Author: JMF

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Twitter Weekly Updates for 2011-11-13

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Book Review: “The Big Red Fez, How To Make Any Website Better”, by Seth Godin

Disclaimer:  this “book” is nearly ten years old.  Furthermore, it probably shouldn’t be qualified as a “book” given that it is really an “ebook” with a new cover slapped on it.  But, it’s worth a read if you – like me – are developing a lawyer website and starting a law firm.

I’m no guru and I’m still learning about building a markatable website.  It’s fun, but I’m a newbie.  I’ve learned some stuff and I’m going to share it – FREE! (did i sell you?).

Here is another marketinging technique – summing up the book in one easy sentence: “when designing a website, make it simple, right leaning, and show the viewer where you want them to go.”  Essentially, as Mr. Godin posits:  show the monkey where to find the banana.

Every website has a theme of some kind.  Most lawyer website are designed to be quasi-informational but, more importantly, call the potential client to action.  Thus, the banana of lawyer websites (generally) is the “call me” or “contact me” portion.

To be fair, some lawyer websites are less about selling the “call me” banana.  For instance, I would guess that big law isn’t all that interested in people calling them off the street.  Rather, they would like to show off there impressive website with the listing of lots of impressive looking attorney names.  Maybe that is the prestige banana?

As I stated, Mr. Godin originally wrote the ebook in 2002 or thereabout.  The ebook then became a real book which can now be bought.  However, in 2002, many websites were just getting off the ground.  A lot of them were bad.  Furthermore, there was no concern about sizing the websites so they were easily viewable by smartphones.

Basically, the banana has changed a bit.  It may be true that Mr. Godin’s book influenced website designers to such an extent that many websites are now much better at selling the banana than they were in 2002.  I think back to some of the websites I used to visit ten years ago and I can’t help but laugh.

In sum, if you are designing a law firm website without professional help (like me), you can’t go wrong by reading this book.  At the least, it makes you think in terms of proper design and clearly selling what you want to sell.  The book costs $4.00 used, so you don’t need to worry if you buy it and realize it’s a little soft on the substance.

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Learning How to Practice Law Again

Confession:  I had a bit of a breakdown this weekend when I realized how much work I have to do before I can open-up-shop and start practicing law again.   Calling it overwhelming would be an understatement.  Luckily, I have the greatest person I have ever met to listen to me in my dark moments:  my wife.

After discussing a myriad of concerns with her about how impossible it was to get everything done, I realized that my main concern right now is competency.  I’m a licensed attorney in Indiana, but I am hoping to be admitted to the Minnesota Bar in the relatively near future.  Until I am licensed in Minnesota, I have been doing the whatever due diligence work I can to get ready.  In other words, I need to train myself all over again.  Furthermore,  I cannot begin taking on cases in Minnesota unless I can competently handle the issue.  As I’ve discussed, my main practice area is and has been family law.  I’ve done a smattering of other legal work, but I feel the most comfortable saying I know what I am doing in family law.

However, I practiced for nearly four years in Indiana.  Indiana has different laws and different rules.  Indiana has different courts.  Indiana has different forms, filing fees, deadlines, etc, etc.  I could go on.

It is true that laws are very similar in many states.  However, I know from practicing law that the bar exam and law school doesn’t teach you how to be a competent practicing attorney.  I thought I was getting good at my job in Indiana, but Minnesota has different forms, rules, law, procedures, courts, etc.  It is scary.

In light of this, I have come to the conclusion that I have two options: (1) join a law firm, get Minnesota-centric experience, build a network, and then open a law practice, or (2) go to the law library and read, read, read, gain competency in the details, and then start a law firm.

At this point, I am going with option 2.  After I teach myself, I will talk to as many local attorneys as I can and, possibly, do a unpaid internship of sorts.  Also, as I stated in my previous post, I’m looking into trying to find a family law mentor of some kind.

Luckily, I have a couple of friends who practice family law close by.  I plan to pump them for as much information as I can.  Also, I remembered today that divorce pleadings are typically matters of public record.  I simply need to go to a courthouse and find a completed dissolution of marriage file and review the pleadings – preferably a case handled by a good, experienced lawyer.  I used this trick often in Indiana.  When in doubt, go look at the quality work of those that have gone before you.

Learning the law over again is not fun.  It is especially not fun when you have already learned one jurisdiction’s law.  But, it is necessary.

