In February of this year the U.K. firm of Allen & Overy laid off of 450 people, including 47 partners and its whole private client practice. Two months later twenty-three of the lawyers and support staff from their private practice have formed their own firm, Maurice Turnor Gardner, specializing in “private wealth, philanthropy, and partnerships and LLPs.” Another law firm for the rich wouldn’t be particularly interesting but for the fact that five of the six partners and all but four of the employees are women, as reported in the Times.

It’s likely the size of the firm . . . [more]

I first met Michael Rabinovici at a Legal Marketers Association (LMA) event on Social Media Success. We’ve stayed in touch periodically since, and he helps run a strategic consultation company, AR Communications Inc.

He recently gave a presentation on social media marketing and lawyers that I thought would be of interest to our readers, so I asked him to upload his slides and audio to SlideShare.

Necessity breeds invention. From Procter & Gamble to IBM to Federal Express, from nylon to photocopiers to the electron microscope — some of the world’s most well-known companies and products were born in past recessions and depressions. The current economic crisis will be no exception — when times are tough, forward-thinking people will find ways to do things better. That applies especially to the practice of law.

Is your law practice or firm one of the profession’s leading lights of innovation? Have you or someone within your firm with vision and courage led a groundbreaking effort to practice law differently? . . . [more]

The Legal Marketing Association sponsored a webinar by Rich Klein of Beckerman Public Relations on January 24th called “Crisis Communications and Web 2.0”. That webinar is available for replay here (it will start as soon as you click on the link). It is about 1 hr 15 min in length. I believe it may only be available for a limited time, possibly to the end of February.

Hat tip to the Law Marketing Network. . . . [more]

Devin Johnston, a second-year law student at the University of Manitoba, predicts the death of Facebook within three years.

A major reason is alternative social media platforms that will compete with it more effectively.

I’ve already mentioned Jurafide as one alternative for lawyers seeking American clients, and Jordan Furlong has mentioned LawLink just over a year ago. At that time, LawLink was restricted to American attorneys. It has since opened up to include lawyers from the UK, Canada, and Australia.

However, they still have a statement under the “threat of perjury” that the registrant is a practicing attorney . . . [more]

Using Twitter for data mining and information gathering isn’t new. Most Twitter users effectively search for key terms using Summize, and for PR professionals this is almost a must-do these days to monitor your brand.

I regularly use Twitter (and other microblogs) to direct my “followers” to stories of interest, which can be pieces I’ve authored or news stories. But I have no idea if people actually like the stuff I post unless I get positive feedback (which I occasionally do). I do know that on sites where I have administrative control I notice a steadily . . . [more]

The professional social networking site LinkedIn has slowly been making a number of changes that are making the site increasingly useful. I am still finding my way around, but changes I find of interest:

• the addition of third party applications that allow me to do things like share my presentation slides (via Slideshare) and to see recently added presentations of others, and to see what my contacts are reading with the Amazon.com application;
• increased and improved functionality of groups, allowing those in a group to have a discussion;
• suggestions of people who I might know who are on LinkedIn

practicePRO, LAWPRO’s risk management and claims prevention initiative, provides lawyers with tools and resources to help them succeed in the practice of law and avoid a malpractice claim (see this article for information on the most common legal malpractice claims).

As we have completed another year we have updated our most popular downloads list. What are other lawyers looking at? The top 5 downloads were as follows:

1 Peg Duncan’s Canadian focused E-Discovery Reading List
2 Rollie Thompson’s article on the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines
3 A LAWPRO Magazine article on The Dangers of Metadata
4 A sample . . . [more]

Aujourd’hui encore, trop nombreux sont les profanes aux yeux desquels l’Internet reste une terre inconnue, aux rituels propres et au langage incompréhensible. Pour se convaincre des réticences que continue à susciter le réseau parmi les professionnels du droit en particulier, il suffit d’ailleurs de faire état de tous les domaines de la pratique au sein desquels son utilisation est encore exclue. Par exemple, le courriel n’est toujours pas un mode de signification accepté par le législateur, et nombre d’avocats lui préfèrent la télécopie pour de simples communications. Les tribunaux de la Belle Province ne permettent pas encore la production de . . . [more]

On Nov. 27, 2008, I attended a session hosted by the Toronto chapter of the Legal Marketers Association (LMA) on Social Media Success.

The event was moderated by Max Valiquette of Youthography, and featured a panel with Parker Mason of CNW Group, Michael Rabinovici of AR Communications Inc., and Stuart Wood of Torys LLP.

Wood claimed his firm didn’t know he was there. But the event was promoted on the LMA website, and as he soon found out, he was part of an impromptu podcast when Mason revealed he was recording the session.

Full audio . . . [more]

For my must read of the week, I recommend FEED: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report . Came across it yesterday.

Its stated mission is to help people to gain a better understanding of how technology affects today’s digital consumer experience and explore the emerging trends that will shape those experiences for years to come. It talks about the rise of search as a primary mode of navigation, the widespread adoption of Web 2.0 features and technologies, and how the increase in mainstream social media usage have fundamentally altered the consumer landscape. The main point is that for brands to remain . . . [more]

According to an article in legalweek.com DLA Piper, the Anglo-American giant law firm, has held talks with Fasken Martineau about a potential link between or merger of the firms. DLA Piper has more than 3,700 lawyers in offices in 38 countries, but has no office in Canada. The article also says that DLA Piper is considering, alternatively, opening up an independent office here. Fasken reportedly has said that they may be prepared to talk in January.

An irrelevant coda: DLA Piper uses gangbuster rotating images on its main website page, quite unlike the usual staid graphics found on law . . . [more]