Although it’s been nearly 20 years since I started my legal career, I can still vividly recall two recurrent thoughts from the first year or two I practiced:

• How was I going to learn all of this stuff? The actual practice of law required mastery of all sorts of technical rules, industry practices, professional understandings and strategic considerations. The senior attorneys in the firm just seemed to get it all; for me, as a newly–minted lawyer, it was a daily reminder of how little I knew.

• People will take advantage of your mistakes. You screw up, and opposing counsel is going to make you pay. This was one of the most unique – and terrifying – aspects of learning how to practice law.

What kept me out of trouble was being aware of these limitations. I learned as much as I could, everywhere I could. I asked questions. I looked things up. I worked hard, and absorbed everything. And if I had to give a partner or a client a legal answer that I knew they wouldn’t like, I took the time to make absolutely, positively certain that I was right.

After all, these were people with vastly more experience than me. I couldn’t presume to take a legal position based on something I remembered from law school, or came up with based on a cursory bit of research.

When I first read about Joseph Rakofsky getting over his head in taking a murder trial so early in his career, I immediately thought of how I felt when I was a year out of law school. Unprepared. Often overwhelmed. And I’ve thought about it more since the filing of “Rakofsky v. the Internet”, and being named as a defendant for writing a blog post about his ill-advised decision to file the suit. How could the lightning of ineptitude twice strike someone who should know better?

But I had two things as a young lawyer that Rakofsky apparently lacks: Awareness and good mentors. The effortless competence of the attorneys I worked with at that small litigation firm in San Mateo was a constant reminder of how much I needed to learn. And those attorneys were always offering guidance, advice and support.

Perhaps Rakofsky didn’t have mentors to help guide his decision-making in these formative early years of his legal career. It’s got to be harder to get advice from experienced attorneys when you’re trying to fly solo right out of school. But perhaps it wouldn’t have made a difference. Rakofsky had co-counsel for his murder case. He has a more experienced lawyer representing him in his Quixotic quest to silence those who wrote about his missteps. Surely someone has tried to offer some adult guidance. But if you haven’t the awareness, the understanding that you don’t know very much when you’ve just gotten your law license, mentoring hasn’t a chance.

There’s a concept in psychology known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. It’s a cognitive bias encountered by some incompetent people, in which they lack the ability to appreciate their own limitations. Perversely, this makes them MORE confident.

While those suffering from the Dunning-Kruger effect may lead happy and contented lives in other occupations, the adversarial nature of practicing law is inevitably going to lay incompetence bare. That seems to be the case with the unfortunate Mr. Rakofsky. His murder trial ended badly, and his civil lawsuit will only compound the damage.

What’s the lesson of Rakofsky’s ineptitude? I believe that the vast majority of young attorneys are aware that they don’t know much, that law is a difficult profession where proficiency is earned only by time and practice. But if you’re a young lawyer, and what you’re thinking of doing flies in the face of conventional wisdom or the advice of more experienced attorneys, you need to look extra-hard in the mirror. You may be right. But you’ll be doing yourself a favor if you interrogate your ideas and conclusions from every angle before taking action. Or at least entertain the possibility that you’re wrong.

Because probably, you are.

As a follow up to “10 questions I’d ask a prospective SEO consultant,” this week I’ll cover 10 questions I’d ask a prospective PPC (pay-per-click) consultant.  PPC consultants (or agencies) buy PPC ads on your behalf to appear on Google, Bing and other places.

1)    How do you structure your fees?

There are several ways PPC agencies can structure fees, all of which have things you have to watch out for.  Here are a few:

Percent of spend

The PPC agency will charge you, say, 15% of everything they spend as a fee.

What to watch out for: The PPC agency is incentivized to simply spend as much money as possible without optimizing the quality of traffic. If you do this, watch out for ever-present pitches trying to convince you to increase your monthly spend without first proving positive ROI (return on investment). Also watch out that the agency isn’t buying junk traffic just to run up your bill.

Fixed fee

The PPC agency will charge you a fixed amount per month, regardless of what you spend.

What to watch out for: A PPC agency on a fixed fee model doesn’t have any incentive to do anything other than keep you from canceling, or, if you’ve locked yourself into a multi-month contract, then they don’t have any incentive to do anything, really.  You’ll need to make sure that the agency is spending at the monthly level they’re supposed to and monitor traffic quality.

