The thing I wanted to comment on is the segment about new lawyers starting out solo and the quality of their practice and the need for finding mentors.  I know Rodney and I know he would never imply that new lawyers don’t know how to practice law or are incapable of practicing law, but to some listeners, it might have come off sounding like that.

I agree with Erik and Rodney on the importance of finding a mentor but I disagree about where to find those mentors.  It was said that finding mentorship between a group of new lawyers is not useful because it’s like the blind leading the blind.  I disagree with this because new lawyers have experience from either past internships or practice or just learning how to practice law by themselves.  On the StartingOutSolo listserv, we routinely ask simple questions about how to handle a legal situation or if someone has a form for a particular motion.  If someone in the group has dealt with that legal issue before, it doesn’t matter if they’ve been out in practice for 2 months or 20 years, they’ve dealt with it before and now has the experience and the qualifications to share that experience with fellow lawyers.

It also speaks to the erroneously held belief that old lawyers equals better lawyer.  The years of practice correlates to experience and breadth of knowledge but does not equate to a better lawyer overall.  This I have seen in person.  I have litigated against young lawyers who I thought were very good and I’ve litigated against senior lawyers who I thought were very  bad.  As the saying goes, practice doesn’t make perfect, it just makes you consistent.

As to having mentors, I entirely agree that mentorship is important but I don’t believe that mentorship means you can’t or shouldn’t start a practice right out of law school.  This implies that if you were to join a firm, you’d get supervision and mentorship – which could or couldn’t be true.  I know lots of big firm lawyers, first year associates, that hardly get any mentorship.  They get thrown case research or motions to draft but no direction.  They talk to the senior partners only when getting new assignments or presenting their work.  So these new associates look to not the senior partners, but other associates – 2nd or 3rd year associates.  This is no different than StartingOutSolo members asking each other for help.

Living in the information and technology revolution means that not only is marketing a solo practice easier than ever before, but it also means that finding mentors and legal information is also easier than ever before.  Many new solos join Solosez or other association of lawyers that will gladly speak with them by email or otherwise.  It’s not the traditional method of mentorship where new lawyers follow more seasoned lawyers around all day or see them in person, but it is no less helpful.  My first divorce trial, I spoke with a more experienced divorce lawyer that I met online and I spoke with her and picked her brain for over 2 hours to prepare for trial.  She was a one-time mentor but was nonetheless a mentor.

The bottom line is this – the information/technology revolution has opened up the world to so many more options from every aspect of life and business.  It has done the same for the practice of law.  There is no longer one way to open a law firm.  A myriad of ways exists and are just as valid.  The key, and this hasn’t changed from the old guard, is dedication, research and drive.  Have a goal, don’t stop until you reach that goal, and always do your homework.

You want (need) more business.  You’ve never had enough business.  You have to do something different from what you’re doing now because obviously, it’s not working.

Lesson: Stop doing more of what you’ve been doing that hasn’t worked to help you reach your goals.

I’ve been invited to speak at a lot of events lately on topics such as “Taking your law firm marketing to the next level” and “How to increase your law office efficiency”.  I’ve been happy to speak at these events and share what I know and learned about marketing and what I’ve contributed.  Like Mr. Steenbarger, I typically tell the attendees that I’ll speak with them at no charge.  Just give me a call. I’ve been asked why I do this because won’t other’s marketing efforts take away from my business? Well, no.

I’ve gotten some calls and emails from each of my events but in comparison to the total number of people attending the events and conferences, it is a very small percentage.  So what’s the lesson?  How do you become successful?

Most people know what to do in terms of marketing and being successful in a law firm – it’s drive and determination and hard work.  It’s that simple.  Those who win or succeed are those that grab hold of opportunities to speak to presenters and actually follow through with marketing.

First, claim your profile on Avvo. Since the site is searched by potential clients all the time, you want to be able to control any and all the information that’s floating out there in cyberspace about you and your firm.

Next enter in all basic information such as office location, website, practice areas, schools, etc.  You’ll find that the simple fact of providing Avvo with information will raise your score.  This is because the more that Avvo knows about you and your qualifications, the more they have to score you on.

As with most online profile sites, include a picture.  If you don’t have a professional picture, go and take one.  You need to have a professional headshot on hand just for situations like this and also for PR purposes in the future.  In addition, people tend to trust people they can see.  Clients will look for a picture.

Now, the trick to really improving your Avvo score is knowing which sections affect your score and which do not.  Naturally the longer you have practiced, the higher your score goes up.  But if you have nothing else on Avvo but years of experience, you’re not going to get a very good score.  Lawyer endorsements is the easy way to raise your score but there’s a limit when your score will no longer go up due to another lawyer’s endorsement.  Until then, email all your contacts and ask for endorsements.  Offer to endorse them in return.

Client endorsements are nice for potential clients to see but it doesn’t affect your score at all.

If you’ve gotten awards for legal work, then list it because it will raise your score.

Listing particular types of associations will raise your score.  If it’s legal based and if you hold a position in the association then it will help.  For example, listing that you’re a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association doesn’t raise your score, but if you list that you’re the President of the Massachusetts Bar Association, that will raise your score.  Being on Boards also helps.

Legal guides and Avvo answers, though they’re helpful and resourceful, don’t actually help with your score.  They will however, provide your potential clients with insight into your legal knowledge and how you counsel your clients.

