Recently in For Legal Professionals Category

For many small law firms and solo practitioners, search engine optimization means simply showing up at the top of an Internet search-results list.

But to truly get the results you're after -- i.e., to turn website visitors into paid clients -- you'll need much more than a high page rank. And that's where FindLaw's lawyer marketing team can help.

Just ask Scott Shockney, one of FindLaw's senior SEO strategists. His main goal, as he describes it: to "deliver some fresh 'awesome' to the client."

Want to meet the person behind some of the great FindLaw blogs you enjoy reading every day? Well now you can.

For a start, meet Robyn Hagan Cain, the snarky fashionista attorney turned blogger behind some of our most popular legal professional blogs. Writing as many as nine blogs in a single day, Hagan Cain's writing process is helped along by triple-shot espressos and motivation from her beloved pooch Braxley. And you will find all that out and more when you follow her on Twitter via the link below any of her blogs.

Bootcamp can produce amazing results.

No, we're not talking about the real-deal military bootcamp; we're referring to the hard core fitness craze that involves squats, lunges, and pushups, in the sweltering heat or pouring rain. It's a crash course in fitness for your body.

FindLaw has its own version of bootcamp. Here, we call it writing case summaries. Take a minute to peruse the 85,000 FindLaw case summaries on our Legal Professionals website, and you'll understand why.

FindLaw has tons of free legal information for lawyers and lay people, everyone knows that. We also have tons of other great resources on our website. Did you know that we have 4 national blogs devoted entirely to legal professionals? Each is focused on different aspects of the law and legal life. They inform, entertain and update legal professionals on the latest happenings in law.

If you are a young attorney or law student then you will love our Greedy Associates blog. Filled with updates about life in BigLaw and tips for surviving your first years out of law school, Greedy Associates is updated throughout the work week for your reading pleasure. In House is a blog written for corporate counsel (or any attorney thinking of making the switch).

Law school is enjoyable but demanding. You'd think after three years of hitting the books and participating in internships, externships, mock trials and everything in between newly-minted esquires would be ready to hit the ground running.

Wrong.

Very few attorneys, new or old, actually know how to manage a law firm. I know coming out of law school I knew nothing about legal fees and everything about famous (and mostly deceased) Supreme Court Justices. Sure our research skills are stellar, but very few attorneys know the business side of running a law practice.

Enter FindLaw's newly re-launchedLaw Firm Management Center.

Thousands of legal professionals rely on FindLaw everyday to look up cases, statutes and legal information. Now all those attorneys, paralegals and law students have another place to meet up and interact with FindLaw: on Facebook.

We are excited to announce that the site now has a Facebook presence with the newly launched FindLaw for Legal Professionals page!

How can I attract better qualified clients to my firm in this economy?

What can I do to improve my online marketing?

Does it make a difference who builds my website?

This free online seminar will cover important and timely information on marketing your law firm in a challenging economy and competitive marketplace. It is designed for lawyers that already have a website and would like to learn more about enhancing the performance of their site to make it stand out from the competition and drive more clients to their firm. This seminar will present need-to-know information that can help you grow your practice in the most challenging of times.

Topics Include:

Google, and other search engines like Yahoo! and MSN, have pulled ahead of printed Yellow Pages as the leading source for local business information. Today, three out of four Americans use the Internet on a regular basis as the starting point for researching and evaluating professional services such as attorneys.

FindLaw is offering free one hour Lawyer Marketing webcasts in May and June to teach the basics for marketing your law firm. The session will provide insights and practical examples from real-world legal professionals and marketing experts on how to maximize your firm's online marketing efforts. 

In this webcast you will learn how: 

• Consumers are using the internet to search for attorneys
• To evaluate different marketing options available and their return on investment (ROI)
• To identify and leverage critical components of a Web site.

