Looking for more and better qualified clients than your current client development strategy is producing? Search engines like Google and Yahoo! have pulled ahead of the printed Yellow Pages as the leading source for local business information. Three out of four Americans now use the Internet on a regular basis. Join a free webcast next Thursday, November 12, to learn how your firm can create an effective Web presence.

The one-hour webcast will show you how to develop your firm's Web site into a valuable marketing tool that will drive more well qualified clients to your firm. Topics to be covered include:

• How consumers are searching for legal help on the Internet
• How to identify and leverage critical components of a Web site
• An evaluation of the different marketing options available and their return on investment

Two highly qualified speakers will provide their insights and practical examples on how to maximize your firm's marketing efforts:

• Caroline Curry Lewis of The Brad Hendricks Law Firm in Little Rock, AR
• Kevin McDugle, a FindLaw Senior Client Development Consultant in Tulsa, OK

"The Basics of Marketing Your Firm Online" is a FREE one-hour webcast and will take place on Thursday, November 12, 2009.

It will be accessible from any computer with internet access.

Register here for the 12PM EST/11AM CST/ 10AM MST/ 9AM PST time slot.
Register here for the 4PM EST/3PM CST/ 2PM MST/ 1PM PST time slot.

Myth #10: Finally, with the banking and mortgage mess, we've had a crisis that won't be blamed on the lawyers.

As evidenced by emergency warning from the California State Bar, it appears that more than a few of the less scrupulous members of our profession have found ways to prey on those in desperate need. Who says lawyers are blood-suckers?

Myth #9: Legal ethics forbids many romantic relationships with clients, but sleeping with a client's spouse will probably not lead to problems.

Respect for the profession, combined with ethical rules barring relationships that create conflicts of interest, seem reason enough to abstain. If not, perhaps a $1.5 million jury verdict on tort and contract claims will make it crystal clear.

Myth #8: The smoking gun email I inadvertently produced can't hurt my client because it's privileged.

Although Rule 502 of the Federal Rules of Evidence attempts to reduce the waiver of privilege through inadvertent production, it won't help you if you don't take reasonable steps to prevent disclosure and promptly attempt to rectify the error. It also can't help you if you are in state court unless the disclosure came in a federal proceeding. Unfortunately, once the black cat is accidentally let out of the bag, it will often bite you.

Myth #7: In my brief, I can minimize any bad facts or contrary law by putting quotation marks around them.

It is tempting to believe that the written equivalent of air-quotes might neutralize bad facts, contrary rulings, or even ideas with which you simply disagree. But as "disbarred" anti-video game activist Jack Thompson taught us, the technique does not always prove "effective."

Myth #6: Even judges can be held to account for taking kickbacks for each juvenile they send to private detention centers... right?

Perhaps not. It looks like judicial immunity might protect Luzerne County Court Judge Mark "Cash for Kids" Ciavarella, along with others, from private suits stemming from what some have called "one of the largest and most serious violations of children's rights in the history of the American legal system."

Professional-services consulting firm Hildebrandt International has released its Law Department Survey for 2009, providing a new set of benchmarking data related to how companies in the U.S. and worldwide are using both inside and outside counsel. This year, 231 companies of all sizes in a variety of industries participated in the survey.

Predictably, the recession of the past year has affected the way companies hire and use outside counsel. However, despite slight declines in spending measured as a percentage of revenue, overall spending on outside counsel grew in the past year. And firms willing to to negotiate alternative billing arrangements might find their way to more outside-counsel work.

Some highlights from the 2009 Hildebrandt Law Department Survey:

Trying to figure out how to make your firm's website stand out? Wondering how to attract qualified clients online? Join a free webcast next Tuesday, October 20, to learn more about standing out from the crowd.

The one-hour webcast will show you how to make more out of your online presence, attract more clients and grow your practice. Topics to be covered include:

• Best practices for creating a powerful law firm brand and differentiating your firm from the competition
• Finding highly qualified clients that match your firm's specialty
• Options for leveraging the latest trends in search engine optimization
• Print directories and the shift to online search

James H. Chalat and Linda J. Chalat, of Chalat Hattan & Koupal, will lead the seminar. Read more, and register, using the links below.


Beyond the Basics -- Standing Out From the Crowd

• FREE one-hour webcast
• Accessible from any computer with internet access
• Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Register here for the 11AM CDT time slot

Register here for the 3PM CDT time slot

So maybe it can't save all the BigLaw jobs, or address the crazy debt law students are taking on. But the ABA is at least trying to put a little positive spin on the recession with its "Legal Rebels" project.

