LAWYERSCHILE EL MUNDO INTERNACIONAL DEL ABOGADO

Rodrigo González Fernández y un grupo de egresados de la Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad la Republica en Chile ha decidido poner al alcance de todo el mundo de la profesion legal importantes materias en Ingles para ir practicando el trabajo en materia de Tratados internacionales y que nuestra profesión estará en primera linea. Invitamos a todos a opinar, debatir, participar activamente.Es el primer blog legal en inglés de latinoamerica.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

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Federal Judge Rules Against Lawyer Who Alleged Congress Restricted His Fees
Legal Times

A federal judge has ruled against Washington, D.C., solo practitioner Mark Zaid in his pursuit of $466,000 from the government on a claim that Congress unlawfully interfered with a private contract he had with two clients and restricted his compensation. Zaid alleged that a private relief bill that Congress passed restricted the attorney fees he was entitled to collect. The bill awarded $2 million to Zaid's clients and capped his fee at 10 percent.

N.Y. High Court: Lawyer Subject to Treble Damages for Attempt to Deceive Court
New York Law Journal

Tracing the legal principles behind a New York statute on lawyer deceit to a law adopted by the English Parliament in 1275, the New York Court of Appeals has determined that an attorney can be subject to treble damages in New York for an unsuccessful attempt to deceive a court. Responding to certified questions from the 2nd Circuit, the Court of Appeals ruled that the "unique statute of ancient origin" was not a codification of common law fraud, and applied to attempted deceptions as well as successful ones.

ERISA Class Action Filed Against Fund That Invested With Madoff
The Legal Intelligencer

Spector Roseman Kodroff & Willis has filed a class action in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against investment management fund Austin Capital Management Ltd. for millions in losses due to alleged improper investments by the fund into securities controlled by accused Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff. The law firm says the suit, filed on behalf of a pension fund, is the first suit involving Madoff to be filed against an investment manager for violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.
Visit Law.com's Madoff Watch report

Aggressive IP Strategy Fails -- Again
The Recorder

Eyebrows went up when Silvaco Data Systems sued the customers of a software maker, Circuit Semantics, that it had beaten in a trade secrets case. Last week, one of those customers, Cypress Semiconductor Corp., notched a win in the long-running fight. A judge granted summary judgment to Cypress, ruling that Silvaco didn't have the evidence to show that Cypress acquired or knew about the stolen trade secrets when it bought software from Circuit Semantics.

Three Offices of Attorney Declared 'Vexatious Litigant' Shut Down
The National Law Journal

The State Bar of California has shut down three offices of attorney Mitchell W. Roth, who was recently declared a "vexatious litigant" by a federal judge in Los Angeles, according to the Bar. Roth, who had expanded his law practice to include foreclosure cases, has been hospitalized due to severe depression since Jan. 23, according to the Bar.

Former Miss. Auditor Sentenced in Bribery Case
The Associated Press

A former Mississippi state auditor and a disbarred lawyer were each sentenced to two years in federal prison Friday for their roles in a judicial bribery scheme that toppled famed tobacco litigator Richard "Dickie" Scruggs. Former Mississippi auditor Steve Patterson and disbarred attorney Timothy Balducci were involved in a conspiracy to bribe a judge in a dispute between Scruggs and other lawyers over $26.5 million in legal fees from Hurricane Katrina litigation, authorities said.

Dreier Released From Jail, Begins Home Detention
New York Law Journal

Attorney Mark Dreier was released from jail Friday and was escorted by deputy U.S. marshals to his Manhattan apartment, where he will remain under home detention until $400 million fraud charges against him are resolved. Dreier was also required to put up a $10 million personal recognizance bond co-signed by his mother and son.

Peanut Corp. of America Files for Bankruptcy
The Associated Press

The peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak is going out of business. Peanut Corp. of America filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Friday, the latest bad news for the company that has been accused of producing tainted peanut products that may have reached everyone from poor school children to disaster victims. So far, the outbreak has been suspected of sickening more than 630 people and may have caused nine deaths. It also has led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.

Foley Hoag Forms a 'Stimulus Plan' Practice Group
The National Law Journal

Foley Hoag has formed an interdisciplinary team to help clients get stimulus plan money from the U.S. government for capital projects and other qualified programs or projects. The Boston-based firm's government relations practice formed the team with attorneys from four other practice groups, including energy technology and renewables; environment; infrastructure and privatization; and life sciences.

