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Multinational Reference
Reference Sources for Nations and Regions
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[return to top] LEGAL GUIDES AND MISCELLANEOUS
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| | Library of Congress Contact Us ( June 10, 2005 ) |
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FROM AMERICAN BAR ASS.
Future of the Legal Profession
Final Report: Overview
The Committee on Research About the Future of the Legal Profession, chaired by Robert J. Grey Jr. of Richmond, Va., spent the past two years working on issues related to the future of the legal profession.&nbps; During FY2000-2001, the Committee focused its efforts on developing a report on the current state of the profession to serve as a platform to examine the challenges and opportunities of change and how the legal profession can and should define its own future. The Committee issued an interim report in 2001.
In its second year, the Committee worked with legal futurist Stuart A. Forsyth to envision the preferred future of the legal profession and to determine action steps that would foster that future. That report was presented to the ABA Board of Governors at its August meeting in
Presentation to the
As presented to the Board, the Committee’s report used a multi-media approach that included printed materials, an audio recording, and oral and slide presentations.
As Dr. Alan Kay, inventor of the graphical user interface, has said,
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."
American Online and Yahoo are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from 1/4 of a cent to a penny each to have them delivered. This reported by Saul Hansell at the New York Times.
Steve Rubel, a recognized leader in PR & communications on the net and my source, sees this as email marketing goodbye, RSS hello.
The door has officially closed on email marketing. Maybe this will drive more companies to start up opt-in RSS feeds and blogs that facilitate dialogue.
In 2004 Bill Gates said Web sites and email were outdated means of communication and that blogs with RSS were the answer. We're beginning to see it.
Sincerely tours Rodrigo González Fernández, consultajuridica.blogspot.com
10 Commandments for The Era of Participatory Public Relations
So, please tell me a law firm that these do not apply to (these are the handy work of Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion) noticed referenced today on Tom Peter's Newswire:
1) Thou shall listen – Utilize every avenue available to you to listen actively to what your publics have to say and feed it back to the right parties.
2) Remember that all creatures great and small are holy – It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times calling on you or an individual blogger, both have power. Take them all seriously.
3) Honor thy customer – Create programs that celebrate customers and they will celebrate you.
4) Thou shall not be fake – Keep it real; don't hide behind characters and phony IDs.
5) Covet thy customers – Don’t sue your fans. You will alienate them.
6) Thou shall be open and engaging – Involve your customers in the PR process. Invite them to help you develop winning ideas and become your spokespeople.
7) Thou shall embrace blogging – It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay. Be part of it.
8) Thou shall banish corporate speak – People want to here from you in a human voice. Don’t hind behind corporate speak. It will soon sound like ye olde English.
9) Thou shall tell the truth – If you don’t tell the truth, it will come out anyway.
10) Thou shall thinketh in 360 degrees – Ask not what you can do for your customer, but also what your customer can do for you.
Sincerely yours Rodrigo González Fernández consultajuridica.blogspot.com
Is Diversity on your management agenda? Has it ever been?
This is a serious wake up call to every single member of your law firm's management team.
Diversity is not some do-good-philanthropic-topic for a tea party of the rich and bored. Diversity is serious business: serious to business; serious for business… not to mention that it is the right thing to do.
In her Law.com article today, Wal-Mart Demands Diversity in Law Firms, Meredith Hobbs explores the demands that General Counsel in major corporations are placing at the doorstep of law firms.
The General Counsel referenced in the article are in the following companies:
Wal-Mart
Visa International
Del Monte
Pitney Bowes
Cox Communications
The article goes on to say:
So far, close to 100 general counsel have signed on, including those from some of the nation's biggest companies.
If you think you can get by this issue with tokenism, you need to understand what is being demanded of you. For example, the article includes these quotes:
The nation's biggest retailer wants to see diversity at the top.
The goal… is to "increase the number of women and minorities directly responsible for [our] relationship at our law firms."
"We are terminating a firm right now strictly because of their inability to grasp our diversity expectations,"
In her Separate but Equal article in Marketing the Law Firm, a Law Jounal Newsletters publication, Elizabeth Anne 'Betiayn' Tursi offers this advice:
The idea that law firm leaders need not be at the helm of these initiatives can only mean that it will be doomed to fail. The chair or managing partner of a firm must be a proponent of the causes and must be involved in every aspect of promoting the initiatives. In the case of creating this particular blueprint, management serves as the "project leader" or lead architect. Leadership can set the tone for the institution of these initiatives and is in the enviable position of selecting others in the firm who can also promote and develop the actual initiatives. And yes, there should be a chair for each initiative — diversity, pro bono, recruiting and marketing — who meet once a month, with the directors of these initiatives to ensure that they are working together to develop the blueprint, and also to make certain that these individuals are in a positions that enable them to have a voice in implementing the programs to achieve the intended result.
Guy Kawasaki is quite extraordinary "evangelist, entrepreneur, investment banker, and venture capitalist" kind of sums it up but not quite.
In his post today, he discusses The Art of Schmoozing... his list is not only consistent with some of the best academic work I have seen on the subject but he describes his steps in such a compelling way, for example, his third step is:
Ask good questions, then shut up. The mark of a good conversationalist is not that you can talk a lot. The mark is that you can get others to talk a lot. Thus, good schmoozers are good listeners, not good talkers. Ask softball questions like, “What do you do?” “Where are you from?” “What brings you to this event?” Then listen. Ironically, you'll be remembered as an interesting person.
PUNCHLINE: Whether you are a Managing Partner or a CMO, share Guy Kawasaki's 9 step list with your law firm. You may have to translate it a bit (removing words that twist the stomach of most lawyers - like "tradeshows" - gosh, what would a lawyer do at a trade show, or MySpace - heaven forbid.) However the wisdom in this list is far too valuable to overlook.
Sincerely yours Rodrigo González Fernández, consultajuridica.blogspot.com
