Law Practice Management and Technology - The Chicago Bar Association

Managing LinkedIn Endorsements and Optimizing Your Profile

Catherine Reach — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:16:52 +0000

During Membership Appreciation Week here at the Chicago Bar Association I put on a program on how to optimize your LinkedIn profile. One question that came up was about the new endorsements of your skills and expertise listings. If you are interested in managing that area of your profile take a look at this short video. If you would like to see the entire program it is now online, free for Chicago Bar Association Members.

You may also want to take a look at a recent article from Attorney at Work titled “Should Lawyers Connect with Competitors?” and note the links to other pertinent articles on lawyers’ use of LinkedIn at the end of the article.

CBA LPMT Co-Sponsors LOMAP Third Annual Marketing Conference

Catherine Reach — Fri, 10 May 2013 14:42:44 +0000

FYI, the Chicago Bar Association Law Practice Management is co-sponsoring the Mass LOMAP annual marketing conference which occurs on May 16.

The ‘Third Annual Super Marketing Conference: Accelerate Your Marketing’ will focus on web marketing. As always, there is an impressive lineup of speakers covering subjects germane to lawyer advertising online. Avvo Founder and CEO Mark Britton will be the keynote speaker, and will address ‘Ten Opportunities Lawyers Miss in Online Marketing’.

Check out full conference agenda.

Interested CBA members can get online access via the Massachusetts Bar Association’s On Demand portal. Select the $49 discount rate for co-sponsoring organizations when you RSVP.

The event page is accessible here: www.lunchhourlegalmarketing.com.

Learning, Food, Prizes: CBA Law Practice Management & Technology Expo

Catherine Reach — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:27:03 +0000

Come by the CBA on Wednesday, May 8, 2013, between 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. to catch up on the latest in law practice management and technology services that can benefit your law practice, including CBA Member Benefit providers, plus participate in free CLE, see product demos, and enjoy food and prizes!

Expo Hall from 10am – 3pm

From 10-3 visit with national and local law practice management, business services, and technology companies in the Law Practice Management & Technology Expo. See more and find out who is coming in the Expo Guide.

Door prizes will include: $100 American Express Gift Card, compliments of Practical Law Company, LLC; iPad Mini, compliments of LexisNexis Firm Manager; Four $25 Starbucks Gift Cards, compliments of LexisNexis Firm Manager; Two Lawyer Career Manuals: (1) Direct Examination, a workbook for lawyer career satisfaction and (2) Ask the Career Counselors, answers for lawyers on their lives and life’s work, compliments of Under Advisement; Software package including WordPerfect Office X6, Perfect Authority and PDF Fusion, compliments of Corel; 12 months free subscription to Smokeball, compliments of Smokeball; Kindle, compliments of AAA; and more!

Complimentary lunch and snacks will be available in the Expo Hall.

Complimentary CLE from 11am-12pm and 1pm-2pm

Join us for complimentary CLE presentations at 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. sponsored by LexisNexis Firm Manager and Practical Law Company.

11am – 12pm - Moneyball for Lawyers: Using Data to Make Your Firm Competitive

Long gone are the days of an “if you build it, they will come” law practice. Today’s potential clients are not only savvier about what specific legal services they need, they’re willing to shop around to ensure they’re getting the biggest bang for the buck. Running a competitive firm these days takes management and marketing skills, sure, but it also takes something many lawyers don’t think of: data analysis. Just as the Oakland A’s used player stats to build a winning team in the hit movie Moneyball, so can lawyers take their firm to new levels with inside data. This webinar will teach you how to look at your firm’s stat sheet in a whole new light—and how to use that information to make sound business decisions. Register Now!

Speaker: Christopher Anderson, LexisNexis Firm Manager

1pm –2pm – This Just In: Keeping Up With Developments in Your Practice Area

Keeping up with cases, codes, regs and news that affects and informs your ability to competently represent your clients can be a daunting task. Come learn about resources and strategies to get “just in time” information and harness it in your law practice. Free and fee-based services provide a focused stream of real-time information that can be accessed via the web and mobile platforms. From do-it-yourself RSS feeds to professionally edited, curated and produced content portals there are ways to maximize your efforts and minimize time when keeping up with current developments. Register Now!