Another thing to watch out for, if you’re paying up front, is that the agency doesn’t pocket the difference if they don’t spend at the level they’re supposed to.  For example, if you pay an agency $1,000/mo, and they’re supposed to spend it on ads, but they only spend $500, make sure the other $500 rolls over to next month instead of rolling over into the agency’s pocket.

Performance based

You and the PPC agency will agree on a type of conversion, let’s say phone calls, and the PPC agency will agree to charge you $XX per phone call.

What to watch out for: You’ll need to make sure that PNCs (potential new clients) are turning into real clients. If the PPC agency gets paid to make the phone ring, then they’re incentivized to make the phone ring as much as possible, even if it’s people calling for free advice, or if it’s people asking for services you don’t provide.  It could even be salesmen calling you.  Unless you keep a close eye on whether PNCs are turning into real clients, performance based pricing can lull you into a false sense of security.

That said, if you’re paying for phone calls or emails, you also have to take some responsibility for how many potential clients turn into real clients.  It’s your job to make that percentage as high as possible.

Which model is best?

I wouldn’t say any one model is necessarily better than another.  Ultimately what matters is that the agency is sending PNCs your way and those PNCs are turning into real clients at a rate and price that creates a positive ROI.  Pricing models are different ways of skinning the same cat.  Just keep an eye on whatever bad behavior your pricing model may incentivize.

2)    Do you offer call tracking?

In my opinion call tracking (the ability to tie phone calls back to PPC campaigns) is absolutely crucial for professionally managed PPC for local businesses.

Most people prefer to call a doctor or lawyer rather than write an email or fill out a form.  That’s why if you’re interested in tracking the ROI of your PPC efforts accurately, and you should be, then you’ll need call tracking.  Without call tracking, you won’t really know how much you’re paying per PNC, and without that, you’ll have no idea whether you’re flushing money down the drain.

Not only should you ask if call tracking is available, but you should also ask about the granularity of call tracking.  For example, will you only be able to tell how much you’re paying for all phone calls generated by the PPC agency? Or, in the case of a lawyer, will you be able to break down how much you’re paying for phone calls from divorce clients vs. personal injury clients?

Because different kinds of clients generate different kinds of revenue, it’s helpful to be able to break down call tracking by practice area, that way you can optimize your campaigns efficiently.

3)    How do you handle reporting?

All PPC agencies offer reporting of some sort.  At the end of the day, only three things really matter:

-    How many PNCs the PPC agency is generating.
-    How much you’re paying per contact with each PNC.
-    How many PNCs turn into actual clients (quality).

Beyond those three things, it’s simply a matter of granularity, and if you know these things, you can figure out your ROI.
Beware of fluffy reports that don’t tell you anything useful.  For example, merely knowing that you received 500 clicks last month doesn’t tell you anything if you don’t know whether those clicks turned into clients or just wasted your money.

I’ve seen plenty of PPC reports that tout things like “We’ve reduced your cost per click by 20% from when you were managing this yourself.” The client thinks, “Wow! You’re saving me 20%!” In reality, who really knows if the client is better off—without tracking things like phone calls and emails, it’s entirely possible to cut off meat instead of fat.

Another thing to watch out for with reporting is hidden fees.  For example, I once saw a PPC agency that was charging a client something like 50% of spend as its fee, which is pretty outrageous.  But the client had no idea half of his ad spend money was going straight into the PPC agency’s pocket because the monthly reports rolled fees into the cost per click figures.  In other words, if the actual cost per click of his ads was $5/click, the PPC agency would report it as $10/click.

4)    What PPC networks do you advertise on?

Ideally, a PPC agency will go beyond advertising simply on Adwords and buy advertising on a variety of other networks.  Advertising on other networks can be a huge pain, but hey, that’s why you’re paying someone else to do it.  While Google Adwords may dominate the share of searches, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other places to find potential clients.

Also, if the PPC agency says they do advertise in other places besides Google, make sure they’re not just referring to the Google Content Network, which allows you to place ads through Google on all sorts of websites besides Google.com.  There’s nothing wrong with advertising on the Google Content Network, but it’s not the same as actually advertising through other networks outside of Google.

5)    How do you manage PPC to maximize ROI?

The point of this question is to get some sense for the degree of professional management that goes into the job.  Unfortunately, there are some PPC agencies that don’t do any ROI optimization whatsoever.  They simply take your money, setup your ads, and then let them run, enjoying your monthly fee.  This is a great business model for PPC agencies – they do some work up front, and then get your monthly fees forever thereafter – but it’s a bad deal for you.

