Home Office Lawyer

Blogging? Again, why aren't you?

Below is my response to a recent thread on a list I am on.

"Uncredited sources", perhaps and perhaps not. Most if not all of the items I include in my Home Office Lawyer Blog comes from others in the field. Examples, My Shingle, Greatest American Lawyer and The Practice to just name three. And my own experiences as a solo that practices out of his home. While I would consider Foonberg's book still valuable. Don't discount blogging as only a source of uncredited articles and post.

Not only are LPM blogs such as those above mentioned a great source of information. Niche practice blogs are a great source of business. And solos are leading the charge in the use of this great marketing tool. In addition, blogging has opened up a great source for networking with others in the same area of practice and same office setup that was not available when I first started practicing only 8 short years ago.

Blogging a niche or even a general practice blog is one of the methods we can use to provide FREE information to the general public about our area of practice. It is a way to answer questions the public may have about their particular legal question at any given moment. Even if it might be 2:00 a.m. Lets not discount our duty to provide information to the pubilc. No longer should we shield ourselves behind those self proclaimed ivory towers that so many in our profession have erected. No longer should our office lobbies be the best and nicest things our clients see.

We have the opportunity to show the public that we lawyers have changed the way we practice, provide information and bill. And it is bloggers and especially solos that are leading the way.

Recently the Futurelawyer had the following post about this very subject, called A blog shows that we are not stuffy old law firms.

Blogs are reaching lawyers all over the world, and this discussion points out the competing viewpoints. Each lawyer who reads this blog has a particular expertise, and a blog can help you to acquire a broader presence and give you a soapbox for your expertise. Even the FutureLawyer blog, although aimed at lawyers and paralegals, has attracted readers who are or have become clients of the firm. What is your expertise? Why aren't you blogging about it? Does your firm have a blog? Lawyers are not known for being shrinking violets. We put our ideas and abiliites on the line all the time. Believe me, blogging is a lot easier than talking to a jury.

We have the opportunity to provide information to the public in a form that is easy to navigate and they understand. In my humble opinion, we have an obligation if not a duty to do so.

Kevin O'Keefe touched on this some months ago when he stated the following:

Legal education via blogs serves the public and lawyers

No doubt the public is starved for legal information. That's the case whether a sophisticated corporate client or a consumer. Both distrust lawyers with most only contacting a lawyer as a last resort. Why not give the public what they want? That's free reliable legal information on the Internet - from lawyers, of all people. Americans go to the Internet for everything else.

It's sound marketing to improve the image of the legal profession. The better the reputation of lawyers and the more people see, via a blog, what lawyers offer, the more likely they are to hire lawyers. Anyone that gets out in front in improving the image of our profession by providing legal information on the Internet sticks out like a shining star. Shining stars doing good things for people get work.

So, I will ask the question again, why aren't you blogging?

Lawyers and blogging go together

Cameron Stracher in today's WSJ ($): 'According to a survey conducted by blogads.com, lawyers ranked fourth among both readers and posters to blogs. Many of the best- known blogs, such as instapundit.com, are run by lawyers. It's easy to understand why blogging attracts the J.D. set: Few professions combine as much creative talent with so much mind-numbing work.'

Also discusses Wonkette, Opinionistas lawyers turned fiction writers and recommends that a happy lawyer should start a blog about their work.

Source for Post techlawadvisor.com.

Computer on the golf course

While I have not taken it this far, YET. Future Lawyer had an interesting post today called, Golf and the Law - Computer Solution.

I see myself doing this. In fact I take my iBook everywhere I go. So why not the golf course? However, the others I play golf with my not appreciate me doing this. But, our clients have come to expect almost immediate service and results. And technology has enabled even a solo, home office practicing attorney like myself to do just that.

Technorati Tags:
Telecommute, Solotips

GAL's Paperless Office

One of my favorite blogs is The Great American Lawyer.

Recently he posted a response to a comment of mine where I requested he provide information about his move to a paperless office. Instead of butchering it I decided to paste the entire post here and provide a link to it also here. This is just an awesome story of how a solo firm is providing great service to his clients by taking advantage of technology that is available to all of us. Thanks to the GAL for providing this response to one of my comments.

We implemented our paperless office using the technology listed here:

HP MFP (Scanner, Fax, Copier), Airspace Secure Wireless, Networks, MS Office, Copernic Desktop Search, Adobe Professional Software, Nitro Professional Software & Leap File.