Visual Computer Forensic Analysis
Special to Law.com

Computer forensics is a slow process in which examiners embark on a tedious file review that can add extra costs. But researchers Greg Conti and Erik Dean have adapted and applied visualization to the process, potentially resulting in a dramatic reduction of the time it takes to review files.
Visit Legal Technology

There's a Better Way to Lay Off Employees
Legal Times

As the country faces an economic downturn, law firms and corporations are forced to take actions such as downsizing and mass layoffs as cost-cutting solutions. As a result, employers and employees are struggling with a multitude of challenges, and a proactive solution is needed immediately. The key is strategic planning, says lawyer and business development professional Melanie A. Klinghoffer. She outlines a three-part plan designed to focus on an organization's most valuable asset: people.
Visit In-House Counsel

Ex-Heller and Cooley Godward Associate Braces for Tough Market
The Recorder

Did people forget to tell law firms that a pink slip is not an appropriate Valentine's Day card? It was probably because they were busy job-hunting. If so, they're in good company, with people like corporate attorney Inna Efimchik. At Heller Ehrman when the firm collapsed, she successfully moved with some of Heller's Venture Law Group to Cooley Godward, only to be laid off a few months later. "There really isn't anyone to send your resume to," Efimchik says, but she's been "networking as wildly as I can."
Visit the Career Center

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crisis: The Coming Law Firm Hiring Crisis

The Coming Law Firm Hiring Crisis

The big firm market is heading toward a hiring and retention crisis unlike any other. The market for labor has changed and, for now, there's no normal to which it can return

Aric Press
The American Lawyer
February 17, 2009

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If present trends continue in the big firm market, we are heading toward -- you pick the cliche -- a paradigm-shifting, blood-in-the-suites, terror-on-the-campus hiring and retention crisis. The "economic reset" that General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt has tagged seems likely to force changes in the way firms recruit, pay and/or retain their lawyers. The market for labor has changed and, for now at least, there's no normal to which it can return.

Law firms are actively considering the prospect of pay cuts, delayed starting dates, sharply reduced offers and more lay-offs. The carnage of Black Thursday will likely continue. This is an ugly situation made worse by the peculiar hiring schemes that were tolerable during good times but now are under serious stress. Not every firm has swung the scythe and some never will. It's notable though that with so many firms pushing out so many people, there is little of the usual talk about how firms are endangering their cultures. For the moment they are more concerned about managing their businesses.

If nothing changes, this fall the same law firms that recently laid off lawyers will start welcoming large groups of new lawyers, whom they will pay too well and for whom they will have too little work. If the layoffs were about saving money in a downturn, the new hires will overwhelm any savings and will signal that the firms regard the economic crisis as little more than a mild detour on the golden brick road.

I wish it were otherwise. But consider the current Conventional Wisdom: At law firms work (and profits) are down, attrition is far below average, law school graduates hired in an optimistic time are about to join firms awash in anxiety, and the conveyor belt that will bring still more eager and talented young lawyers aboard is about to start up again.

This does not seem to be a sustainable situation. If it's not, it will, at a minimum, force law firms to make a harsh choice between the lawyers they already have on staff and the ones they're about to welcome.

THIS IS WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW

Dan DiPietro, the Citigroup law firm banker, and Brad Hildebrandt, the consultant, tell us that demand for legal services is flat or down. Download their report to clients. They are correct, though the real pain in the market is disguised by their modest sample and reliance on averages. In fact, some firms, or at least some practice groups within firms, are churning out work at a very healthy pace, which leaves those below the median in far more serious straits than their grim report suggests.

Leigh Jones in The National Law Journal, helpfully reports that part of the reason for law firm layoffs is to "replicate [normal] attrition," which one chairman she quotes puts at roughly 25 percent annually. Leaving aside the hat tip to "Star Trek", she's right, at least as far as she and the firms go. The problem is that they may have to go much further. Her unnamed chairman explains that his whole "machine" is built around a quarter of his associates leaving each year. But in a climate when virtually no one is leaving voluntarily, laying off a few dozen lawyers won't keep his "machine" from choking on its unproductive parts. At some firms there are too many lawyers and too little work.

