November 2011 Archives

Goodbye 2011, hello 2012! Did you know the New Year marks a great chance to share your legal thoughts and predictions with your friends and followers? We've already gone over writing Holiday-centric posts that discuss the legal issues surrounding the end of the year. Another end of the year social media topic to discuss on your blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts are your end of the year predictions and recaps.

Take to your social media outlets to look back on the major legal happenings in the past year and look forward to what you think the trends will be for the year ahead. Make your content user-friendly and conversational rather than riddled with legal jargon and feel free to touch on legal issues beyond your direct practice area. Here's a look at how you can approach the end of the year on your blog, Facebook and Twitter.

Millions of motorists will take to the road for holiday travel. Whether you're driving around the corner, or over the river and through the woods, you're more likely to be stopped for speeding during the holidays because there are more officers patrolling the roads.

Before you hit the highway, consider these tips from FindLaw.com on what to say and do if you get stopped for speeding:

We continue our Friday round-up of what is newest, best and brightest at FindLaw.com. Below, you will find this week’s offerings from various areas of FindLaw’s unique content, including: core legal content, blogs, news and case law. Take a look at what’s new:

FindLaw Blogs

• Prop 8 Standing: Proponents Have Right to Appeal Says Court: A closely watched opinion by the California Supreme Court seems to have cleared the way for a legal battle over same-sex marriage to continue in federal court. FindLaw’s Decided breaks down the high court’s advisory opinion, and how it could have far-reaching effects despite its non-binding nature.

The holidays are upon us. You've already started making travel arrangements, thinking about gifts, and coordinating get-togethers with family and friends. You do the same thing every year for the exact same reason: planning now makes execution easier later. That logic can also apply to estate planning.

Many people avoid thinking about death or dying - approximately 60 percent of Americans do not have wills according to a recent FindLaw.com survey - but estate planning is a selfless act that will make life easier for your loved ones when you're gone.

Social media isn't just a Silicon Valley buzzword that drives Internet advertising sales; it's the smart consumer's due diligence resource, and the smart attorney's client development tool.

At FindLaw, we use social media to connect consumers and attorneys with the legal information they need. Now, we're offering a free, educational webcast to teach attorneys how to use social media to build a reputation and grow their businesses. If you aren't sure how social media fits into your firm's client development efforts, then make a plan to participate in this webcast and start connecting with the 148 million people who will use social media this year in the U.S.*

We continue our Friday round-up of what is newest, best and brightest at FindLaw.com. Below, you will find this week's offerings from various areas of FindLaw's unique content, including: core legal content, blogs, news and case law. Take a look at what's new:

FindLaw Blogs

• Police May Be Able to Secretly Monitor Your Phone: Police tracking of cell phones has become a more common tactic, but its reception in court is in question. Some jurisdictions say police must have a warrant, while others limit the practice to certain data like a cell phone's location. We reach out and touch on the controversy in FindLaw's Law and Daily Life.

Your firm may have a website, but do you know if it is optimized for search engines? Optimizing a website starts with learning how to grade your site. Would you know what factors to use?

You should. The performance of your attorney website is critical to your success, after all.

FindLaw's Web Audit Tool knows what kind of grade your site deserves. In fact, the tool may be exactly what you need to take your law firm marketing to the next level.

All around the country, lawyers are doing legal work for indigent clients. They provide their legal expertise to needy clients — and they do it for free. You’ve probably heard of the phrase pro bono, which is short for the Latin pro bono publico which means “for the public good.”

This is honorable, valuable volunteer work. In fact, lawyers everywhere just marked Pro Bono Week at the end of October. It is in that spirit we are proud to tell you about the annual Super Lawyers Pro Bono Award.

Do you know of someone who did exceptional pro bono legal work in 2011?

We continue our Friday round-up of what is newest, best and brightest at FindLaw.com. Below, you will find this week’s offerings from various areas of FindLaw’s unique content, including: core legal content, blogs, news and case law. Take a look at what’s new:

Legal Blogs

• Can I Be Fired for Taking Part in Occupy Protests?: As the nationwide “Occupy” protests continue well into a second month, should participants worry about getting fired from their jobs for taking part in anti-corporate actions? As FindLaw’s Law & Daily Life points out, an employer may view an employee’s civil disobedience as violating their company’s code of conduct. But there are also some laws in place that may work to protect employees who take their convictions to the streets.

Consumers turn to FindLaw.com, the Internet's top source for legal information, at the first sign of a problem. For consumers looking for direction on a specific issue, FindLaw Answers offers consumers an interactive platform to find the information or legal representation they need.

Posting a question to the FindLaw Answers community is easy. Consumers start their search on FindLaw Answers by browsing by topic to determine if a previous visitor has received an answer to similar question. Consumers who have unique questions can post new questions.

Welcome to another post from our "Meet the FindLaw Team" series. "Meet the FindLaw Team" provides insight into the day-to-day lives of our colleagues. Today we feature FindLaw Legal Content Strategist Brita Schemmel. Get to know Brita by reading about her experiences at FindLaw below.

What is your current title?

Legal Content Strategist