), I had regular contact with the Legal Aid Commission and got to hear of the incredible service this spectacular woman was rendering. I also became quite familiar with the mission statement of the Commission, ‘Giving Voice to the Voiceless.’ It was therefore with a bubbling sense of excitement that I turned to the section which had her interview in the book and I was not disappointed. She is every bit the dynamic woman I had suspected her to be. Her advice for female lawyers is spot on:

” From the very beginning every female lawyer must be sincere and hardworking. You need to take every case seriously and you have to put all that you have into it. Without hard work, you will not succeed.“

Quite a number of eminent women in the profession featured in the book, but one in particular stands out boldly in my memory. This is Sena Anthony. She is the Group General Manager, Corporate Secretariat and Legal Division and Secretary to the Corporation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). She is not just the first woman to chair the International Bar Association (IBA) Section on Energy and Natural Resources, but is also the first African.

This sister in law made me see the beauty in being an in house counsel; reading her interview made me want to be an in house counsel. She gently and patiently takes the reader through the multi-faceted abilities and the versatility of the in house lawyer. This is certainly an eye opener; as Sena Anthony puts it:

“We really have to have a knowledge of everything. We need to know about Aviation Law and the Law relating to Goods and Services; as in-house lawyers we really have to have a broad base of legal knowledge.“

The book, Sisters in Law reads like an accolade of the women who have climbed unto the highest platforms of their chosen areas of law with notable ’sisters’ like Funke Adekoya who is the Managing Partner of AELEX Legal Practitioners and Arbitrators and is also one of only 5 women who are Senior Advocates of Nigeria; or the inestimable Yinka Omorogbe, Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan (my almer mater). Professor Yinka Omorogbe is a consultant on Energy Law and Policy, Managing Director of the Centre for Petroleum, Environment and Development Studies and the General Secretary on the Nigeria Society of International Law. These women and their contemporaries mentioned in Sisters in Law, have a number of achivements to their name. The authors are no exception.

Growing up in the Oil City of Nigeria, Port Harcourt, Boma Ozobia, one of the authors of the book experienced first hand, the challenges faced by lady lawyers in Nigeria yet she did not let that hold her down. She qualified both in Nigeria and in the United Kingdom. She is the founding partner of Sterling Partnership Solicitors LLP and was Chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors of England and Wales in 2005. She is a highly principled person and her belief in hard work and determination come across clearly as one reads through the live of the different women she writes about. She is one of those inimitable women who have successfully combined law practice and a home life.

Elizabeth Cruickshank, author of “Women in the Law” and Editor of Link, the magazine of the Association of Women Solicitors of England and Wales is another outstanding woman. She was Chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors in 2004, and in 2005 was given the Era Crawley Award for services to women solicitors. She is certainly a role model to young lawyers; she has shown me that it is indeed possible to ‘have it all:’ a fulfilling career and a happy home.

Sisters in Law is a compulsory read for all young female lawyers. When I was at the University and even at law school, I had no mentors to look up to; no doubt they existed but of who they were and how to find them, I was totally clueless. If I’d had this book, it would have been a different story.

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July 6th, 2008

Starting a blog

by Sharon Famonure

How to Start a Blog

from wikiHow – The How to Manual That You Can Edit

A “blog”, abbreviated word for weblog, is a web-based journal in which people can publish their thoughts and opinions on the Internet. Anyone can start a blog. It’s straight-forward and, in a lot of cases, free.

