The Practice

New Marketing Email List

I have a new product for you, but its free. Who can complain about free?

For the last several years, I was running a marketing list with limited membership. That list will stay that way. But, due to popular demand, I am opening up a second list to anyone who wants to join. And what will it cost? Nothing. That's right - here is an opportunity to share marketing ideas with other attorneys and learn what has worked, what hasn't worked and what may work. And all it takes is signing up.

Click to join sololawyermarketing

Come join my list.  And tell your friends to join as well.

Spam and the practice of law

Interesting - we all know that spam can get the spammer in trouble. But, it seems like the spam gets worse - not better. And the worst spam - spam to lawyers about legal services.

Let me see if I get this right. You want me to use your service, yet you can't seem to follow a little thing like a federal law? Hmmm......that sounds like something I want.

Recently, I was contacted by two services. One was a marketing company and one a legal research company. I have been asking these folks (who shall remain nameless, but if they spam me again, its on) to remove me from their lists for at least 6 months. And what do they do? They keep spamming me. So, last week I hit my breaking point - I responded to the president of the marketing company, or as he likes to call himself the "head guy who can't figure out the law," er, "head guru." Sorry, you can see how I could get those confused. I write him a lengthy, well thought out reply that was, in my humble opinion, quite funny. No response. I then sent one to the president of the legal research company - still no response.

Why does this bother me, especially with these two companies? If you are a marketing company and you are spamming me to use your service, what does it say about your service? It clearly says you do not understand how to properly email someone and that means to me if I hire you, I face a potential liability. Thanks, but no thanks. It also says that your program is not very good. Notice that Ben Glass at Great Legal Marketing or Mark Merenda at SmartMarketing don't spam attorneys. They don't need to - their program works!

If you are a legal research company, it makes me question your ability to research. Seriously - did you miss the CAN SPAM act when you were trying to figure out how to market? If you did, your research skills may leave out other important documents, say the US Constitution. If you did find it, why are you spamming me? Do you think it does not apply to you? Lisa Solomon at Question Of Law never spams me and she can find the CAN SPAM act. I know - I asked her!

I think there may be a more basic problem. They know that most of us, especially sole practitioners, are too busy to sue them over this nonsense. So, they figure they can get away with it. Sad, but probably true. Of course, do they really get business from spamming us? I hope not. Please, when you get spammed by a service provider, do not give them your business. Maybe that will start to clean up this mess!

New Medmal Service

Dr. David Frankel from Iowa State and the Cambridge Economics Group has unleashed a new tool for plaintiff's attorneys handling medical malpractice claims. The program, MedMal Express, is an interactive website that allows you to figure out what a case is worth.

From Dr. Frankel:  The program lets the user see expected settlements in up to 20  medical malpractice cases (or case scenarios) in real time. Our predictions are tailored to the trial's location and to other specific case features. One advantage of the service is that a user can easily try out  different scenarios (e.g., to drop a defendant; to stress one accusation over another) to see what would happen if a Plaintiff's condition were to change.

I tried the program and like it. I received a report that provided me with information to help me evaluate a case. It looks nice and has useful information.

Dr. Frankel is offering a free two week trial. Just go to his website and you can sign up. After that, it is only $95 per month.

Top 25 + 1 more! (Plus some books)

I can't believe I left AccessLaw off my list. Thankfully, Julie Goren of Litigation By the Numbers reminded me.

By the way, if I were putting together a list of books you need, I would tell you that you need:

1. Litigation By the Numbers;
2. Rules of the Road;
3. Ball On Damages;
4. Ben Glass' Great Legal Marketing (not really a book, but reading materials).

Enjoy!

Congrats to a Marketing Guru!

Ben Glass of Great Legal Marketing fame has been selected by the Information Marketing Association for inclusion in its new book, The Official Get Rich Guide to Information Marketing.

For those of you who do not know, Ben has created what is, in my opinion, the best legal marketing program for personal injury attorneys. But, don't stop reading if you are not a PI attorney. I have successfully used Ben's program to market my debt collection practice. Ben's program works.

Give it a peek and remember to congratulate Ben on this accomplishment!