After practicing law for a little while I know that I have my client’s lives in my hands.  I cannot fail to meet the burden of that trust.  I cannot be incompetent.  If, after trying to teach myself the finer points of Minnesota practice, I don’t feel I am competent to handle family law work, I’m not going to start a law firm.  End of story.

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Lawyer Mentoring Programs: Where Are They?

I have spent a good hour of my free time today (my son is at the babysitter) looking for mentoring programs in the State of Minnesota.  I’m not licensed in Minnesota yet, but I am trying to get a leg up until I do (hopefully) become licensed after Admission by Motion application.  Besides finding several articles that say that lawyer mentoring “is a good thing”, I haven’t found a single source which tells me how to actually locate and sign up for a mentor.

So, I’m putting the word out there:  where are the Minnesota mentoring programs?  I know there is one for law students at the University of St. Thomas but I haven’t been a law student for five years.  Are there any actual mentor programs in Minnesota or do I just call a local attorney in my practice area and ask them to be my buddy?

If anybody reads this, utilizes a mentor, or has thoughts about how to obtain one in Minnesota, I’d appreciate knowing it.

Update:  11/07/2011, 11:11 a.m.

I just did a Google search on “lawyer mentors in Minnesota” after this post and what was the first result?  This blog post.  Sad.

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Creating a Law Firm Website: Part II

I’ve promised this post for a couple weeks and I’m finally getting to it.  Better late than never.

My Minnesota lawyer website is up and running.  It is not finished and I am still adding content, but the homepage is almost done.  In the main, I’m satisfied with it but I keep tinkering.  Most importantly, it loads fast.

From what I have read, a  law firm’s landing page is the most important aspect of the website.  My current homepage setup is directed towards getting hits from potential clients.  It should make a strong sell with my phone number and free case evaluation “call-to-action” in the upper right-hand corner.  If potential clients come to the website, they should know right away what I ultimately want them to do: call me.

I thank lawyer website developer Karin Conroy for commenting on this blog in my previous lawyer website post and clueing me in to the important of the call-to-action.  My website is meant to be informative to all potential clients, but it is also meant to sell my legal services and how the client can ask for those services.  Thus, the phone number.

How did I get the lawyer website set-up?

I posted about my efforts to create a lawyer website previously.  However, since that post, I’ve learned a lot and I hope to share some of that with my readers.  Below are the three main tools that I used to create my website:

  1. WordPress.org.  Wordpress is a wonderful, user-friendly, and FREE resource.  It is a web design platform that focuses on aesthetics and ease-of-use.  I love it.  The learning curve isn’t overly burdensome and, once you learn how to use it, the rewards are great.
  2. Thesis Theme by DIY Themes.  I’m still a little undecided on this one.  I like it, but I don’t think the look of the theme is quite as good as other themes I have sampled.  I should, however, give kudos to Lawyerist.com for cluing me in on the Thesis Theme.  It cost $164.00 for the developer’s license.  I plan to use it for multiple websites so I went with the more costly developers license.  A single-use license costs half as much, at $87.00.
  3. Winhost.com.  Winhost is a website hosting provider.  I signed up for the “max” plan at $4.95 a month with two months free.  I don’t think I needed the max plan and could have gone cheaper, but I’m just starting out and wanted room to grown. Winhost is a shared hosting service and this means a lot of different things – namely there are a lot of other people using the server and your website load times can be slow as a result.  This also means you better know something about website optimization if you want to build your own site and use a cheap, shared-hosting providers like Winhost, Godaddy, or Hostgator.  Winhost allows you to purchase a domain name (usually about $8.00 to $10.00 a year for a domain name).  Winhost also has a nice, user-friendly control panel that was easy to learn and navigate.  My favorite part about Winhost is that it was very easy to install WordPress through their “application installer”.  Just follow some simple steps and your website is up and running in under an hour (if you know what your are doing).

That’s the list.  Essentially, you only need these three basic things to get a lawyer website up and running.  I didn’t say it would look good or load fast, I just said you would have a website.

After choosing a domain name, hosting provider, and setting up WordPress, you then need to figure out how your new website is going to look.  Once you get it up, WordPress installs a “default” theme which is basically a blog format.  You are not going to want to use a blogging format for your website.

