Mobilize Your Virtual Legal Workforce
Does your law firm have fluctuating staff requirements? Do you find yourself swamped sometimes, while at other times giving busy work to associates and paralegals? Virtual employees might be the solution for you.
There is a great news article at Law.com’s Legal Technology page about using virtual workers for a law firm. The article explains how you can use technology to allow collaboration between your core employees at your firm’s office and virtual workers anywhere in the country.
Among just a couple of the benefits of virtual employees are setting lower billing rates for clients and providing more even working hours for core office employees.
However, be aware of the limitations of virtual employees as well. Conflicts must still be checked rigorously, and confidentiality must be ensured for the firm’s clients.
Virtual workers might not be for everyone, but they do provide great benefits for many companies and firms. Don’t rule them out when thinking about your firm’s employment needs.
[tags]legal andrew, law.com, virtual employee, virtual worker[/tags]
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About Me – My Five Favorite Movies
You may have seen these “memes” going around. Other people call it “blog tag.” Basically, you answer a question and tag several other bloggers to answer it as well. Most of them are of a personal nature. It helps build community, reveals details about bloggers, and also shares some link love.
From now on, when I participate in one of these, I’ll start the title with “About Me.” You can quickly see that it’s personal. If you’re not interested, you can easily skip the post altogether. But, if you’d like to know more about the guy behind the blog, read on. Deal?
Rob Schaumer tagged me with a variant of the “5 things you don’t know about me” meme: my five favorite movies. Sadly, he actually tagged me three days ago, which is about a decade in internet time. Honestly, I was reluctant to participate; but then he posted a glowing review of my little blog here. Rob, here goes!
My five favorite movies, in no particular order:
- Braveheart
- The Untouchables
- Stargate
- A Bug’s Life
- The Count of Monte Cristo
Now I’m going to drop the ball on tagging others. Instead of five, I’ll tag two guys who blog as good as five put together. 🙂 The Frugal Law Student and Law Student; you guys are “it.”
[tags]legal andrew, five favorite movies[/tags]
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Lawyers Appreciate Clients Who Foster Productivity
Anastasia passed me the baton for the 10-day “lawyers appreciate” countdown. I love group projects, so here’s my post.
Of course lawyers appreciate their clients. After all, they are the ones who pay the bill. More importantly, lawyers (hopefully) exist to serve their clients.
However, in keeping with the theme here, I wanted to point out how clients can be appreciated even more by lawyers: foster productivity.
Understand time demands
It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again: Your matter is most important to you, but it might not be most important to your lawyer. Simply understanding this concept will help foster productivity between you and your lawyer.
For example, be patient with your lawyer. Repeated phone calls for a non-urgent matter do not aid productivity. Instead, it takes more time for your lawyer to simply listen to these voice messages, when he could be truly responding to the situation.
Also, remember to be clear when a matter really is time sensitive and when it is not. If there is an impending deadline that you cannot control, communicate this to your attorney. However, if the situation is simply urgent to you, communicate that as well.
Respond promptly
People are more productive when they have the information they need. If your lawyer asks questions, requests documents, or other information from you, be sure to provide it as promptly as you are able.
True, your lawyer may not respond to you immediately, but the quicker you provide information to him, the more productive he can be. That ultimately means a quicker resolution of your matter.
Communicate clearly
As I mentioned above, it is important to clearly communicate priorities to your lawyer. But more than simply explaining deadlines and priorities, you should always strive to communicate as clearly as possible.
This means clearly delineating your wants vs. needs. Also, you need to provide complete information to your attorney. Finally, be sure to provide a reference to the matter anytime you communicate with your lawyer, be it email, voicemail, or in person.
Why care?
A productive attorney is a happy attorney. Well, that might not be true. But if your attorney can be more productive, he will resolve things quicker. This also means a lower bill for you, the client. Isn’t this a good reason to do what you can to help your lawyer do his job easier?
If you want to participate in the 10-day “lawyers appreciate” countdown, simply write a post that begins “Lawyers appreciate” and then tag three other bloggers to do the same. I’m tagging Grant, Ben, and Richard.
[tags]legal andrew, lawyers appreciate, idealawg, lawsagna, productivity[/tags]
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Online Networking with JibberJobber – Part 2
This is Part 2 in a series of posts on Jason Alba’s Career Toolset, JibberJobber. Check back soon for future posts in this series.
