Think about it.  Before the internet, many people were at a severe disadvantage as they began the process of considering which law firms to employ.  Markets were perceived as decidedly local for most legal matters.  In small towns, this left potential clients with little information and few choices where decisions were mostly based on perceived reputations.  In medium sized towns, the choices increase slightly, but, all too often, the law firm with the fanciest lobby and biggest building was believed to be the best by default.  In large cities, law firms, both big and small, were everywhere.  Choosing a law firm for many clients was little more than a dart throw and hope that the choice was the right one. 

If a lawyer doesn’t deliver the value promised, the client most certainly won’t return.

The phenomena of social networking, however, can dramatically increase the number of people you are "connected" with.  Old high school friends, relatives located across the country or in other parts of the world.  New friends of friends - facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the other social networking platforms make friendships that would never be possible in the real world possible.  In this way, we are now seeing the Internet contribute to our interrelationships with other people, rather than web pages. 

Let's face it.  Social networking isn't going to change the fact that a single person can sit in a crowded room and shop on eBay oblivious to what's happening around them, or choose to stay in to stay in to surf the net as opposed to going out for drinks with friends.  And social networking still puts you square in front of the computer, but it's nice to see technology contributing to human relations rather than insulating us from it. 

It occurred to me the other day that technology makes perseverance much easier.  Instead of a large number of large things that need to be accomplished in order to make things happen, technology makes success much more accessible.  Technology now ties achievement to the accomplishments of a large number of little things made easier.

Except for the contingency fee lawyer who may choose to represent a person without any financial means, America’s civil courtrooms are dominated by wealthy Americans and wealthy companies.  If that were not bad enough, many lawyers simply get paid to play games in court.  Their goal is to keep cases from reaching the merits of the action, even when they’re the plaintiff.  In many instances, the courtroom is simply another business tool to exert economic leverage over a competitor.  Private arbitration has not proved to be much competition to the near-monopoly that federal and state courts have over dispute resolution.  Until true alternatives to the courtroom become available, civil justice will remain a constitutional right primarily for the rich.

Too many law firms think they have to make a choice between "looking good" - i.e., brochure website - and being an online resource - i.e., blogging.  The reality is that law firm websites can easily do both.  The easiest way to generate content online is through blogging.  This requires lawyers to share their expertise and put effort into showing off on the Web.  Search engines pick up this content.  If the content is truly valuable, other people link to the content.  Google sees a link back each link back as a "for your site", and it is important.  Over time, these single web posts, which have their own URLs called permalinks, become the landing pages for website visitors looking for specific information.  These visitors see you as a resource.  Visitors who are simply looking for information about their problem realize that you are the one who can solve their problem.

Once you have become a resource, you must do what lawyers are sometimes hesitant to do.  You must ask that web visitor to contact you in a way that is conspicuous and inviting.  We have added pictures of our lawyers to our most highly trafficked web pages.  We have a chat application, which invites visitors on our website for greater than 30 seconds to chat with one of our legal professionals online.  We include our phone number on every web page on our site.

If you want to start obtaining web traffic and converting that web traffic into clients, you need to focus on content and make it easy for website visitors to contact you.  Take a look at your website.  See if it accomplishes both of those goals.

But it is a damn good question.  Both men and women would be happier if they could figure out the answer to this seemingly simple question.

I can only answer the question on behalf of myself.  A well journeyed, perhaps brilliant in certain ways, 45 year old, once retired attorney, changing the way law is practiced from a small Northern Michigan town named Traverse City.  I hesitate to say that I am married because I tend to think of my relationship as something more than that.  I have three boys: 11, 9, and 7, Echo Storm, Fielding Mars and Apollo North respectively.  I tend to think that I was put here on earth to make people think.  With my father’s sense of irreverence and defiance confirmed inside me, I set about my day with the effect of causing the world to think.  I used to think that I was a lightning bolt.  I was almost a tree for decade.  But I am back being the lightning bolt, although this time I feel pretty good about things. 

I’m quite ashamed to say that, for all of my talk about being a high-tech law firm, I am only now setting up two monitors for my laptop computer at work.  There is no doubt, no controversy and no contrary argument to the simple fact that two monitors are better than one.

Two monitors allow you to eliminate the amount of scrolling and window switching and allows you to mix and match your browsers as well as help organize your desktop and increase productivity.  Here are some great articles on the benefits of using two monitors:

Tips & Tweaks: Two Monitors Are Way Better Than One, Steve Bass - PCWorld.com

Forget the new PC, get a second monitor, Jonathan Blum, FSB contributor - CNN.Money.com

3 Efficiency Tips for Using Dual Monitors, Samual Dean - Web Worker Daily

Two monitors are better than one (for efficiency that is), Alec Satin - blog.alecsatin.com

Given the productivity gains, isn’t time you joined me by setting up two monitors for your work computer? The return on investment is obvious…

Now as an attorney, I have, just like every other attorney, two schools to which I pledged my collegiate experience.  First, there was my undergraduate work at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.  Second, there was my three years of law school at Michigan State University College of Law.  When I graduated from Miami, I immediately became a lifetime member of the alumni association.  However, I have not been very active since that time.  Recognizing that, I decided to become extremely active with my law school by joining the board of Michigan State University College of Law.  Although I have just finished my first meeting and I am in my first month of what will be two consecutive three year terms, I already can tell that I will be able to make a great difference and properly represent the school.

I’ve lived life rich.  I’ve lived life poor.  I am here to tell you.  Life is about the same at both ends of the spectrum.  There is good and bad in everything.  The best things in life are found in nature and they are free.

Perhaps I know better than most that so many of the things we think are critical to our existence really aren’t.  The risks we think are so huge really aren’t that big at all.  Our kids can put themselves through college if necessary.  If you make less money, you simply live on less.  People die.  Somehow, some way life manages to go on.  The business model of our law firm is unique in many ways.  Each fundamental change made to the business model required a leap of faith – an assumption of the risk.  I have a fundamental bias in favor of change.  So when people ask me for advice, my inclination is to tell them to jump off the edge of the cliff, number one.  Number two, I tell them that they will in all likelihood turn out okay and, on a good day, way better. 

I encourage all my attorney friends out there to think about what risks they’re willing to take in order to create something better.  Challenge yourself this week and next to push the envelope, advocate for change and take risks.  My guess is you’ll end up better than okay.