We don't use a database tool between our scanner and our file server such as Worldox. We experimented with some products similar to Worldox but found that we simply didn't need that piece to the puzzle right now. We scan the documents in, mostly as images in order to reduce file size. We use a document routing coversheet in order to identify each and every activity that has to occur with that file (I'll post the coversheet in an upcoming post). That document routing coversheet indicates where the document gets filed, what calendaring activities need to occur with it, whether it gets uploaded into the extranet, every person the file gets disseminated to by email, mail or fax, and all to-do items associated with that piece of paper. Essentially, we really work the paper at the front door. Instead of just simply shifting it from one in box to another out box, we find out everything that is important about that piece of paper, capture that information and make sure that piece of paper gets everywhere it needs to go. All to-do items flowing out of that piece of paper are captured at this first critical stage.

Law firm websites below average?

I find Kevin O'Keefe's recent post about Law Firm Websites Below Average troubling.

As Kevin points out:

it's disappointing to think law firms which have so much to gain by sharing helpful information with their target audience, lag behind so many other industries as to content.

We have the opportunity to provide free information to the public on any question they have concerning legal areas all over the United States. This has always been one of my main reasons and goals of the Kansas Family Law Blog.

If you make an effort to organize a well designed blog so information is easy to find. Provide excellent content and links to additional content, you can meet that same goal and purpose yourself. We should strive as an industry to provide helpful information to our target audience. And we should be proud to do just that.

WOW!!! This is so cool.

WOW!!! This is so cool. I posted this from my new Treo 650. I will provide post soon about the Treo.

Certified Email?

Here is a question I posted today on the Kansas Family & Divorce Lawyer. I am cross-posting it here as I would love to get your comments and viewpoint on this topic. Is this something we might see and would it work? How would we actually certify the person receiving the "certified email" is actually the person it is meant for?

There has been a lot of talk lately about charging senders of bulk email fees to guarantee preferred delivery of their messages. Including this article at the LocalTechWire.com.

Here's my question. If there is such a thing as a program called, email e-stamp. Would it be possible or even feasible to send certified emails like we send certified snail mail? Might it be possible to serve divorce papers via certified emails?

Think about it. We send an envelop in the mail. All we do is put document within another piece of paper, lick the flap, put a stamp on it and place that little green card on it. Stick it in a metal box and wait for a reply to come back saying the other party received it. Again, if we have the email e-stamp program, why not stick an email in our out-box, attach a document to it, send it via our email e-stamp and ask that a return receipt be sent.

Certified email? Seems like its day is coming.

Technorati Tags:
e-stamp, Certified Email

Virtual Paralegal & Getting Things Done

One of the ways that I can provide the service I want to my clients is by using a virtual paralegal. My paralegal was with me when I had a downtown office. She now works at home via email, fax and lots of digital dictation and PDF's. She is not an employee, but is an independent contractor.

I use an Olympus DS-330 to do my dictation. Once the dictation is done, I save it to my computer in a file folder called Transcription. The DS-330 comes with the software to load on the computer for transferring the file from the 330 to my iBook. I than attached the .wav file to an email and send it off to my paralegal.

My paralegal than opens the file with a great software package that even includes the equipment to transcript the file to the document required. Start Stop Universal transcription system is a complete system. Including the software, foot-pedal and earphones.

The file is transcribed and emailed by my paralegal to me in proof form. I than proof, make any changes necessary, print it and do with it what needs to be done. If at all possible, I never print the document, since I can sign them with my computer by pasting my signature into the document. I fax file when I can and fax letters when I can. Or attach them to emails if possible. This is just one step in working towards the paperLESS office.

This system works great. What is even better is I can dictate anywhere I am and email documents to my paralegal as long as I have wifi. And I can retrieve them from my email and, again do with them what needs to be done.

My next purchase will be a Canon Portable printer and of course the Treo 650 I mentioned before.

Technorati Tags:
Paperless Office, PDF, PaperLESS, Telecommute, Treo 650

Ordered a Treo 650

Just don't tell my wife. Anyway, looking at two blogging softwares at this time to use for blogging on the Treo.

The first one is HBlogger. Says it supports Moveable Type. And that is great, since the Kansas Family Law Blog is on MT. Also supports Typepad, which is the platform for this blog.

Mo:Blog is the other one I am looking at. It also supports MT and TP. I will let you all know what my experience is with both.

Since we spend so much time waiting for hearings and sitting around the courtroom. I thought this was a great way to not have to waste that time. My hope is that if some light bulb goes off on some great idea, I will be able to blog about it on the spot.

It is also my understanding that I can use my new Treo as a Bluetooth Modem with a certain amount of tweaking. That would be great since my iBook is Bluetooth ready.

Would love to hear from others of how you use your Treo and if you have any experience with a blogging program for it.

Technorati Tags:
Blogging, Palm, Treo 650

Blogging Spam

Did someone open the spamming doors today at Typepad? Just this morning I have received 6 request for Trackbacks from spammers. In the past, I would receive maybe one or two a week.

Hope this is not a trend with my Typepad blogs.