 

Register Today to Attend this Free Educational Webcast

Thursday
May 21, 2009
9:00 a.m. PST/Noon EST Register for this Webcast

OR

1:00 p.m. PST/4:00 p.m. EST Register for this Webcast

Wednesday
June 3, 2009
7:00 a.m. PST/10:00 p.m EST - Register for this Webcast

OR

Noon PST/3:00 p.m. EST - Register for this Webcast

FEATURED SPEAKERS for May 21st

Joseph Klest
Klest Law Firm Managing Partner
Chicago, IL
www.chicagotriallaw.com

Joseph Klest is the Managing Partner at Klest Law Firm with locations in Chicago, Schaumburg, and the suburbs of Chicago. Mr. Klest has over twenty-eight years of experience representing clients in a variety of personal injury claims, including motor vehicle accidents, dangerous products, medical malpractice, workplace accidents, sexual abuse, and other accidents. Mr. Klest has spoken at several conferences and has numerous published articles related to his areas of practice. Mr. Klest earned his JD from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago, IL.

Susan Richards
FindLaw Senior Client Development Consultant
Chicago, IL
www.chicagolawyermarketing.com

Susan Richards is a Senior Client Development Consultant with FindLaw. Ms. Richards works in Chicago, Illinois, and surrounding suburbs consulting with clients to develop customized Web marketing solutions that fit their needs and their budget. She assists law firm with various marketing needs, from one-page Web sites to fully developed Web properties, these solutions include the most recent innovations in marketing for law firms. Her clients Web sites incorporate Web marketing strategies developed specifically for law firms.

FEATURED SPEAKERS for June 3rd

Tim Monsees
Monsees, Miller, Mayer, Presley & Amick
Founding Attorney
Kansas City, MO
www.mmmpalaw.com

Tim Monsees is the Founding Attorney of Monsees, Miller, Mayer, Presley & Amick, a Kansas City Missouri firm specializing in personal injury cases. In over 20 years of practice, he has worked for law firms specializing in defense of insurance companies and product manufacturers. He now uses this experience to better know his opponents while restricting his practice to representation of victims of wrongdoing. Mr. Monsees is a graduate of the University of Missouri at Columbia where he attended both undergraduate and law school.

Dennis Ensor
FindLaw
Senior Client Development Consultant
Kansas City, MO
www.missouri-lawyermarketing.com

Dennis Ensor is a Senior Client Development Consultant with FindLaw. He has been assisting lawyers in Missouri for more than five years with their client development strategies. Mr. Ensor has worked with all sizes of firms, from solo practitioners to firms with many lawyers. These law firms have all had success with their Web sites in all practice areas, ranging from Personal Injury and Criminal Defense to Family Law, Estate Planning, Business Transactions and even Defense Firms. Mr. Ensor specializes in tailoring online marketing solutions to law firm's needs.  

Each month, throngs of legal professionals return to FindLaw.com in search of the legal court cases and codes they need for their work. You would probably expect the most publicized legal topics, unusual criminal cases, or important landmark issues of our day would be the most popular. Occassionally however, an unexpected or unheard of case can have far-reaching implications on the daily practice of law.

Here are FindLaw's eight most searched US Supreme Court Cases so far this year:

1. District of Columbia v. Heller (2007)
Topic: Gun Control, Second Amendment, Right to Bear Arms

2. Abdus-Shahid M. S. Ali v. Federal Bureau of Prisons (2007)
Topic: Federal Tort Claims Act, Sovereign Immunity, Law Enforcement Officer

3. Tum v. Barber Foods (2005)
Topic: Compensable Time, Fair Labor Standards Act, Portal-to-Portal Act, Employment Law

4. Grutter v. Bollinger (2002) 
Topic: Affirmative Action, Equal Protection, Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

5. Arizona v. Gant (2007)
Topic: Criminal Law & Procedure, Fourth Amendment

6. FCC v. Fox Television Station (2008)
Topic: Communications Law, Broadcasts, Profanity, Federal Communications Commission, Administrative Law, 18 U.S.C. section 1464

7. Board of Education of the City of New York v. Tom F. (2006)
Topic: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Tuition Reimbursement, Special Education

8. Meddelinn v. Texas (2006)
     Topic: Capital Cases, International Law, Presidential Authority, State Courts

Related Supreme Court Topics:
Who are the US Supreme Court Justices? (FindLaw)

History of  the Supreme Court (FindLaw)