Lastly, publications and speaking engagements will raise your score.  So every article that is written about or by you, you should list on your profile.  Every speaking engagement should be listed as well.

This is a short list of some of the things that will help raise your Avvo score.  It is by no means an exhaustive list.

via Minimal

I currently run or contribute to 6 blogs (including this one and 7 if you include Mass Bar e-Journal’s Tip of the Weeks) and I’ve been legal blogging for 3 years.  Needless to say, I know a thing or two about problems with finding fresh and new materials to blog about.

Answer Questions

As a lawyer, we encounter clients asking us questions everyday.  They’re not always the same questions.  They’re similar but usually with a twist so you have to tailor your advice to suit your client’s needs.  Why not take those questions that you encounter in everyday practice and convert them into blog posts?

Break it Down

Many new bloggers think about the big picture too much and don’t focus on the details.  For example, if you’re blogging about divorce, you might get stuck after blogging about “How to get an uncontested divorce”.  However, you might want to break it down into manageable pieces for your readers by posting follow-up posts such as “What is a Separation Agreement” or “How do you fill out a financial statement”.  If you think about the steps you take in your field of law, you’ll see that you routinely perform many steps to get to the end of a case.  Each of those steps is a blog post.

Reuse, Renew, Recycle

After you’ve blogged for a long time, you might want to go back and reuse some old posts and recycle them.  I don’t mean copying it word for word and reposting it.  Take a post, and put a fresh spin on it.  Update it with new law and new rules that applies.  There are a lot of ways to say the same thing.  Sometimes people need to hear it more than one way to understand.  And with law, it’s often incomprehensible the first time around.  Recycling is good for the environment and good for your blog.

A Current Affair

Take current affairs, breaking news stories and interesting articles you’ve read in print or online and talk about them.  Your legal posts don’t always have to do with being in court or negotiating a contract.  Talking about how it applies to real life scenarios and talking about the human element will soften up and lighten up your blog for easier and more interesting reading.

I’ve taken part in several conferences lately where attendees were concerned how far an attorney has to go to safeguard their client’s data.  One specific question that comes up is what about USB drives (otherwise known as thumb drives) and whether after the new law comes into effect, we’re still allowed to carry thumb drives with our client’s information on them.

I present to you the most secure USB drive on the planet – The IronKey.

This thumb drive provides software safeguards as well as hardware safeguards.  It has built-in encryption and password protection.  If after a limited number of incorrectly input passwords, the data contained in the IronKey will self-destruct.  If you try to physically pry the IronKey open, the memory chip will become damaged making all information on the chip inaccessible.  The US military uses the IronKey and if it’s good enough for the Army, it’s good enough for attorneys.

If you, like me, keep all your client files with you on a USB drive at all times, this is the only USB you will (and should) ever buy.

All firms should have an employee manual and workflow developed – even solo practitioners.

For firms of more than one person, it is helpful to get new employees up to speed on operating procedures and office workflow as quickly as possible. It cuts down on the time needed to train the new employee.

For solo practitioners, if you ever hire an intern to help around the office, the employee manual will also help to reduce the time you will need to educate the intern regarding how you run your business.

An employee manual should contain everything you want a new employee or intern to know about your business and what you expect of them. It can include dress code, holiday and vacation times and pay, procedure for opening and closing the office, procedure for answering the phones and how to deal with clients that walk-in, etc.

A workflow is basically a set of instructions for tasks that are done on a regular basis that requires no deviation. In my office, I set up a workflow for how to open and close a new client matter, how to scan using the office scanner, how to print and copy using the scanner, how to print labels and stamps for shipping and even how to put together an uncontested divorce packet.

If you start putting an employee manual and workflow together now, it will save you time down the road when you expand and new employees come in. Contact the Law Office Management Assistance Program at (857) 383-3250 to learn about resources and reference materials that will make developing your office manual easier.

This tip is courtesy of Gabriel Cheong, attorney at law, owner of Infinity Law Group.

You need a mentor – that’s what everyone tells you when you graduate and you’re trying to learn the practice of law.  You need a mentor to show you how to write  a motion, how to format filings to court, how to comply with specific court rules, etc.  As graceous as I found some attorneys were when I first started, it was hard to go to someone all the time and ask what I thought were silly questions.

The StartingOutSolo listserv is a great place to start in asking questions.  We feel free to ask silly questions  because we’ve all been in that situation.  Another place that helped me immensely when I first started was Solosez.  It is a listserv by the American  Bar Association.  You do not need to be a member of the ABA to join the listserv.  Solosez is a listserv of attorneys from all over the country and they will answer any questions you might have on anything related to the practice of law.  Another listserv that I subscribe to is MassForum.  MassForum is very similar to Solosez but instead of attorneys from all over the US, it is confined to only members of the Massachusetts Bar.  I usually post questions I have to both listservs to get more than a couple of opinions and hopefully forms to help me.

If you do sign up for Solosez and/or MassForum, it would be a good idea to create a separate email account just for the listserv because they generate hundreds of emails a day and if you don’t have it separated from your regular inbox, you will soon find it unmanageable.  I recommend using Gmail for the separate email because of Gmail’s sorting and archiving features.

In lieu of having a real mentor, I turned to Solosez and MassForum when I first started.  Without them, I think I would’ve been lost for far longer than I had hoped.