Chances are, if the title of this post interested you, you are most likely a lawyer in the process of either opening a new practice or restructuring your existing practice to meet the demands of the current marketplace. And like most lawyers, you’ve wanted to learn more about the use of technology, web 2.0, social media marketing, virtual law practices, alternative pricing, and all the other buzz-words that define emerging law management techniques. So in between “real work”, you’ve done a little searching. But what you read makes no sense, you get lost by following the links on the pages, wind up reading about a completely different topic, then one of your clients arrives for his appointment, and there it is. So much for change. If that’s you, read on.
I began the process of launching Freelance Law Firm last spring, just when the realization that for the legal industry, 2009 appeared to be worse than 2008. No, 2008 was not a blip on an otherwise upwardly mobile screen. The spring of 2009 was when unemployed lawyers stopped accosting their recruiters and mailpersons, because they knew there would be no good news in either mailbox. The job market was deteriorating rapidly. So I knew I’d need a law practice that stood above all the “noise” (an online term meaning there is so much information, I just can’t deal with it).
I had three goals in mind: I wanted to do freelance research and writing for other lawyers; I wanted to work online so I could be accessible to a much larger market; and I wanted to work at home.
So I started online research to see what resources were available to me to make that happen. Little did I know that I would get hammered with an avalanche of concepts, information, and options. With just a few keystrokes, I’d opened my door to the law practice management revolution of 2009, including a band of Legal Rebels, sponsored by the American Bar Association, talk of alternative pricing, virtual law practices, cloud computing, new tech apps (about one per minute)and legal issues raised by law blogs and social media. I kept wanting it to stop, yet I couldn’t keep my fingers off that keyboard.
So I continued to research and participate on social networks. I waded through massive amounts of information to choose how I was going to set up my practice, and launched it in September. As I waited for my social media marketing to generate clients, I continued to research and network. Because although my original goals were being accomplished, I was seriously hooked on the revolution.
I know there are significant numbers of lawyers who want to embrace some of these new management tools and concepts, but simply don’t know where to start and don’t have the time to figure it out. So I wanted to give you a list of websites that I have found to be the most reliable and comprehensive sources of information.
- Technology: LegalITProfessionals.com; LawTechTalk.com; ThinkStrategies.com; TechnoLawyer.com
- Blogging: Remarkablogger.com; BlogforProfit.com; Copyblogger.com; Problogger.com
- Social Media Marketing: Social Media Examiner.com; ISMAconnects.org
- Alternative Pricing: Verasage.com; PatrickJLamb.com; ShepherdLawGroup.com
- Connecting, Collaborating and networking: MyLegal.com; Law and Social Media.com
- Sole Practitioner Educators: SoloPracticeUniversity.com; Lawyerist.com
- Facebook Marketing Extraordinaire: MariSmith.com
These sites are excellent places to dive into this brave new world of law office management. If you’re game for social networking, you can connect with other lawyers or vendors and gain an inordinate amount of information on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Martindale-Hubbell Connected.
Frequently, there are webinars and other forms of broadcasting that cover law practice management and legal tech topics. You can find them on the sites I’ve named above, on my page entitled Social Media Presents: Free Legal Webinars, or on other sites you will find as you explore. If you subscribe, notice of the event will come to you via email.
As you delve into the online world, you will discover a great bonus: a vibrant community of people sharing information and ideas, opportunities to connect with like-minded people across the globe, and an excitement in sharing in the technological revolution that is creating a whole new set of rules to play by.
Your law firm can be built around these concepts. Don’t miss the opportunity to make this leap. The future may look scary for a while, but how is the present working for you?