Our daily reports on big firm financials show that while top-line growth continued in 2008, profits per partner and revenue per lawyer tended to drop. (See The Am Law 100 -- A Work in Progress.) The situation is not yet dire. Partners continue to earn handsome rewards -- less than last year, more like 2004-05. Many know how good they have it and haven't started grousing. Some are exploring their lateral options; other are scrounging for business; and a few are eyeing their non-equity partners and their associates much as Clint Eastwood glares at his family and new neighbors in the opening scenes of "Gran Torino."

The calendar tells us that we are just 200 days from the post-Labor Day arrival of large classes of new associates who, in curious law firm fashion, were hired in the autumn of 2007, during their third semester of law school. To put it more colorfully, these promising young students were offered summer associate jobs at a time when trees were growing to the skies, infallible economic statesman led Lehman, AIG and Bear Stearns, and -- this is the rub - -summer associates, who didn't get ridiculously drunk at a partner's barbecue and scavenger hunt, were guaranteed jobs starting on or about Sept. 10, 2009. That sputtering sound you hear is Leigh Jones' chairman's "machine" gagging on his new hires.

The calendar also tells us that we are about 180 days from the start of summer on-campus recruiting when law firms, who can't fairly predict what the third quarter of 2009 holds for them, will begin filling up their incoming classes for the fall of 2011. Even in tradition-bound law firm land, this seems a bit much. Instead of vigorously debating whether to offer a firm-embossed flash drive or a PETA-approved monogrammed fleece as an interview take-away, the hiring committees and firm leadership are starting to ask whether they can change the way they do business.

WE KNOW A FEW OTHER THINGS, TOO

Absent the economic calamity, most associates don't want to stay at their firms forever, and firms don't want most of them to stay either. The quarrel is over who decides when they leave.

The second- and third-year associates now getting laid off were themselves recruited barely four years ago. They had sterling resumes, passed the correct-fork test at lunch, and have more or less held up their side of the law firm bargain.

Once they're on board, first-year associates get little or no respect. Clients don't want to pay for their training. Firms bemoan their costs. It's as though they were human toggle switches: the best and the brightest of their graduating classes only 12 months earlier suddenly rendered into dross and objects of regret once they have moved in.

So, if you put all this together you have a system that doesn't fit the times, a system that would have firms lay off lawyers with one hand while scooping up new and presumably less valuable ones with the other. This doesn't make much sense. Who will get hurt the most in this situation? The partners without business, the associates without work, or the 2Ls and 3Ls without experience? No one -- OK, almost no one -- wants to make these choices. But that's what the times demand.

HERE'S WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN THE LABOR MARKET RESET

Lower Starting Salaries

Firms are concluding that they are paying too much to their first-years. Many, if not all, are still struggling with the last round of across-the-board salary increases given to associates two years ago. Bumping starting salaries up to $160,000 in major money centers arguably made sense when profits were booming and firms feared that they were losing their best talent to the hedge funds of Greenwich. Those days are over and yet the 160K bogie remains as inviolate as though it were handed down at Sinai. If the market -- and not weird lemming-style management -- drove the salaries up, then presumably the market should drive them down. How far? Back to $130,000, where they lodged at the peak of the tech boom? Back to $100,000, which one managing partner refers to as a "life-boat offer" -- if you take it, we guarantee not to throw you over the side for several years? Not every firm will choose to cut starting salaries. Some can afford them, for others it will be a matter of pride. And a clever few will break with the past and pay some of their new recruits more than others. But we've never done that! Correct, and you've never laid off 80 lawyers in a day either.

Wage Cuts

Several firms have announced wage freezes: no automatic raises for serving another year. This is not particularly novel among clients but it has caused a stir in law firms. It saves some money, but law firm managers admit perhaps not as much as they will need to weather the downtown. When starting salaries bumped up, the rest of the pay scale improved also. If starting salaries get cut, will the rest of the pyramid take a hit too? There are three reasons why it should.

First, an across-the-board pay cut could save a lot of lawyers jobs. (Before the blogosphere erupts, I understand it's not your fault, I understand that the partners should be out winning business, I understand that you're the victims. So are the Merrill Lynch lawyers cut loose by Bank of America after their principals ran their firm aground. These are bad times and now we have to figure out how to manage them.)

Do the math: In a firm with 500 non-equity partners and associates, a $40,000 pay cut will save almost twice what laying off 50 associates already has. But, you say, some of these lawyers are stars and they must be rewarded! True enough, which brings us to the second reason to go this route: Law firms have too long been wedded to paying their associates in a lock-step fashion. As Citi's DiPietro argued in the August issue of The American Lawyer, it's time to break that routine at most firms, and recognize and reward achievement.