Choosing a Law Firm Website Theme

I talked about using “themes” in my prior posts on blogging and creating a law firm website.  There are many themes to choose from and I haven’t sampled half of them.  Do a quick Google search on “lawyer wordpress themes” and just try and make a decision.  The three I have tried and like are:

  1. DIY, Thesis Theme
  2. Elegant Themes
  3. StudioPress Themes

I ultimately ended up sticking with the DIY, Thesis theme because I perceive it to be the most user-friendly, reasonably nice-looking, and it has top-notch support.  Without a doubt, DIY has the best support forum that I have used.  Most of my design questions were answered very quickly with good, solid advice.

In my opinion, Elegant Themes are the most aesthetically pleasing.   Elegant Themes is also very reasonably priced.  I paid $39.00 for a year-long subscription with no other contracts or other long-term deals.  Plus, if you use Elegant Themes, you can choose from an array of high quality Themes – not just one.  The ability to use multiple themes is a great feature – especially if you are going to develope multiple websites for your law firm.  I may still use an Elegant Theme for another website, but, for now, I am using Thesis.

The last option I have tried is StudioPress.  StudioPress has nice looking themes.  Their support was good for the short time I used the theme. However, I like Thesis and Elegant Themes better and I didn’t need the extra expense.  My mistake.  Check out StudioPress, you may really like them.

So, after you get a WordPress website started, you simply need to follow the WordPress instructions and upload your theme.  I know if sounds hard, and there is a learning curve, but it really isn’t that difficult.  Best of all, you should be able to get a very nice looking website up for under $200.00 using this method.

There are many other discussion points like website optimization.  There many good tools to use, but I particularly like YSlow, GTMetrix, and Pingdom.com.  These websites give you scores on how your website is designed.  The scores directly influence page-load times.  Many of these tools relate directly to a things with names like “Cascading-Style-Sheets (CSS)”, “HTML”, and other programing tools.  I know enough about some of them to be dangerous, but if you are going to get serious, you should probably talk to a website developer.  I learned a lot of this on my own and bought a CSS book but I don’t necessarily recommend doing this unless you have a lot of free time on your hands.  One additional website optimization tool I use is JPEG Mini.  It is free and it allows you to greatly reduce your website images before you place them on your website.  Optimizing images is very important for speeding up your website.  I could write an entire post on choosing website images and optimizing them.

Finally, if anybody wants help navigating the process of creating a law firm website, I would be happy to lend a hand.  Seriously, just shoot me an email at jflanders@flanderslawfirm.com and I’ll do what I can to explain what I have learned and what has worked (and not worked) for me.  Cheers.

 

 

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One Attorney Asks: “But Where Do I Fit In?”

I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging and the arch question:  “is it a giant waste of time and thought?”  What is more, “should I feel compelled to share my nonsense and should you, dear reader, be compelled to read it?”  I’ll deal with the former, you consider the latter.

I started a small law firm, practiced for about 5 months and abruptly wrapped up the practice, took and passed the bar exam, and I am now waiting for admission by motion into the Minnesota bar.  Which brings up yet another question: “where do I fit in in terms of legal blogging?”  I’ve actually practiced by myself for a short period of time and had some success.  (To be fair, most of the money I made was from clients at my old firm – but, they were my clients and they wanted me).  Now, I’m licensed in Indiana and admitted (but not yet licensed in North Dakota).  I just submitted my Minnesota application for admission by motion.  The Minnesota Board of Law Examiners sent me a very official letter telling me I had to wait four months for a investigation to take place before they would make a decision.  This amounts to my third “investigation” in four years for bar admission purposes.  Yep, my record is still clean.  No disciplinary violations, and yet, another investigation.  I’ll say this, I haven’t had a speeding ticket in seven years.  I’ve been a good boy.

So this is where I think I fit in:  I’m a legal blogger, blogging about the things it takes to do before you start a law firm.  That’s right, this blog should more properly be titled:  “before you start a law firm.”  I apologize for the narrowness of my scope.  Read at your own risk.

As I promised before and will get to later, I have updated my Minnesota attorney website.  I am also in the process of creating a second website but I can’t unleash its awesome power because it is practice and location specific (think: Minnesota).  On the website front, I did it myself and it hurt me.  I like my website.  My wife likes it.  My son looked at it briefly (I think).  But, in the end, I’ll sign off with this:  why didn’t I just buck up and pay somebody to design my website for me?  I have spent long hours on it.  Too many hours.  To think, my time used to be worth $150.00 an hour.

I think I have an answer to the last question.  I spent too much time building my website because that is what I do.  I do things myself.  I can’t let anybody do things for me if I think I can figure it out.  It’s a curse and a blessing, really.

