• Congratulations to Ann Althouse on her engagement to Lawrence Meade, one of her blog readers
• Brian Cuban wants you to know that liability for Sexting is Serious
• ent lawyer suspects the Countess(from Real Housewives of New York)’s motivation in filing for divorce – just as she embarks on a book tour
• Legal Blog Watch again highlights Carl Malamud and his efforts to make court filings freely available to the public
• Earnie The Attorney takes a skeptical look at Martindale-Hubbel’s $59 price for rating attorneys
• Digital Media Law assesses SAG’s bargaining position vis-a-vis the studios
• Florida Asset Protection reports that second mortgage lenders are becoming more aggressive

Just a happy end of week email sent to Customer Care from an Avvo user:

Subject: love the site

Email:

hi I love your site, it is a great way to preview lawyers before you select or meet one.

I sure wish I knew about this site before, but I get great info. I have tried other sites & they are pale in comparison. Also, your site is easy to maneuver.

Also, It appears your lawyers are quite smart & actually care about their potential clients

polly

Thanks Polly! We’re so glad you found Avvo useful.

A while ago I posted on the growing success and importance of Q&A sites on the web and their affect on user search behavior. Here are some numbers I pulled from compete.com to support my theory.

wiki.answers.com shows 148% growth YOY.
answers.yahoo.com shows 42% growth YOY.

Now, you may once again ask yourself…

Why do I, a highly experienced attorney, care about Q&A sites?

Let’s get to it…

1) People who answer these questions are forever tied to the content.

Whether it be on Avvo Answers or some other Q&A site, if you provide a quality answer to “How much does a DUI cost?”, your answer (and more importantly, your professional presence) will live on with the question. As I mentioned in my previous post, the traffic to Q&A pages is, generally speaking, highly targeted – meaning people who search for “how much does a DUI cost” are very likely to need a DUI lawyer in the future, and if they encounter said question on a site where your answer is the best, they are more likely to contact you.

Ideally, you can provide this content on a site that recognizes your position as a legal professional so consumers understand you are knowledgeable and you are open for business (again, a site like Avvo).

2) It’s easier than blogging and more consumer-focused… (though you should also blog)

Blogging requires a level of creativity not everyone possesses. It’s also very time consuming. Answering questions is much more focused and specific, and it doesn’t require you to be inspired to write. In addition, a legal blogger’s audience is typically other legal professionals, an approach that, depending on practice area, may not be that effective in snagging new clients. In contrast, answers to consumer questions are by definition consumer focused – you’re actually interacting with prospective clients.

3) Answering questions is one of the most effective ways to improve your consumer-facing online presence, period.

It varies from site to site, but generally each answerer is marked with a link to his or her “profile” on that site where you can usually include a link to your site or a phone number or email address (this is certainly the case for Avvo). First rule of online marketing: more links = more traffic = more prospective clients = more $$$. (That is also the second and third rules).

If you compare Q&A results, in terms of link building, to the effort required to build a blog/twitter network, it’s pretty compelling. Each answer is a link whereas you can blog all day and no one will see it unless you convince other people to link to you.

4) It’s free (other than your time).

If you are a solo or small firm, honestly, you can’t afford not to do this. The cost of traditional marketing is astronomical. Even SEM (Search Engine Marketing; i.e, buying web traffic) in the legal space is highly competitive and expensive.

Let’s consider the prior example. How much are you currently spending to get your name in front of 100 people that probably need a DUI lawyer? Spending 20 minutes answering a handful of DUI related questions will likely get your answer, your name, and your smiling face 100 pages views over the following months. Rinse and repeat and you could get your presence out to literally thousands of people a week… for free.

Granted, answering questions online is not for everyone. It does take time, which not everyone has. You might be the type that doesn’t like to get their hands dirty in the marketing space. You may have enough cash to hire a marketing team. You might hate computers. Or you might be in a position where you have more work than you need and aren’t interested in more. Good for you. But for the small firm, the solo, or the lawyer fresh out of law school looking to make a name for his or herself, it is an excellent, effective, cheap way to build online presence and interact with prospective clients.

Here’s my quick wrap-up after 3 days at ABA’s Techshow. In no particular order:

Overheard
“Lawyers have the ability to embarrass themselves on Twitter very easily.” – Kevin O’Keefe
“Some kind of social networking will come to dominate the way legal services are delivered.” Richard Susskind during Keynote
“Its the end of many or most lawyers as we know them.” – Susskind
“The biggest security risk for online legal services is employee and client passwords” – Steve Matthews
“Lawyers embracing web 2.0 offers the legal community access to the middle class.” – David Bilinksy

Twitter
After hearing a pretty over the top proclamation “Twitter is becoming more powerful than Google” from a panelist who will remain unnamed, the Twitter Panel quickly devolved into a discussion of the myriad tools available to monkey with today’s social media darling. Some of my favorites:

Tweetoclock - if a tweeter tweets in the middle of the night and no one reads it, does it matter? Tweetoclock tells what time of day and day of week any individual is most active of Twitter so you can target your twitter stalking. (I’m apparently consumed with twitter on Tuesday’s at 10 PST.)
Tweetburner – Ever wonder if your tinyurl’s are actually getting clicked?
TwitterLocal - it was only a matter of time before twitter and local data tied the knot.

E-Discovery
I listened to an insightful discussion on searching and analysis. While the focus was on e-discovery, the parallel to search engine optimization was obvious. The session focused on the difficulties of combing through massive amounts of data to deliver relevant and useful intelligence to lawyers. The takeaway? “there is no secret sauce. It’s just a difficult problem.”