Steps

  1. Find a decent blogging provider that appeals to you. Some may include MuseCrafters.com, Livejournal.com, JournalHome.com, Blogger.com, WordPress.com, TheDiary.org, Mindsay.com, Blog.com, Blogagotchi.com, Diaryland.com, Blogdrive.com, weebly.com or Xanga.com. Most of these sites are pre-made with templates and push-button publishing that don’t require much technical know-how.
  2. Once you sign up, you’ll have a gallery of ready-made templates to choose from. Select one and personalize it. Add your name, interests, images, etc.
  3. Add blogging freebies like buttons, images, blog chalks, imoods, tagboards (for example, myshoutbox.com), guest maps, guestbooks, comment boxes for readers’ input, etc.
  4. Explore other blog sites that offer more features for a small fee, such as Typepad.com.
  5. Decide on whether or not you want your blog to be private or personal: do you want any Internet visitor to be able to read your blog, or do you just want your friends and family to be able to read it? Most blog sites offer the ability to password-protect your published posts so only those who you approve of can view what you’ve written.
  6. Decide on how you want your blog to look. You can pick a color scheme and layout. Most sites come with a set of predefined layouts and schemes that you can choose from, or you can edit your own.
  7. After you’ve set up your blog, write a few posts to test it out, and make any adjustments to the layout or style that you see fit. At first, it will seem tough to figure out what to write, but once you get into a routine of daily blogging, you will find it addictive. Write about your day, your thoughts, events, ideas, fears, pleasures, the news, current affairs, art, or anything you are interested in!
  8. Visit other blogs to build a blogging circle. When you leave comments, add your blogging address so they can visit you too.
  9. If you want to make your blog look more attractive, there are some sites up that have many “skins” that might make it look better. One example is blogskins.com, which also comes with Photoshop and HTML tutorials.
  10. Publish your blog by sending the URL to your friends or publish the URL on your website. Add the URL to posts you make on other blogs. Done

Tips

  • If you update your blog frequently, more people will return on a regular basis to read it. Establishing a reader base will motivate you to write more and in turn more people will read your posts.
  • Get into a routine of blogging. Make it part of your day. Soon, you will notice things during your day and think, “Hey, I’ll blog this.”
  • Personalize your blog. A pretty blog always catches the eye. Visit blogger.com for ideas; they have a list of their 10 most recently updated blogs.
  • You could Google for “blog California” or “blog Shakespeareans” (or anything else), depending on location, interests, etc. For instance, if you have a blog on lawns, you may want visit allaboutlawns.com’s forum and other similar type blogs. Circles of interest are the essence of blogging, and it can start to develop you as an authority in the “blog-o-sphere” on lawns or whatever area of interest you choose.
  • Keep the posts interesting. Try to avoid focusing on things that most readers won’t find worthwhile (such as “I went to the mall today and saw Kelly.”) Write about things you noticed, thoughts you had, and feelings or ideas. Blog about a recent trip to Spain. Write about the chemical explosion during class.
  • Spell check your writing before posting.
  • Some sites allow you to make money off your blog by using an Amazon Associates ID or by placing Google AdSense advertisements. If popular enough, your blog could start to pay your bills.
  • Don’t feel bogged down if no one visits your site for the first few months. As with communities this large, it will take some time for your blog to get noticed.
  • If you want a broad (international) readership, do not use too many abbreviations or slang terms that might not be easily understood by people who are not from your country/area.
  • Get interesting news from Yahoo Oddly Enough…, other Yahoo! stories, Crayon.net and other websites that you frequently read.
  • Blog on a specific subject. You can’t please everyone, so target a specific audience and go with it.
  • See also How to Write a Famous Blog.
  • Pictures are also a great idea.

Warnings

  • Avoid posting anything on your blog that might be personal to other people if just anyone can read your blog (example: Your uncle might object that it’s published on the Internet that he is an alcoholic). If something is personal, avoid using last names at the very least, or make up a name for that person. Be wary of unwarranted attention. Blogs are for the world to read. If you want a private blog just for friends, use Xanga or any other password-protected blogging site.
  • Xanga and MySpace are good for beginners, but for more public blogs, sites like Typepad and Blogger are much more “respected”.
  • Be wary of unwarranted attention. Blog stalking is possible; don’t give out too much personal information such as name, location, school, etc.
  • Read the small print. If you don’t, your blog’s content may be “owned” by the company that puts it on the web for you.
  • Don’t make your blogs like MySpace bulletins (adding random posts to suck in friends) and don’t include your friend’s name or websites in them either.
  • Write ins ands outs people love them!

Things You’ll Need

  • A computer
  • A site to start your blog on
  • Some content for your blog
  • Willingness to keep up your blog

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Start a Blog. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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