Subtitled "Remaking the Profession," the project is part website, part social-media experiment, and part participatory recognition program. Run by the ABA Journal, Legal Rebels has begun posting on its website profiles of 50 legal professionals who it says are remaking the industry, helping along the "fundamental changes" being wrought by the current recession.

The first ten or so profiles are already up at the Legal Rebels site. Those profiled so far include a pioneer in using the internet to deliver legal services; the dean of Northwestern's law school; and the founder of a service that aims to place law students into contract clerk positions at firms.

The project also promises a Legal Rebels Tour starting later this month, which will include lots of Twitter and Facebook updates, live webcams, interviews and podcasts, and more content from personal visits to some of the selected Rebels. The ABA is also encouraging nominations for people to fill out its list of 50.

Adding to the participatory fun: a "manifesto" on which all attorneys are invited to place their digital signature, allowing them to declare their own legal-rebel-ness. We're not sure to whom, exactly, you would be declaring this, but perhaps some clever attorney somewhere, with clients who would appreciate the help of a self-declared "rebel," can figure out a useful marketing spin.

The Federal Trade Commission is on a mission to control identity theft. But the American Bar Association says that it is overreaching and bringing new and unwarranted federal regulation down upon lawyers, and it has filed a suit to try to stop the enforcement of new FTC rules.

The FTC has been planning for some time to implement the so-called "Red Flags Rule," which will require covered businesses to put in place certain safeguards against the theft of their customers' identities. The underlying legislation, and therefore the FTC rules, mandate that "creditors" be subject to the rules.

So your firm has a website, but now you're thinking about how to get the site noticed. Maybe you're even thinking about your web presence beyond your site. If you're thinking it's time to find an online marketing partner to help you handle all this, there are a few things you'll want to consider. Here are four questions you might want to ask as you consider your online marketing strategy.

1. How will you develop content on your firm's site?
Search engine algorithms usually put a lot of weight on whether a website contains new and original content. The more new content that goes up, the better your site's ranking in search results is likely to be. So you will want to have a plan to add new and relevant content -- blog posts, articles on legal topics, videos, or the like. Think about the kind of content-production plan you can put in place.

2. Are you considering your overall web presence?
Your firm's web presence will inevitably extend beyond your firm's website: to various directories, consumer review sites, and of course social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. How will you use these sites to brand your firm? How will you address the things, both positive and negative, that other people have to say about you on the web?

Consider yourself deterred.

Two former lawyers were handed hefty federal prison sentences on Monday for stealing settlement funds from their clients. William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham had represented over 400 clients in a drug-injury lawsuit against pharmaceutical company American Home Products (now Wyeth) over fen-phen diet drugs.

Gallion and Cunningham were sentenced to 25 and 20 years, respectively, after their convictions for fraud and conspiracy.

When the attorneys agreed to a $200 million settlement with AHP, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, they would have been entitled to a fee in the neighborhood of $60 million. Instead, they kept the settlement amount secret and managed to set aside over $100 million for themselves and others.

Internet-based materials are more and more commonly cited in all kinds of legal documents, including judicial opinions. One problem raised by this practice is the ephemeral nature of web pages, which often change URLs or simply disappear with little or no notice. At the same time, there is obvious value in seeking out and citing relevant information on the web.

To help judges resolve this tension, the Judicial Conference of the United States has released recommendations to the federal courts on how to handle internet-based materials.

After a six-month pilot project conducted by the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (CACM), during which court librarians collected and examined citations to web-based resources in opinions, the conference developed its guidelines.

The CACM broadly recommends that judges at least consider some form of preservation for all internet-based materials cited in their opinions. Among the recommendations for handling internet case citations:

• Download a copy of a cited web page and include it as an attachment in the Case Management/Electronic Case Files System. From here, the page could be made retrievable via PACER
• Keep in mind that not all litigants have computer access
• Try to avoid linking directly to commercial databases, to avoid the appearance of an endorsement; and provide an appropriate disclaimer where such links are necessary

Additional resources:

• Internet Materials in Opinions: Citations and Hyperlinking (The Third Branch)
• Judicial Conference of the United States Homepage

Here's a way to work around recession-ravaged travel budgets, and actually get in front of your clients, or go to a trade show or bar association meeting. JetBlue will be offering a sort of frequent-flier buffet next month, launching the "All-You-Can-Jet Pass." So badly does JetBlue want you in the air that they are offering the equivalent of a bus pass for air travel: $599 allows you to fly anywhere JetBlue goes, anytime from September 8 to October 8.

You'll just have to book a flight at least 3 days in advance, and off you go. Cancellation fees and penalties apply in pretty much the standard fashion, with one addition: no-showing for a flight will get your pass suspended until you pony up a $100 penalty. (We're pretty sure that never happens with bus passes.)