A good PPC agency earns its fees by constantly testing and optimizing your account to increase your ROI.  This includes testing different keywords, adding negative keywords, testing conversion rates on ad copy, keywords, even running ads at different times of the day, etc.

6)    Who is in charge of PPC management and what is his/her background?

There is no ideal background for a PPC manager, but what you want to make sure of is that you’re getting someone who has experience running PPC campaigns vs. PPC sales.

Here’s what happens – PPC management is a hot industry, because all across America small businesses are clamoring to get online.  Enterprising entrepreneurs have responded by setting up PPC agencies with huge sales operations who call on businesses all day to prospect clients.

It doesn’t take these sales people long to figure out that if they were to open up their own PPC agency, they could be making a lot of money, especially since all that’s required is a phone and a computer.  After all, they already know how to find PPC clients, since they sell to them all day.

Unfortunately many of these people specialize in sales, not PPC management, so they don’t really know what they’re doing, despite being able to speak the language.  And it’s not even just entrepreneurs. Many PPC agencies desperate for warm bodies will gladly take a sales person and slap the label of “PPC consultant” on him, even though he doesn’t really know how to manage PPC

So, when investigating the background of PPC managers, keep an eye out for a resume that looks more like a sales resume than a professional internet marketing resume.

7)    What have you found works with well with lawyers/doctors that doesn’t work well with other verticals?

In some ways, PPC management is all the same regardless of whether you’re selling coffee machines, cruises, divorces or brain surgery.  In other ways, it’s much different, particularly if you branch out of Google Adwords.

That’s why an ideal PPC agency will have experience in your industry.  Asking about the agency’s experience with your industry, and finding out what works and what doesn’t, is an easy way of gauging relevant experience.

8)    How many other clients do you have in my area that do what I do?

PPC is a competitive, zero sum game, so the last thing you want is a PPC agency with a conflict of interest because they’re managing two Houston LASIK doctors competing over the same keywords.  So, ask a prospective PPC agency if have any other clients in your geography who specialize in your practice area.  Also ask them what their policy is to avoid conflicts of interest.

9)    Can I see some samples of ad copy?

Some PPC agencies are lazy and use formulaic ad copy.  You can identify formulaic ad copy because it sounds stilted and unnatural.  It’s all about repeating keywords. It also doesn’t speak to any distinguishing factors that would allow a reader to understand why a given doctor or lawyer is any better than others.

A good PPC agency will get to know your business and communicate what makes it special in ad copy.  So take a look at the ad copy of other clients and ask yourself if you’d hire that person based on what you’ve read.  Remember, ad copy, even when it comes to PPC, is partly an art, so it shouldn’t look like a computer wrote it.

10)    What are some trends you’ve noticed in the PPC world?

The point of this question is to see how on top of the industry the consultant is.  In the world of internet marketing, things change quickly.  If a consultant isn’t able to speak about trends, then it signals he’s not keeping an eye on changes, and likely isn’t offering cutting edge solutions.  Another way of asking this question is to ask what industry publications or blogs the person reads.  Believe it or not, there are people out there who claim to be professional PPC managers who don’t keep up at all with the PPC industry.

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the attendees, speakers and sponsors that made Avvocating 2011 such a resounding success.  I so enjoyed spending time with all of the Avvo-faithful and better understanding which marketing channels are working for you and which are not.  Not surprisingly, I had many conversations relating to social media and how to make it work for the busy practitioner.  A number of themes developed, and I wanted to get some of them on paper to reinforce their importance.

Social Media is Only a Medium

In my opening remarks, I spoke a lot about looking at social media as a medium for communication and no more.  Too many people believe that, because the Internet is involved, they need to take on (if not hire . . . see the next section) an alter ego that makes them entertaining to the Internet masses.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I thought we figured this one out in high school:  The more we pretend to be someone we are not, the more we are going to look like a fool – sometimes at the most inopportune of moments.  Being genuine in social media is everything – just like in real life.

Avvocating speaker Brian Tannebaum spoke to this quite eloquently during his ethics presentation.  He offered that the Internet is ironically returning us to a simpler time where business owners speak directly to their customers and live and die by their relationships and reputations.  “Wow,” I thought, “he is so right”; and that is why you are reading this blog post and see me so active in places like Twitter and Facebook.  Maybe it is the Montanan in me, but I love being Avvo’s shopkeeper and having our customers stop in and say hello.  I love when they reach out to me to tell me why they are happy or frustrated with our products.  All of that interaction energizes me, and also helps me manage the Avvo shop so much better.