Yep, it has been almost two months since Part 1 of my JibberJobber series. Sorry for the delay.
If you recall, Part 1 focused on using JibberJobber to manage and track your networking contacts. In Part 2, I’m going to highlight some other cool features of the service.
Track companies
Part of a job search is to know what companies you are looking into. JibberJobber helps you with that.
You can input prospective companies, recruiters, and job boards through JibberJobber’s “Companies” menu. More than that, you can add contacts for each prospective company. This makes it easy as pie to keep track of all the different people who are crucial to your future job.
If you didn’t think that was cool enough, just check out the “Show On Map” function that will display everything on an embedded Google map. Cool, right? This makes it easy to travel to different companies on an interview or networking trip.
Save jobs
Jason’s handy features don’t end there. What good is saving a company, if you can’t save the job details? JibberJobber takes care of you there, too.
Once you have a company in your database, you can easily add a job. You can add job details, categorize it, rank it, etc. As with companies, you can even upload a document from your computer and link it to the job. Perhaps you have a Word document of job requirements; that can be saved in JibberJobber with the job.
More to come
If you haven’t checked out JibberJobber, be sure to register. You’ll get a free account, plus a 2-week premium membership. What better way to boost start your job search?
Stay tuned here for more details on this awesome career tool. Part 3 will be coming at you soon.
[tags]legal andrew, jibberjobber, jason alba, networking[/tags]
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Help for Marketing Your Law Firm
Are you looking for some good online resources for marketing your law firm? If so, you might want to check out the Law Firm Marketing Coach.
Henry Harlow runs this site, and he has some interesting
free resources to check out. He’s got a pretty thorough document on keywords and search engine optimization. Also, he has two email courses where you can learn about productivity and client development
I haven’t used any of Henry’s resources, but it might be worth a look for you. Also, he didn’t pay me to post this, but he did send me an email. If you’ve got some resources the other readers might like, feel free to drop me a line.
[tags]legal andrew, henry harlow, law firm[/tags]
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Credit Report Aids with Bar Application
Do you remember every address you’ve lived at in the past ten years? Probably not.
When it’s time to fill out your character and fitness questionnaire for the bar, you’ll need this information. Where are you going to get it?
The solution lies in your credit report. You are entitled to a free credit report every year from each of the three credit agencies. When you get your report, it will list all of your previous addresses. Problem solved!
Simply to go AnnualCreditReport.com and request your free report. You’ll have to verify your identity, but they won’t spam you, and it won’t cost you a dime. You can view your report online instantly. You can also get a free credit report and credit scores (not available on the annual site) by subscribing to a credit monitoring service like Spend on Life.
As a side note, this is a free and easy way to keep an eye on your financial identity. If you request a different credit report every four months, you’ll always have an up-to-date view of your accounts. You can make sure everything stays clean and accurate. Plus, it’s free.
Do you have any quick tips to help with the bar application process? What do you think of the whole mess? Stick your thoughts in the comments or drop me a line.
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Be Productive This Winter Break – Fill Out Your Bar Exam Applications
Yep, final exams are over. Christmas is almost here. Law school is out for weeks! It’s time to think about another exam!
Wait. Yeah, that’s what I said. Have you filled out your bar exam paperwork yet?
The bar exam application and character & fitness questionnaire are … comprehensive. The Bar Examiners dig into every corner of your life to try to root out any problem that might prevent you from being a good lawyer.
Gather your documentation
The first reason to start working on this paperwork is that you’ll need lots of different documents to complete it all. Just gathering the information will take some time, and you don’t want to miss the deadlines.
You’ll probably need fingerprints, passport photos, every address you ever lived at, and every school you attended since high school. You need your jobs, your aliases, and a picture of your first pet. Ok, maybe they don’t go that far, but you get the point.
Save money
Yep, in some states you actually pay a smaller fee if you send materials in sooner. For example, in Virginia you save on your character & fitness certification fee if you send in your questionnaire within 14 months of starting law school (that means do it your first year).
Reduce spring stress
Everyone knows that school is a stressful time. Why not remove some of that stress now, while you have a few weeks off? You can probably knock out most of the forms in a few hours, then spend a little more time getting the documentation rounded up. Have it all done before school even starts. Cool, right?