So, it’s a metaphor or a symbol then:  I developed my own website, figured out how to optimize it for speed, and added (and revised over and over again) because I’m a DYI’er (do-it-yourselfer).  I’m blogging about “before” starting a law firm because I can’t be any other way.  That is where I fit in.

 

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Book Review: “Solo By Choice, 2011-2012 Edition”, by Carolyn Elefant

I like it.  I recommend it.  Go get yourself a copy.

I have talked about Ms. Carolyn Elefant a lot here and it is for good reason.  She writes well, she is honest, talented, and (as far as I can tell) she has been down the path that so many solo attorneys face:  she has actually started and maintained a successful law practice.  She is kind of my hero.

Not only has she done all that, but she has written a book about it and has now issued an update:  “Solo By Choice, 2011-2012 Edition“.

As readers of this blog should already know, Ms. Elefant published her first book “Solo By Choice” in 2007.  I don’t know what her sales are, but I bought the first edition and loved it.  I have purchased several other “start your own law practice guides”; including the laudable J. Foonberg’s “How to Start and Build a Law Practice“.  However, in my opinion, Ms. Elefant’s book is the best book on the market about being a solo attorney and building your own law practice.

But, you may ask, if the book was published in 2007, why is there a need for a new edition?  I’m not sure and can only guess at more book sales, but it’s no leap to say that this edition is better than the previous one.

The new version contains more meat and new sections which reflect the change in the solo-attorney-legal-market in the last few years.  If you haven’t noticed, there has been a shift in a thing called the world-economy.  This has had a considerable effect on many professions – including the practice of law.  Ms. Elefant is keenly aware of this and blogs about it at MyShingle.com.

The new edition reflects these changes.  In recent years, there has been an “explosion” of new solo lawyers.  The reason appears to be the economy and the continual rise of the digital age.  I, and this blog, fit squarely in this purview.

So What’s New?

For starters, the new version (without the companion piece) clocks in at 304 pages while the previous version had about 300 pages.  However, what is taken out is mainly in the companion guide (134 pages) and what is put back in is better.

Notably, the companian piece titled, “The Companion Guide, 34 Questions that could Transform Your Legal Career”, is wonderful.  Even if she hadn’t changed a thing, I would buy the book just for the add-on.

Much has been discussed about how solo attorneys often face personal and professional isolation.  Let’s face it:  solo = alone.  The Companion Guide is like your new cadre of lawyer best-friends.  It’s other solos out there talking about real issues about the practice of law.

Topics range from:  In the Beginning, A Day in the Life, The Business of Solo’ing, Reflections, and Expanded Profiles.  I have to say, reading this companion piece makes me excited to be a lawyer again.  That feeling is worth the price of purchase by itself.

To be fair, much of the companion piece is a little obvious.  There is a lot of talk about what not to do, what I like, and how I shouldn’t have spent so much on overhead at first.  Etc. However, the simplicity rings true.  When you whittle things to the nub, the truth often comes out – simple or not.  I like that so many of the attorneys in the companion piece echo each other.  It’s obvious that they are happy and enjoying what they are doing.  Isn’t that what ‘solo by choice’ is all about?

As far the new edition itself goes, Ms. Elefant has updated many sections to reflect the changes of running a law practice and marketing it.  She has beefed up the “Dealing with Clients” chapter a bit.  I appreciated that because I am a young attorney who sometimes needs to think about competence more than marketing.

She has also made some changes to the marketing section of the book.  In particular, a new chapter is entitled “Marketing in an Age of Changing Technology.”  This chapter includes some re-hash from the previous edition, but most of it is new.  I particularly appreciated the topics of ‘website optimization’, ‘smart-phone apps.’, ‘SEO’, and other pertinent digital-media marketing.

If you follow her blog, you will also see new and better discussion of video and teleconference marketing.  Some of the discussion isn’t so good for people like me who run a family law practice, but it’s all there and should be read.

What I particularly enjoyed about the new content can be summarized by her new “Argument #6.  Opportunity to Innovate” in Chapter 1, titled “The Case for Solo Practice”. Much of the discussion revolves around the changes in technology which make the practice of law better.   Things like cloud-computing, teleconferencing, webinars, and host of technological advancements that make a solo practice better get their due.

Furthermore, I appreciated her citation to a ABA Technology Report, which provides that “nearly half of solo and small firm lawyer lack even rudimentary online presence.”  That is not surprising, and maybe even good for new solos who can leverage new technology better than their competition.  Reading this new content isn’t a game-changer, it’s a refresher on why you wanted to be solo in the first place.