Speakers: Ryan Allen, PLC and Catherine Sanders Reach, Director CBA Law Practice Management & Technology

Product Demonstrations at 9:00am, 9:30am, and 3:00pm

Product demonstrations in Charter Hall (first floor) directly before and after the Expo Hours will give you a chance to sit down and get a focused look at some new and favorite technologies. Come watch and learn more about:

3:00pm- Avvo Ignite Suite marketing platform
9:00am – Corel WordPerfect Office software
9:30am – Smokeball Office document management and assembly

This is but a taste of the festivities during CBA Member Appreciation Week. Check out the full week of festivities and please join us!

Three Ways to Add Pizzazz to Your Firm Website

Catherine Reach — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:28:44 +0000

Law firm websites often have a lot of text rich content, but little in the way of multimedia or graphics. Visitors to a website need something that grabs their attention, tells a story, and delivers it in short, digestible bits. Consider updating and enhancing your site content with some video, infographics and live feeds.

1. Lights, Camera, Action: Video

More and more law firm websites are incorporating video. In addition to using multi-media to add interest and engage your visitors, you can fit a lot of content into a short amount of time that does not require someone to read a long article. It can also highlight the real lawyers in your firm and help introduce them to potential clients. This November 2012 article from the American Bar Association on How Lawyers are Using Video has great information on the basic who/where/how/why of law firm videos. If that doesn’t convince you let’s look at some YouTube statistics:

Over 800 million unique users per month
More than 20% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices
500 years of YouTube videos are watched every day on Facebook, and over 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter each minute

A YouTube channel is free. Creating good looking videos will likely require getting help from a videographer. Or, if you want to create educational videos that are a little more “fun’ you can use sites like goanimate.com or www.xtranormal.com to create an animated video using your own script.

2. Learning Is Fun: Infographics

Infographics are the new way to communicate complex information in a visually appealing way. It takes charts and graphs and punches them up for today’s graphics oriented and attention deficient audience. Companies like Visual.ly let you subscribe to the service and request a custom infographic through their marketplace. For attorneys looking to add some visual punch to their websites or blogs, the over 25,650 infographics in 27 categories can also be embedded in your website. Simply find one that speaks to your target audience and grab the code. For instance, if you represent green companies you could add a “going green at the office” infographic or if you want to let your clients know to keep their social media presence curbed you could add the “Privacy Fail: Concerns that Face Facebook Users” infographic.

3. Keep It Fresh: Social Media Feeds

Clients not into Twitter? No problem! If you tweet, and wish more of your clients and potential clients were on Twitter, you might want to take a look at Twylah. Twylah, currently in invitation only beta, is a free (for now) service that turns your tweets into a beautiful, customizable web page with subject groupings, graphics and more. What might have looked like gibberish, or too much information to non-tweeting clients and colleagues is now beautifully arranged and shows your tweets to their best advantage. The easiest way to explain Twylah is to look at an example: http://www.twylah.com/catherinereach .

Additionally, whether your firm is active on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook, it is possible to show the updates to those profiles directly on your website. Your website may not get updated as often as you would like, so this is a way to add some fresh content and interest PLUS provide your website visitors a glimpse at your social media presence.

A law firm’s website is a vital first impression for potential clients. How well does your website reflect your firm? Get a Law Firm Website Review from the Chicago Bar Association’s Law Practice Management & Technology Director. This service will not only report on a site’s content and appearance, but also look at management and organizational issues to help the firm keep the site fresh and current. Take advantage of this objective review for your firm’s website to help provide the best possible reflection of your firm to website visitors.