Third, by scaling back the pay packages, law firms will be able to pull back their billing rates and allow second- and third-years to do whatever work may be available without incurring the wrath of hard-pressed clients.

I take as a given that equity partners will share in this pain. If business wasn't off, profits would still be rising and no one would have read this far. But the owners of the firms are taking a hit, though probably less in percentage terms than I've laid out for the associates. It turns out that the owners have more say than the rest of us.

Delayed and Staggered Starts

Like snow geese that cross the 44th parallel every fall, new associates enter law firms each September as though they were obeying a biological imperative. If there is little or no work waiting for them this fall, that seems a mite pointless. Instead, look for firms to behave as their clients do, delaying starts of new employees until there is some demand for their services. And look for them to behave unlike their clients -- offering stipends for extended vacations, pro bono service and advanced course work, anything to build loyalty -- and keep them out of the office.

Sharply Reduced Summer Classes

I doubt that any of the major firms will stop recruiting first-year associates. However, I expect, given the glut of junior associates, that they will reduce the number of new ones they bring on for this summer. It's just your mother's rule applied to hiring: Don't put more on your plate than you need. A class of 10, say, handpicked from Stanford, NYU, Harvard, Georgetown, UCLA, Emory, Northwestern, Columbia, Michigan and Fordham, is likely to maintain the partners' self-esteem without jeopardizing the firm's economics in September 2011. Also, it will allow the firms to continue managing to the metrics established by the National Association of Law Placement; evidently it takes a very brave firm to fall below the 90 percent permanent offer mark for summer associates. They believe that if they dare to cross that barrier they never will be able to hire again. Old beliefs, evidently, die hard. And, finally, it will gently move firms toward the revolutionary idea of hiring new associates out of graduating classes when they might actually know how many they need. Might this leave firms short of labor when and if the surging financial markets return? Maybe. But that's what lateral hiring is for.

More Layoffs

Next time it will be partners. I posted a grim assessment in January and it hasn't changed. I suspect little will happen until autumn. While most firms long ago got over the horror of de-equitizing or outplacing equity partners, those moves tended to come in ones and twos. If the economic plight continues, lopping off one or two overpriced income partners just won't move the needle. Instead, we'll watch a three-step process. First, partner meetings will be filled with phrases like "pilot fish" and other not-so-gentle put-downs. Then, business-generating partners will begin demanding action even while they plan their own exits. Finally, if it gets bad enough, those without equity will find themselves without jobs.

I hope I'm wrong, and that over the next few months the stimulus package will kick in and the global economy will recover. It also would be nice to think that even if it doesn't, law firm partners will exhibit saintly patience and keep paying their associates and partners-without-business as though nothing were amiss. But it doesn't seem likely. More lawyers and staffers will suffer. Someone will create a Law Firm Misery Index. And maybe the crisis will encourage some candid conversation about past practices and the shedding of habits that no longer make much sense.

Brutal Week May Not Be the End of Law Firm Layoffs

Jeff Jeffrey
Legal Times
February 17, 2009

Published By Cathy Kirkman of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati

An Affiliate of the Law.com Network

From the Law.com Newswire

Brutal Week May Not Be the End of Law Firm Layoffs
The Coming Law Firm Hiring Crisis
Judge Holds DOJ Prosecutors in Contempt in Stevens Case
Visual Computer Forensic Analysis
There's a Better Way to Lay Off Employees

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May 21, 2008 5:01 PM Posted By Cathy Permalink

Stanford E-Commerce Conference 6/13

Hope to see you at the E-Commerce Best Practices Conference at Stanford Law School on June 13. I think it's consistently one of the best events around about online legal issues -- credit organizers Roland Vogl, Mark Lemley, and Ian Ballon, among others. I'm moderating a panel -- the agenda's here. It's really the audience that makes the event what it is-- always a great turn-out of the Valley legal crowd.

Questions & comments 0

April 6, 2008 4:08 PM Posted By Cathy Permalink

Make Way for Duck Bites -- Roommates.com

Jumping in with a few thoughts on the 9th Circuit's Roommates.com decision, which came out last week -- some viewpoints include Eric Goldman, Michael Erdman, and Evan Brown.