Data Security
One of the themes that came across in numerous sessions was the importance of multiple backups for computer data through (all) three approaches. The experts on the panel recommended 2-3 backups per day (imagine loosing an entire day’s work, yet how many lawyers actually back up more than daily?)

1. Local backup to an external hard drive.
2. Off site backup. (for example, from your office to your home computer).
3. Third party backup through a service. I met Mozypro on the trade show floor which offers a $5/month simple, web-based solution for this.

And now, on to the unofficial Techshow awards. . .
Wow Factor Award: Goes to Scene Systems, a computerized 3D accident recreation service. They wisely had a massive flat screen showing their recreation of Sully’s landing on the Hudson.

The I Wish I had $6K to Blow on Pimping My Office Award: I spent a good time talking with the guys at Face to Face, which offers easy-to-implement, high definition teleconferencing hardware.

The Overcrowded Industry Award: I’d estimate at least a third of the vendors on the floor sold some version of Legal Practice Management Software. The one that stood out from the crowd was Rocket Matter - differentiated by their web based, easy to use platform.

The Simple Business Model Award: Jabberclick - provides pay per click services for names at a fixed fee of $20/month.

1.  Harold Wrobel of Pacific Palisades, CA vaulted to the top of the list due to his reappearance on the second season of the Millionaire Matchmaker.  Unlucky in love and making the same mistakes (approaching 50, Harold insists on dating women in their early 20s), Harold reappeared this season.  Harold remains in the memories of loyal Millionaire viewers, as the millionaire who in the first season was unilaterally dismissed by his 24-year old date for not knowing who or what Napoleon Dynamite was.

2.  Okorie Okorocha of Los Angeles, CA is a regular top viewed lawyer on Avvo – due to his extraordinary participation on Avvo Answers

3.  Tamara Cross of San Diego, CA has claimed her profile and has been in demand – since she specialize in Landlord/Tenant Cases

4.  William Head of Atlanta GA reappears regularly on this list due to his due to his extraordinary contributions to Avvo ( Answers, Videos and Legal Guides)

5.  Alan Brinkmeier of Elmhurst, IL makes his second appearance on the list due to his continued contributions to Avvo Legal Guides and Avvo Answers

6.  Gary Furlong of Seattle, WA is the Honorary Consul General of the Consultate of Uzbekistan

7.  Marilyn Siegel Smith of Seattle, WA

8.  Harper Dimmerman of Philadelphia, PA makes his debut on ths list – due to strong contribution to Answers and Legal Guides

9.  Blair Frederick Paul of Seattle, WA makes his second appearance on the list

10.  Elizabeth Fry of Omak, WA may appear on this list because people were searching for information on an annual gala benefit for the Elizabeth Fry Society.

Massachusetts is the latest to file suit against the Fairfield Greenwich Group (FGG), one of the principal “feeder” funds for the now-infamous ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff (pictured). Mass regulators are alleging a “profound disparity” between FGG’s alleged and actual due diligence on Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, the broker-dealer that implemented the mystical “split strike conversion” strategy (which everyone now realizes is similar to the more common “liquor store holdup” strategy).

In light of Massachusetts allegations of “profound disparity,” I wanted to share some of the FGG pitch documents (links below) that a friend forwarded to me a couple of months back. This is from a FGG pitch in October 2008 for their Fairfield Sentry, Ltd. fund (yes, “sentry” like “guard”) and it is full of some now-fascinating quotes, such as:

• “[FGG seeks] a more transparent understanding of risk from all managers . . . for FGG portfolio analysis and risk monitoring.”

• “Value Added by FGG: Independent verification of prices and account values”

• “Value Added by FGG: Systematic investment compliance monitoring of Operating Guidelines”

• “Value Added by FGG: Examination of option greeks to make sure the hedge is working as expected”

• “The services of [Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC] and its personnel are essential to the continued operation of the Fund, and its profitability, if any.” (emphasis provided)

Admittedly, I am not close to the case; but it feels like shooting fish in the Massachusetts barrel. Here are the pitch documents so you can form your own opinons. We shall see.

FGG Sentry Fund Pitch Powerpoint
FGG Strategy Description

Sleep with one financial eye open.

Mark

The Florida Bar has some of the nation’s most far-reaching restrictions on attorney advertising, and it enforces these restrictions zealously. These restrictions include out-and-out prohibitions on referring to past results or using testimonial advertising. Citing these prohibitions, the Bar told Joel Rothman, a Boca Raton attorney with a technology practice, that he was in violation of the Bar’s advertising rules because several of his clients had reviewed him on Avvo.

Thousands upon thousands of clients have reviewed attorneys on Avvo. And while attorneys can certainly ask their clients to leave reviews (as Rothman did), the content of any such review is ultimately up to the client. Attorneys can’t write, post or delete client reviews. Having this sort of independence is critical to providing the kind of trusted feedback that consumers crave when making a purchasing decision. Nonetheless, the Florida Bar Advertising Committee apparently sees no difference between hand-selected testimonial advertising and independent reviews – it’s all prohibited.

Here’s the thing – even hand-picked testimonials shouldn’t be a problem, as long as they aren’t deceptive. This outright ban is, without question, unconstitutional. Even the Federal Trade Commission has told the Florida Bar that its prohibition on testimonials is ill-advised and not in the consumer interest.

Good thing Public Citizen is around – they, along with Rothman, have filed a lawsuit in federal court today asking that Florida’s prohibitions on testimonial advertising and references to past results be declared unconstitutional. This case, along with other litigation filed against New York and Louisiana bar rules, hopefully marks the beginning of the end of overreaching restrictions on attorney advertising everywhere.