This article first appeared in CBA Record February/March 2013

Make Mine To Go

Catherine Reach — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:06:52 +0000

You might have heard already, but we are experiencing a mobile revolution. The message from market research companies is loud and clear – mobile web access is growing exponentially. What’s more, Search Engine Watch reports a Google survey of mobile users found that they are five times more likely to abandon the task they are trying to complete if a site isn’t optimized for mobile use, with 79% saying they will go back to search and try to find another site to meet their needs. While this is likely far more true for an ecommerce site or news site than a website for a professional service do you want to risk losing a potential client because your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing? But, you may say, won’t I have to hire a web developer to make a mobile version of my site, pay more money and spend more time? Well, yes, you can go that way but for those who want immediate gratification at a do-it-yourself level then I have a site that might interest you.

Document Assembly for Real Lawyers

Catherine Reach — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:59:22 +0000

“You’ve heard it from just about anywhere technology advice gets spread: Document assembly systems save time, boost productivity, reduce errors—and all while helping to eliminate reinventing the wheel when drafting documents. Sounds fabulous. But are real-life lawyers actually adopting document assembly in their practices? For insights into that—and, better still, tips on how to get the benefits without taking a wallop to the wallet—here’s the scoop from some folks in the know.”

This article in Attorney at Work, featuring interviews with Jim Calloway and Catherine Sanders Reach, outlines the current state of document assembly software and usage in law firms.

Interested in learning more about document assembly? See the archive of the CBA CLE “Smarter, Better, Faster, Document Assembly” and check out the free How To… Automate Functions in MS Word and How to… Control Formatting with MS Word Styles and Templates.

Practice Management Tips and Tricks

Catherine Reach — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:27:52 +0000

Law practice management and technology tips are a great way to get quick shots of information you can use immediately – or tuck away for when you need them. In January I presented a CLE for the CBA on “Tips for the New Year”. Did you miss it? Watch the archived webcast and download the materials for some ideas to keep moving forward this year.

The provenance of the “tips” format may be disputed, but ABA TECHSHOW provides some of the best of the best for lawyers in the form of 60 Sites in 60 Minutes and 60 Tips in 60 Minutes. For a taste of ABA TECHSHOW tips check out this wrap-up of 2012 60 Sites in 60 Minutes. Interested in going to ABA TECHSHOW? The Chicago Bar Association is putting together a SuperPass group for the absolute best rate until March 9 or take advantage of discounts through the Event Promoter registration.

Can’t wait? The March/April issue of Law Practice Magazine is the ABA TECHSHOW issue and the cover story is “13 Tech Tips for 2013″ including tips from past and current speakers – including me! Read the article for some instant gratification.

Choosing a Social Network for Client Development

Catherine Reach — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:31:40 +0000

A question raised by many lawyers who are considering using social media for outreach and client development is, “Which social media platforms should I use?” That question is usually followed by, “How much time should I spend?” And the answer to that question usually results in a wail of, “How much?” As a marketing tool, all social media outlets provide a platform for sharing information and engaging with clients, potential clients and referrals. However, there are ways to target the networks on which to focus your time and attention.

Read more in the March/April issue of Law Practice Magazine’s special ABA TECHSHOW issue.

Set Up Two- Factor Authentication – What Are You Waiting For?

Catherine Reach — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:32:54 +0000

The threat of hackers compromising not only your information, but confidential client files, means it is more urgent than ever to take steps to protect your online accounts and services. Fortunately, two-step authentication makes higher protection easy and seamless for today’s most popular web-based tools and services.

Read the article, appearing in the February 2013 edition of Law Practice Today

Five Ways to Send a Better Email Message

Catherine Reach — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 15:44:49 +0000

We all know that person who constantly sends emails that lack a subject line. Or who sends rambling, lengthy emails that don’t seem to have a point. And there are those who send emails with open ended questions that require a game of email ping pong. You would never do any of those things – would you?

Sending a clear, concise and actionable email is the best way to get a proper response. Here are five ways to make sure your recipients open, read, and respond to your messages.

Read the article at Slaw.ca