Roommates was sued for violating the fair housing laws, and it unsuccessfully argued that as an interactive computer service it was immune from liability for the content posted by its users, under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Under the statute, the immunity does not apply if the service provider also participated as an "information content provider", by being "responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of the offending content."

The opinion says it adopts a "common-sense interpretation" of what "developing" is, for the purpose of liability. It says that "[C]lose cases, we believe, must be resolved in favor of immunity, lest we cut the heart out of section 230 by forcing websites to face death by ten thousand duck-bites, fighting off claims that they promoted or encouraged – or at least tacitly assented to – the illegality of third parties."

Actually ducks are really nice animals (guess that's why we're talking 10,000 bites), so let's leave them out of this. Chickens of course have sharp beaks, and geese can be rather aggressive, but ducks are generally quite genial, with rounded bills and just some serrated edges-- so ducks may find the reference offensive and should reserve their rights and remedies. Duck image (c) Tomo.yun, (www.yunphoto.net/en/).

The decision focuses on the term "development" in assessing the site's involvement in providing user drop-down menus for creating their housing profiles, and in providing search and email notifications relating to the user's stated housing preferences. The decision found the "additional comments" portion of the site to be covered by the immunity, because it was a neutral tool for users to post their comments.

"The decision interprets the term "development" as "referring not merely to augmenting the content generally, but to materially contributing to its alleged unlawfulness. [emphasis added]"

"In other words, a web site helps to develop unlawful content, and thus falls within the exception to section 230, if it contributes materially it to the alleged illegality of the conduct [emphasis added]."

It thus associates the CDA immunity analysis with the legally complex notions of contributory liability (and inducement liability), which are areas of some uncertainty in the copyright arena.

The opinion says there's more clarity now about the legal standard than there was before: "Our opinion extensively clarifies where that edge lies, and gives far more guidance than our previous cases". it does take pains to elaborate on what it means by "development", in seeking to avoid a pedantic interpretation, and there's certainly a lot here to digest.

Here's a word cloud summary of some of the opinion's lexicon. These are snippets from the opinion, obviously taken out of context, but after the gestalt of the opinion.

"contributes materially to the alleged illegality of the conduct"

"encourage illegal content"

"designed to achieve illegal ends"

"design your website to require users to input illegal content"

"website directly participates in developing the alleged illegality"

"elicits the allegedly illegal content"

"makes aggressive use of it in conducting its business"

"directly related to the alleged illegality of the site"

"developing and enforcing a system that subjects subscribers to [illegal content]"

"inducing third parties to express illegal preferences"

"enhance, encourage, make easier" the posting of illegal content

"solicit" or "encourage" the harmful content"

"creating a website designed to solicit and enforce [illegal] preferences"

"direct encouragement to perform illegal searches or publish illegal content"

* * * * * * * *

"providing neutral tools"

"generic text"

"simple, generic prompt"

"weak encouragement"

"development by inference"

"enhancement by implication"

"merely provide a framework"

"generic search engines"

"edits are unrelated to the illegality"

"without prompting or help from the website operator"

"did nothing to encourage the posting of [illegal] content"

"contrary to the website's express policies"

"mere classifying user characteristics"

nothing "induces anyone" to engage in illegal conduct

"chat rooms for general use"

"generic message board"

"does not provide any specific guidance"

does not "urge subscribers" to engage in illegal conduct

Rees Morrison's Morsels #92 - additions to earlier posts

Rees Morrison's Morsels #92 – additions to earlier posts

Cost savings in discovery from the use of translation software. If discovery produces documents that are not in a language you or your litigation lawyers can read, t can be dramatically cheaper to have software do the brunt of the translation before people review the documents that remain. This, according to a comment in InsideCounsel, Jan. 2009 at 38, could mean a difference like "$15 per page for human translation to 15 cents using translation software" (See my post of Feb. 9, 2006: translation software for non-English speaking lawyers; March 23, 2007: machine translation and its growing capabilities; Feb. 6, 2008: matter management system that translates; and June 4, 2008: IBM's real-time translation software.).

Ethics/crisis hotline providers. For ethics/crisis hotline, the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) 2008 Law Department Survey at 11 lists Global Compliance Network Service – 11%; Ethics Point and the Network – 5%. Some other provider besides these three serve 14%, while "internal processes" are in place for 48% (See my post of Dec. 31, 2006: ethics hotlines and compliance officers at Raytheon; Dec. 19, 2005: BP hotline for employees and online ethics training; May 8, 2007: third parties who answer hotline calls; and July 5, 2006: the genre of software as a cottage industry.).