Meet the deadline
Some states have really early deadlines for your applications. It seems like Texas is the earliest, requiring your materials by January 30. You definitely don’t want to wait until mid-January to look at the forms.
Be early, and be prepared.
[tags]legal andrew, bar exam[/tags]
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Prepare for the Unexpected – If You Die…
Have you ever thought about what happens to your stuff when you die? Perhaps you have a will. Maybe you have a full fledged estate plan with trusts and the whole nine yards.
But does your family have a way to access your online life?
The digital age we live in means that people have more and more info stored in 1s and 0s all around the world. Think about: you may have email accounts, online calendars, blogs, PayPal accounts, and online savings accounts. If you die, can your family quickly and easily access information they need? What happens to your blogs? What about your company’s website?
Darren Rowse posted a great article today about what happens to your blogs if you die. He explains that blogging and online activity constitutes the primary income for his family. Thus, he created a set of basic documents to explain how to continue onward if something tragic happens to him.
If you have not thought about such issues, I urge you to. Your blog may not amount to more than a personal journal. In which case, it might not matter. But maybe you have some assets in an online savings account. Don’t you want your spouse to have quick access to that, if you should pass away? What about if you are disabled temporarily or in a coma? Unfortunately, the world does not stop for us. Our families will have to continue on, pay our rent, keep up with the utilities, and the like. Make it easier for them.
Organize your info
My advice is to start off with organized files. If you simply have your accounts separated in labeled files, your family can easily figure out what needs to be done. Account numbers and customer service numbers are at the ready, and it doesn’t require any extra work from you.
Additionally, you should maintain a list of passwords. I highly recommend KeePass. You can categorize passwords, provide additional notes, URLs, etc. You set a master password for the database. Put this in a location that is safe and separate from your computer. Maybe write it down and put it in your safe deposit box or firesafe. Make sure someone knows where you keep the key.
Talk to your attorney
If you have any questions about planning for the unexpected, your attorney is a great resource. She has guided many people through this same process, and she knows many of the right questions to ask. She’ll help you think of things you may never have thought about.
Even if you think something is silly, go ahead and bring it up. If something is important to you, be sure to have a contingency plan.
[tags]legal andrew, estate, will, disaster recovery[/tags]
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Sponsor or Make a Wish on the Million Dollar Blog Post
Do you have a wish for the world during this holiday season? You should mozy over to the Million Dollar Blog Post and drop in your wish.
The idea is simple. Get people to come in and leave their wish for the world. Sign up sponsors to donate $1 to charity for every wish that is made. Get one million wishes, so $1 million dollars will go to charity.
Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity for your law firm or solo practice? It’s simple to become a sponsor. The site has great instructions on the process and what you get in return (aside from feeling warm and fuzzy inside).
All you have to do is donate any amount of money to charity (even just $1!!). Then you note that it is for “Gifter.org.” Post an image of your receipt or check on your blog, website, or Flickr, and then send a link to the Gifter.org guys. They’ll link you up as a sponsor. It’s really that simple!
What are you waiting for? Doesn’t your firm need some good PR? Support your favorite charity and become part of internet history!
[tags]legal andrew, gifter, million dollar blog post[/tags]
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I’m It!! – Five Things You Didn’t Know About Me
I was feeling left out. Nobody had tagged me for the “5 things you didn’t know about me” meme. I was feeling like the kid who never got picked for kick ball.
But that’s changed now. Teli Adlam tagged me this afternoon.
Five things you didn’t know about me:
1. I’m a musician. I play the sax (alto and baritone) and drums. I was even drum major in high school. Yep, I’m a computer geek and band nerd.
2. I love sci-fi. I’m a huge Stargate fan. I like reading old sci-fi books (like H.G. Wells).
3. I do woodworking. My favorite tool is the lathe. I built a kayak from scratch last summer; it actually floats!
4. My favorite movie is Braveheart.
5. I never got picked for kick ball.
Tag, you’re it
I’m tagging some awesome friends I’ve made in the last few months. The Frugal Law Student, Law Student, and Daily PlanIt all blog anonymously, but they’re great people! Mary Whisner is an awesome librarian, and Anastasia has some great content.
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About Andrew Flusche
Lawyer, bicyclist, husband.
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