Top 25 + 1

Okay, in my research I missed one product. Now, I could debate why I missed it: not enough marketing, not marketing to the right groups, it slipped through the cracks or I wasn't looking for it. But, alas, I missed it.

The Daily Case Report is a website you want to see. These guys, two attorneys in San Jose, CA give updates on California slip opinions - via video! And you can get MCLE credit for it. How cool is that? From them:

Daily RSS feed announces all new Slip Opinions.  Subscribers also get Slip opinion alerts by email that they can personalize to notify them only of new cases in the areas of law that they practice.  And, best of all, when you watch 15 minute video programs discussing the new cases, you earn MCLE credit. If you find something interesting only once every 2 and a half weeks, you can easily earn all the MCLE you need, just by keeping current on the cases that matter to your practice.

Hey, its free and it looks pretty cool. Give this a spin and let me know your thoughts. I like it!

My top 25

No, I am not going to give you my top 25 college football teams this year. (Although, I do think USC should still be #1 and LSU #2, but I also don't think they should release a preseason top 25 since no one knows how good anyone will be until they play a game. But, that is for another post.)

I just got back from Anaheim and the California State Bar annual meeting. I gave a CLE program on technology and the law firm. In doing so, I prepared a list of 25 programs you should have for your firm. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Audacity
2. Mirra Personal Server
3. Adobe Acrobat Pro 8.0
4. Webex
5. ProDoc
6. Basecamp
7. Verizon EVDO
8. Paperport Pro
9. Logmein.com or Gotomypc.com or gotomeeting.com
10. Dragon 9.0
11. Skype
12. DepoSmart
13. Scanner
14. Dual monitors
15. Listserves
16. Etran manager from RealLegal
17. Snagit
18. Copernic Desktop
19. Google earth, Myspace, Friendster, Google, Zillow
20. Cybersecretary (www.speakwrite.com)
21. Accurint
22. TimeMap and TextMap
23. Stamps.com
24. Ureach/efax
25. Activewords

Let me know what you think is missing. But, this list is what I think you need, after spending quite a bit of time last week researching this.

Buy Party of the First Part

I just found out that my friend Lisa Solomon over at The Billable Hour now has Party of the First Part for sale! (You do remember my prior post, right?)

Now, if you don't subscribe to Lisa's newsletter, this is a good time to do so. The Billable Hour has a lot of great information, resources, and humorous lawyer gifts.

Of course, don't forget to visit Lisa's practice website for all of your legal research and writing needs. And trust me, she writes in such a way that even Mr. Freedman, author of "Party of the First Part" would appreciate. Clear, concise and in plain English!

Nominate bad legal writing!

We have all seen it - bad legal writing. Some of it is worse than others. "By all men these presents known" is how an old insurance release started. What? Huh?

Well, now you can nominate it for the Party of the First Part hall of shame. Now, I don't know if I would nominate opposing counsel for writing a letter where, say, he claims how smart he is, how busy he is and how great he is. (Yes, it comes from a real letter.) I would, however, send it in while taking off one's name from it. (No, I haven't done that yet. It reads better as an exhibit to a motion.)

By the way, from the fine folks who bring you the website:

The debate over Plain vs. Precision English rages on in courtrooms, boardrooms, and, yes, even bedrooms. In The Party of the First Part, Adam Freedman explores the origins of legalese, interprets archaic phrasing (witnesseth!), explains obscure and oddly named laws, and disputes the notion that lawyers are any smarter than the rest of us when judged solely on their briefs. (A brief, by the way, is never so.)

Enjoy!

Law Firm Funding

Face it - sometimes it is expensive to run a law firm. It costs money, especially if you are going to take on plaintiff's cases. And traditional banks don't want to lend us money. But there are other people out there who will help.

I just met Beth Robbins. She has money she is looking to lend to law firms - and a lot of money. Here is her information. If you call her, tell her Jonathan Stein said hi.

Beth Robbins

Nationwide Litigation Funding

578 Washington Blvd Ste 249

Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Tel: (310) 306-1001
Fax: (310) 388-0576
Email: Beth@nlfunding.com
Website: http://www.litfundingusa.com