Two more advantages of offshore legal work. InsideCounsel, Jan. 2009 at 45, mentions that "the workers that offshoring companies employ … tend to be better educated and more dedicated than temporary employees in the U.S." Offshore they are permanent employees and proud of their job; onshore temps might be biding their time while they search for another job. The second point is that time zone differences allow work to be done in India, for example, while lawyers in the U.S. are sleeping.

Blog by general counsel on settlement strategies. John DeGroote is the Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at BearingPoint, Inc., formerly known as KPMG Consulting, Inc., where he leads a team of over 40 lawyers in 10 countries. He has been blogging on settlement strategies and negotiation at "Settlement Perspectives". It is an excellent blog, with both content and visual panache (See my post of Jan. 28, 2009: law department management blawgs with 11 references.).

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Posted by Rees Morrison on February 13, 2009 in Various Observations | Comments (0) | Permalink

by Larry Bodine: Top 10 mistakes People Make on LinkedIn

Posted on January 13, 2009 by Larry Bodine

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Larry Bodine Twitosphere Drawing in a Steady Stream of Twittering Lawyers

Posted on February 4, 2009 by Larry Bodine

Twitosphere Drawing in a Steady Stream of Twittering Lawyers

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

A steady stream of lawyers is using Twitter.com -- on their computers and on their Blackberrys -- to network with peers, post industry news and drum up business.

How to tweet

Twitter is a free social networking service that allows users to post and receive messages.

Updates from others appear on Twitter.com or on sites connected to Twitter accounts, such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

(A user of Twitter.com is known as a "tweeter" or "twitterer." The message posted is called a "tweet." When you post tweets, you're "tweeting.")

Messages must be under 140 characters in length. They can be sent to an individual as a direct message or to your entire network.

A key feature is the ability to "follow" other Tweeters. By visiting the Twitter account pages of other users and clicking on the "follow" button, their postings start appearing on your home screen.

But you don't have to open your Web browser to link in to Twitter. Downloading programs such as Twitterific will send Tweets to cellphones as text messages. Other programs such as PocketTweets and Tweetie are used with the iPhone.

Wayne Serra spends his workday immersed in the rarefied world of intellectual property law.

He prepares software patent applications, defends infringement claims and advises clients on medical research developments. But every once in a while, the Cleveland lawyer sticks his toe into the broad conversational river known as Twitter.

It's like microblogging crossed with instant messaging. The initial appeal appeared to be mostly among tech-heads and teenyboppers who had an urge to relay real-time bulletins to their friends about any and everything.

Reasons to tweet

• Expand your network.

• Drive traffic to a blog.

• Simulate the water cooler

Message colleagues.

Monitor the buzz.

• Keep up with a local court.

• Track activity at a conference.

• Promote an event or seminar.

SOURCE: Robert J. Ambrogi, Law Technology News

Now the Twitosphere, as it's known, is drawing in a steady stream of lawyers and other professionals who are networking with peers, posting industry news and drumming up business.

"It's a very powerful tool, a way to get discreet bits of information in front of people," said Serra, a partner at Ulmer & Berne.

Serra, 41, has Twittered about:

Interesting patent cases in court
Novel interpretations of intellectual property law
Issues at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
New computer technology.

He's also kept touch with other patent lawyers and with IT leaders such as Apple's chief design technician, Jonathan Ive, and a top program manager at Google, Chris DiBona. He follows 61 other Twitterers and has 118 following him.

Serra's goal is to build a community of like-minded professionals who exchange ideas. Ambrogi calls it a virtual water cooler. The Boston attorney at first doubted Twitter's usefulness because of its "high noise ratio." Now he views it as an interesting way to keep his finger on the pulse of what lawyers are talking about.

Lawyers can use Twitter to monitor what's being said about their firm, a client or a business, Ambrogi said. Twitter also can play into the "ubiquity factor" of marketing -- repeatedly getting your name in front of potential clients.

Twitter is indeed full of banal chatter, maybe because it's free, easy and instant. It's biggest drawback, users say, is the sheer onslaught of words. For lawyers operating under information overload already, it can be a prodigious distraction.

Follow The PD

Plain Dealer news and more is available on Twitter. To see some of our feeds and find out how to follow us, go to cleveland.com/twitter.