Social Media is About You

As a business owner or marketer, you should be looking for personal interactions with your customers.  It’s important to focus on the “you” in that sentence.  YOU are the key to your social media success and no one should be blogging, tweeting or friending for you – not a marketing consultant, not your paralegal, not your teenage daughter.  You.

 Video

During the conference, video came up over and over.  At Avvo, we are big believers in video, and that is why we offer video Legal Guides and allow lawyers to upload videos to the “About Me” section of their profiles.  However, some lawyers are still dumfounded by it.  They either find it excessive – maybe even vain – or just the thought of being on camera makes them want to hurl.

But here’s the reality:  People love to hire real people – it’s that human connection that is so vital to every important (and ultimately successful) relationship.  Video makes you more real because it allows prospective clients to see you in action – hear your voice, watch your body language, hear your accent, etc. 

Time

Social media should not take a lot of time.  If you want to be the most prolific blogger of the new Internet world, well then yes that could take some time.  However, if you are blogging 2-3 times a week or answering questions in a Q&A forum like Avvo’s or tweeting regularly, you are looking at a couple of hours per week at most.  If you are spending more time than that, you are probably being too much of a perfectionist (aka “a lawyer”) in your social media writings.  You could also be trying to be someone you are not because, when you write conversationally and from the heart, things just flow out.

Money

Just like spending too much time, you can spend way too much money on your social media efforts.  We are now in an age where almost every platform is free – Avvo, WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, etc. etc.  Take the time to experiment with free options before buying some big customized solution.  Blogging is a great example:  As we discussed at the conference, you can build your own blog – a very professional looking blog – for little time or money these days.  People will try to sell you expensive solutions up front; but you only need the customized solution if blogging works for you – i.e., it is returning more in marketing value than the time and money you are putting into it.  Figuring that out will take time and some trial and error.  Work the kinks out bf getting your wallet out. 

That’s all for now; but again thanks to everyone for their participating in Avvocating.  We hope to see you at Avvocating 2012!

Mark

Summer is right around the corner, and while you may be thinking all about your upcoming vacation, we hope you will take some time to hear from our webinar guests! We have an outstanding schedule covering topics from email best practices and legal technology tools to integrated marketing and law firm business models. Please also check out the complete legal marketing webinar schedule on the Avvo Blog.

June 2, 10AM PT: The State of Law Firm Email Marketing: Benchmarks, Trends and Best Practices with Joshua Fruchter

What’s a good open rate for a law firm email newsletter, alert or invitation? A good click-through rate? In this webinar with Joshua Fruchter, lawyer and principal of eLawMarketing, you will get answers to these and other questions by reviewing email marketing benchmarks, trends and “best practices” compiled from eLawMarketing’s database of 6,896,610 emails distributed by law firms of all sizes.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

• Email marketing vs. email “blasts”
• Email template design
• List management, distribution and tracking

Sign up here!

June 9, 10AM PT: Bootstrapping a New Law Firm with Free Software: Practice Management on a $0 Budget with Sam Glover

Free software can be an effective tool for new practices. Hear from Minneapolis attorney Sam Glover – a self-described blogger, business lawyer for geeks, and consumer rights advocate – introduce the free and open-source software and service that lawyers can use to run a law firm.  He will also compare the free options to the ones you have to pay for, and talk about how to make the decision whether to pay or not.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

• Practice management tips for new law firms
• Latest technology solutions and services that are affordable or even free
• How to make a change – the technology decision making process

Sign up here!

June 29, 10AM PT: Reinventing Your Practice in the Recovery with Ari Kaplan

Find out how to reinvent your practice and build your profile in today’s changing digital landscape. Ari Kaplan, Esq., author of Reinventing Professional Services – Building Your Business in the Digital Marketplace (Wiley, 2011) will discuss:

• Strategic cost-effective suggestions for transforming your practice
• Innovative tips for enhancing your work productivity and job satisfaction
• Utilizing social media to be in the know and to be known.

Sign up here!

