We all run into design-related questions when creating a web page. Questions like “Should this button be red or green?” or “What would the most effective headline for this paragraph be?”. While these decisions may have a dramatic impact on the overall effectiveness of a website, they are often the product of subjective judgement calls by an individual, or worse, a committee.

What if, instead, we could approach such design decisions scientifically? A/B testing makes this possible by treating a web page design instance as an “experiment” where multiple variations of a webpage are randomly presented to page visitors; data . . . [more]

I sat on a legal project management panel at the CBA conference on Tuesday. It was moderated by Barbara Boake of McCarthy’s. Andrew Terrett of BLG (and Slaw) provided the PM expert’s perspective, Brian Armstrong of Bruce Power spoke from the internal counsel’s perspective and I provided the practitioner’s perspective.

We had a very enlightening discussion, and spent a good deal of it talking about the challenges of planning for and pricing litigation (meaning any form of representation in an adjudicative process). I’ll follow-up on the discussion later, but thought I’d first lay some groundwork with a short and very . . . [more]

Following my customer service post last week, I had an experience on the weekend where store clerks were so intrusive that it was annoying. So much so that it makes me wonder if I want to go back to that store again. It’s a reminder that while we need to be attentive to customer / client needs, it’s possible to cross the line from good service to annoying and creepy. And it’s possible to try too hard to sell our services.

I went into a new store, and was immediately asked by a greeter if they could direct me to . . . [more]

I ran across this today while on a search for something else. At first, I just found it amusing. Now I’m thinking it’s a brilliant bit of viral marketing for Paul Pearson’s firm, Mulligan Tam Pearson.

In addition to the 4,000+ views, Pearson has been featured in a Victoria Times-Colonist article. And now a mention here. Who could ask for anything more? :) . . . [more]

An article by Michael Moyer in this month’s Scientific American reinforces that crowd-sourcing approaches towards rating sites are inaccurate, and do pose a risk to lawyer’s reputations. We’ve discussed lawyer rating sites on Slaw before, here and here.

Moyer cites Eric K. Clemons of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, who points out a couple of inherent biases in rating sites:

1. people using a service have already made a choice, and are pre-disposed to liking it
2. people do not tend to rate things they find satisfactory

What this means is that rating sites represent the extremes – . . . [more]

♫ Into the spotlight and out again
Come and get your 15
Your 15 minutes of fame…♫

Lyrics and Music by: Tommy Shaw, Jack Blades, Ted Nugent.

Ahh fleeting fame. It seems that advertisers are pouring over themselves to add accolades to lawyer’s resumes, blogs, web sites, CVs and bios. Consider this excerpt from an email from one of those ‘who is’ directories:

We are pleased to inform you that your candidacy was formally approved June 20th, 2010. Congratulations.

Of course the only minor problem with this is that I don’t ever being asked to submit an application. Ever. . . . [more]

To date, LinkedIn has only offered a handful of sidebar applications that users can install. They’ve been very picky, and only a few are aligned with vertical industries. Even then, it’s obvious that industry apps must have a broader application and be applicable to the general business community. Late last night, the rollout began for Legal Updates on LinkedIn and it’s a huge win for my friends at JD Supra.

We’ve written about JD Supra before here at Slaw, so I won’t spell out their core offering for law firms. They are, however, a company that’s been built around . . . [more]

“[5] I have reviewed the time spent which is 15.9 hours and frankly, I am surprised that so few hours are being claimed …. ” (2010 ONSC 3935).

A round of applause for the successful party’s lawyer, please.

In somewhat the same vein, put up a hand if you’re in favour of a new rule of lawyer’s professional conduct which states that lawyers acting for the winning side in a law suit are allowed to comment on the merits of the result for the media – print, electronic, and otherwise – only if the lawyers concede, on the record, that . . . [more]

One of Oscar Wilde’s aphorisms is “There is only one thing worse than being talked about and that is NOT being talked about.” This is sometimes paraphrased as “there is no such thing as bad publicity.” The “I don’t care what they say about me as long as they spell my name right” statement is apocryphally attributed to P.T. Barnum.

Writing for law and other professional magazines, and law tabloids such as The Lawyers Weekly or the Law Times, is a not-expensive (at least to the writer) way of getting publicity and, perhaps, of educating the readership. I have no . . . [more]

Many of you will likely have picked up the news yesterday of the cross-Atlantic merger between Sonnenschein and UK-based Denton Wilde Sapte. One element of the media push I found interesting was the use of a dedicated website, or microsite, to explain things.

It’s not so much the content of the website that I found effective, but rather that the firms chose not bury the information on their respective websites. They could have each created dedicated internal pages on their websites; or, they could have taken the new combined firm domain name and started their transition process. Indecently, the domain . . . [more]

Our friends over at Stem Legal have rolled out a new Media Strategy service for law firms. The aim is to develop with the client “a customized strategic plan for using the media (including social media) as a business development tool.” What makes this particularly interesting is that it’s headed up by the estimable Jordan Furlong. I can easily imagine how relieved some firms will be to have Jordan guide them through the fun-house halls of Twitter, Facebook, and the rest. I wish Stem every success in this venture.

[Disclosure: Stem Legal’s principal is Steve Matthews, who is a . . . [more]

Over on 3 Geeks and a Law Library, Greg Lambert makes note that yesterday at the Law Marketing Association conference, Joe Calve, the new CMO of Morrison Foerster mentioned he had moved their Library department into the Marketing department. Lambert questions the change, but does say, “From what I’m hearing from the Librarians at MoFo, they are excited about the change and are looking forward to the transition.” MoFo is known for doing things a bit differently than everyone else, after all.

I do think it odd, but perhaps no odder than having the Library report to IT as in . . . [more]