Ambrogi handles it through software called a Tweetdeck that scrolls in-coming tweets on a screen separate from his computer, much like a Times Square ticker tape. Even so, it's a time-eater, and Ambrogi frequently shuts off the tweets.

Kevin O'Keefe, chief executive of LexBlog, also was a Twitter skeptic. "I couldn't see the benefit of it, someone saying 'My cat just rolled over,' " O'Keefe recounted in a call from Seattle, where he runs his Internet marketing company for lawyers.

He changed his mind after last year's devastating earthquake in China, when Twitter broke the news before the mainstream media. Twitterers also got the jump on the terrorist attack in Mumbai and the Continental Airlines jet that slid off a runway in Denver last month. "Holy &* %%, I was just in a plane crash," passenger Mike Wilson messaged seconds after the accident.

Convinced that Twitter had impact, O'Keefe signed up and began weaving it into his legal work.

He now pronounces it the single biggest branding tool he's ever used. It allows lawyers to network on steroids, he said, making it a far more efficient tool than joining a country club and playing golf.

Tags: Tech

Credit Crisis Litigation -- The Hottest Practice area by Larry Bodine

Posted on February 12, 2009 by Larry Bodine

Credit Crisis Litigation -- The Hottest Practice area

Kevin Lacroix, hot law practice, law firm marketing, marketing directo WEBINAR PRESENTED BY: Apollo Business Development
SPEAKER: Kevin M. LaCroix, Esq.
DATE: March 12, 2009; 1PM - 2:15 PM Eastern
LOCATION: on the web, on your computer
CONTACT: Laura Kresich, Program Director; (Tel) (773) 966-9273 or www.PBDI.org
Save $50 by registering on or before February 27, 2009.

The subprime loan crisis created a giant wave of commercial litigation that will surpass the number of cases that grew out of the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. Since we last presented this program in September 2008, the economy has worsened significantly, creating multiple new opportunities for legal work.

Lawyers who want a large and profitable caseload of litigation that will last for years will get smart about credit crisis litigation now. This webinar is designed to do exactly that: identify the causes of action, the plaintiffs and the defendants -- and show you the business development techniques to amass clients in this historic surge of litigation.

Lawyer Kevin M. LaCroix has been lecturing and writing a blog about credit crisis litigation since it began. Mr. LaCroix has been involved in directors' and officers' liability insurance issues for over 25 years. He began his career as a coverage attorney and partner at the Washington, D.C law firm of Ross, Dixon and Bell.

"I've gotten a lot of calls, especially in the last six weeks from lawyers who are not active in the sector and want to become active, but they don't know how to get into it – how to get up to speed and how to attract clients, what areas to focus on," LaCroix says. "There's more litigation and it's evolved."

Save $50 by registering on or before February 27, 2009.
Contact Laura Kresich: (773) 966-9273

or email Lkresich@LawMarketing.com
Registration fee: $300
Sign up online at http://www.pbdi.org/pages/cceventform.asp?EventID=216

For general information, please visit www.PBDI.org

Tags: LMA, Legal, Marketing, Sales, association, credit, crisis, director, litigation, loan, subprime

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Larry Bodine

March 17-18: Economist Conferences' Seventh Annual Marketing Forum

I plan on attending this conference. If you are going, let me know at Lbodine [at] LawMarketing.com.

Economist marketing forum

Chief marketing officers have been hit with a double whammy in the current financial turbulence: the slowing economy is forcing most of them to become cost-cutters just at the time they are being asked by their CEOs to take more responsibility for building brands and increasing revenue. At the same time, media consumption habits are changing significantly, leading CMOs to struggle with how to build brands in the digital age. They need to use their marketing dollars more effectively, decide on the proper mix of online and offline spending, take advantage of new technology and learn to reach and engage customers in new ways that underline two-way dialogues rather than simply pushing out one-way marketing messages.

CMOs also are being asked to take the lead role in "greening" their companies, as sustainability has become a smart way to do business and win customers rather than a simple buzzword. Plus, given the flattening of the world, they need to expand the reach of their brands globally. All this occurs as the average tenure of a CMO continues to decline and they have to fight influence in the executive suite. These and many other paradigm shifting changes in marketing will be discussed at Economist Conferences' Seventh Annual Marketing Forum.