In sum, I’ll quote Ms. Elefant from her new companion guide:

[Y]ou can take comfort in this:  the dozen of solos cited in the Companion Guide once stood at the same precipice where you are now and none of them too the leap without regret.

Well said, Carolyn, well said.

 

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Being Young and Dumb and Admitting It

Young Attorney Tyler White posted about Being Taken to the Woodshed recently in a post on Lawyerist.com.

I really enjoyed the post because it is totally honest and to the point.  He discusses a recent instance of being taken-to-the-woodshed in open court and being humiliated.  The post resonated with me because I’ve been there and done that.

I know what it is like to get the dress-down by a fellow member of the bar or a judge.  I especially liked the post because Mr. White was honest about what happened and basically said that when you screw up (and you will) don’t blame others and learn from your mistakes.  Easier said than done.

I hate feeling like a guru or a know-it-all on this blog.  I’m young (31) and I have only been practicing for about four years.  I’m not even licensed in Minnesota yet.  I too am going solo. However, I also understand that inexperience doesn’t mean you can’t dream and do what you want with your life and career.  Just be prepared to face the consequences of the choices you make – like Mr. White has.

My wood-shed moment

In the vein of opening up a vein, let me share one of my more humiliating experiences.  When I was about two years out of law school (not that long ago) I had a steady stream of clients of my own. I thought I knew what I was doing.  In many cases, I did know what I was doing but I let success get to my head.

The story goes something like this:  a client called, I listened to her cry, she paid me a tiny retainer and promised more later (first red flag).  This person proceeded to yell and cry at me during the entire period of my representation. (second red flag)  She also showed up late to court hearing and made many excuses about why she could not get things for me which she had promised to get.  (how many red flags are we on?)  The obvious mistake here is client selection and not saying no to client who you know in your gut will be bad ones.

I didn’t say no.  For some reason, I continued on with this client to trial even though I wasn’t really getting paid.  Why did we go to trial?  Again, probably because she was completely unreasonable and I didn’t have the guts to tell her no.

In the middle of trial with a particularly obnoxious opposing counsel, I got into an argument with the other attorney from across the lawyer benches.  Mind you:  this is all being transcribed.  At the time, I thought opposing counsel had done something under-handed  (I still think that) but, instead of being a professional, I started yelling at the other attorney in open court. What did the judge do?  What he should have done:  he banged his gavel and berated both me and the other attorney in front of our clients.  I was (and still am) very embarrassed about my behavior.  Even worse, I could also tell that the judge had a different attitude about my motions and arguments I made before the bench after that.  I think I repaired my reputation over time, but it was a big mistake.

I took my dress-down in stride and learned from it.  One of the tough parts about being a young attorney is having to make mistakes.  You want to be a good attorney and learn, but you just haven’t been there before.  And yet that is also an excuse.

If you are prepared and know it, things go right the vast majority of the time.  If you let obnoxious clients cloud your judgment and act unprofessionally in court, you won’t win any respect from your peers or your clients.  You also won’t respect yourself.

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If You Want to Do It, Just Do It

I’ve been wanting to post for several days now and I just can’t seem to get one out.  I’m too busy working on my website, which I plan to talk about in detail because I made a bunch of mistakes that somebody can learn from.  Anyway, I’m posting now.

When I think about starting a law firm – and I think about it all day, every day – a comment by Steve Pennaz keeps coming back to me.  Who is Steve Pennaz?  Clearly you don’t fish.  Pennaz is the head of the North American Fishing Club.  That is not important.  What is important is a comment he made in a recent fishing show about his early salad days when he was a little guy and the world was a big, big place.

I wanted to share his comment.  I’m paraphrasing, but here goes:  during the show, Pennaz was asked about getting started in the fishing business.  He talked about how he wanted to be a fishing guru and head-honcho of the fishing industry soon after college or something.

To that end, he shared that, while he was still college, he went to a fishing seminar at which Babe Winkelman was the keynote speaker.  (Oh, you don’t know who Babe Winkelman is either?).  Pennaz shared that he went up to Babe Winkelman and asked:  “How did you start your own fishing show?”  To which, Winkelman replied:  “What do you mean ‘how’, I just did it.”

Whether or not you like fishing or embroidery, the message in that statement is clear.  If you want to do something, just do it and don’t look back.  That’s my new moto:  “I just did it.”