For more information or to reserve your place, please contact:

Rosemary Didomizio

Customer Relations Executive

TEL: (1.212) 554-0627

E-mail: americas_customerservice@economist.com

For Attendees: The Economist has established a LinkedIn group for all people who will be attending the event (speakers, attendees, among others). I encourage you to join the group where you can talk shop with your peers or just send out a friendly meet and greet email. To join the group, please click: http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1565287

Details: Register here

The registration fee for corporate executives is $1,695. The fee for executives outside the marketing function and representatives from business service companies and solution providers is $2,595. If you have a discount code, please enter when registering.

Tags: Marketing

Advice From Lawyer Lincoln

Advice From Lawyer Lincoln

A lawyer's time and advice are his stock in trade, said one of our nation's most famous lawyers, Abraham Lincoln. But in honor of President's Day, you can have the privilege of some of Lincoln's advice at no charge, courtesy of Rhonda Abrams in this article at USA Today. From the story, here are some choice pieces of Lincoln-esque advice for lawyers:

On planning and time management:

-- "Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today. Never let your correspondence fall behind. Whatever piece of business you have in hand, before stopping, do all the labor pertaining to it which can then be done."

On dealing with clients:

-- "An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case. ... Settle the amount of fee and take a note in advance ... and you are sure to do your work faithfully and well."

-- "Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser -- in fees, expenses, and waste of time."

On the importance of quality and integrity:

-- "If in your own judgment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer."

Have a great Presidents' Day weekend -- we'll be back at Legal Blog Watch on Tuesday.

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Posted by Carolyn Elefant on February 13, 2009 at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Valentine's Day Roundup

Valentine's Day Roundup

Everyone loves a love story, even lawyers. From around the blogosphere, here's a roundup of Valentine's Day-related stories:

Partners in law and life: The idea of husband and wife attorneys working at the same firm is no longer unusual these days, as firms are eliminating policies that bar couples from firms, according to the National Law Journal. It seems that working in the same office is one of the best ways to spend time together given the long hours that law practice demands.

Romance 101 for lawyers: South Florida lawyer Hugo Alvarez shares his story of how he proposed to his wife here. After dating her for two years, Alvarez created a fictitious lawsuit and had his then-girlfriend served with a subpoena for a deposition -- and she asked him to represent her. At the deposition, Alvarez had the opposing counsel question his girlfriend, and when counsel reached the question series' arc, Alvarez took over, dropped to his knee and presented a ring. The couple still has the actual deposition transcript to document the day.

And for the less romantically-inclined this weekend...

If you've got 60 minutes, you can get a divorce: The ABA Journal reports on the "60 Minute Divorce," the brainchild of New York's Brodsky Law Firm. Essentially, married couples seeking to separate can show up at the law firm, pick up a $10 gift card for lunch at McDonald's or Starbucks and enjoy a final awkward meal together while the firm prepares a $699 divorce ($299 for the divorce, with the rest for filing, process and court fees). After lunch, the couple returns to the office, signs the paperwork and splits.

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Posted by Carolyn Elefant on February 13, 2009 at 02:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Friday the 13th Comes a Day Early for Law Firms

Friday the 13th Comes a Day Early for Law Firms

Don't call Bruce MacEwen, of the Adam Smith, Esq. blog, a triskaidekaphobic. As MacEwen argues, yesterday's spate of law firm layoffs (nearly 800 associates and staff nationwide, according to The Recorder) has nothing to do with bad luck, it's just another sign of today's recessionary times.

Still, why did firms announce so many layoffs on Thursday? MacEwen says that it's partly coincidence, but also partly a result of three other factors:

* Financial results for 2008 are now in, and there can no longer be an argument in many firms that "we need to wait to see what the numbers actually are" before making any decisions. Lawyers are, among other things, believers in evidence, and the results of 2008 are now in evidence. I can imagine that many tentative decisions which were awaiting confirmation by the final numbers were pending, only to be announced this week.

* Similarly, no one wants to be so heartless and inhumane as to fire people during the holidays. This would explain the withholding of layoff announcements during December and early January.

* During end-of-year discussions with clients about collections and expectations for 2009, you have to believe that some reality checks were put in place about what level of revenue firms might expect going forward. If those expectations are now built in to the firms' 2009 financial models, adjustments in the cost base might be in order.

Seems that this Friday the 13th is just a sign that many more days of bad luck lie ahead for lawyers.

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Posted by Carolyn Elefant on February 13, 20