July 14, 10AM PT: An F-Word Manifesto: Flat Fee/Membership Engagement Model for Small Business Lawyers with Kevin Houchin

Kevin Houchin hit a low point in his career while practicing in the “safe” and “accepted” hourly-rate and project fee model. Something had to change, so he took a chance and allowed his creative business clients to hire him for a year on a flat monthly fee.  It worked! And, the flat fee model changed his life. Kevin will share all the details (yes, even talking dollars) during this webinar for attorneys who serve small, creative, innovative, inventive, and start-up businesses.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

• The hourly-billing “traps” that lawyers find themselves stuck in
• How to take the steps to change, and create a more holistic and rewarding business model

Sign up here!

August 4, 10AM PT: Develop a Strategic Approach to Integrated Marketing for Law Firms with Gina Rubel

Lawyers and legal marketers understand their firm needs a website, a logo and even business cards. Many also understand the benefit of a blog, email newsletters, online profiles and public relations campaigns. But not many lawyers know where to start and how to strategically piece together each marketing initiative so that they support the brand, key messages and ultimately bring in more business. In this webinar you’ll hear from Gina Rubel, the President/CEO and founder of Furia Rubel Communications, a marketing and public relations agency with strong experience working with small, medium and large sized law firms. Gina will discuss how you can put together an effective integrated marketing plan and best practices for ensuring its implementation is a success.

Lawyers who attend this webinar will learn about:

• Brand identity and message creation
• Developing a marketing plan to reaching a target audience
• How to integrate each marketing initiative to ultimately bring in more business

Sign up here!

With this year’s Avvocating Conference set to kick off tomorrow in Orlando, Florida we want to give a big THANK YOU to our sponsors:

Consultwebs.com, Inc. is a full-service Internet / Web design and Web consulting company that was founded in 1999. Its primary focus is law firm Web marketing and design. The company supports more than 300 law firm client websites and has worked with numerous businesses and legal organizations such as the American Bar Association.

InfinaLaw offers a variety of legal marketing services that can help increase the success of your firm. Whether your target audience is referring attorneys or consumers, InfinaLaw recommends the most effective avenues to reach your target audience. We have the knowledge and experience to successfully market and promote your firms message, and we can handle all of your firms marketing activities or assist just where needed. Our goal is to impact the effectiveness of your marketing efforts and provide measurable results.

Based in Greensboro, NC, New Call Solutions offers a practical web-based monitoring system to measure and record inbound and outbound phone calls. Our tracking service allows companies to monitor the success or failure of ad campaigns, track incoming calls from advertising, determine ROI and identify strengths and weaknesses with regard to how prospects and customers are handled on the phone.

LawTech Partners, Inc. specializes in helping lawyers and their law offices respond to ever changing technology needs. Significant business value can be realized with the right technology tools and LawTech Partners can help. Our goal is to help your firm develop an intelligent business by best integrating technology into your practices. We are prepared to ensure that those often questionable technology investments are maximized. Our mission is to provide quality training and technology solutions to law offices seeking to improve their competitive edge.

The Lawyers’ Video Studio empowers attorneys to create, optimize and publish video to help any law practice achieve their online marketing goals. Founded by Gerry Oginski, a Practicing Medical Malpractice Trial Attorney and America’s leading authority in Online Video Marketing for the Legal Profession, The Lawyers’ Video Studio combines proven experience and expertise with the latest tools, technology and techniques to help attorneys create video that works by directly addressing the needs of the consumer who is – now, more likely than ever – to be an Online Searcher. Content produced by The Lawyers’ Video Studio forms a bond and builds trust with potential clients while differentiating you and your Firm from everyone else.

Rocket Matter is the leading web-based legal practice management and time tracking software.  Imagine easy-to-use law office software that could run on Mac, PC, iPad, iPhone or Droid.  Rocket Matter’s award-winning technology supports trust account management, time & expense keeping, case management, calendaring, and much more.  Stop by our booth and win some cool prizes!

The American legal profession has seen profound changes in size, demographic composition, structure, and strategy in the past decades. But one constant remains: at the core of a successful law practice is precise, compelling writing. And exactly what makes a compelling argument? That changes with the times, just like your radio dial.

Alex Long, a University of Tennessee law professor, recently researched the use of popular music in legal writing. From a judge who once wrote an entire opinion around Beatles lyrics to a California lawyer who works a Grateful Dead reference into every brief he files, legal professionals have departed from the dry legal jargon of the past, and have made legal writing more palatable, notably with song lyrics.

So who is the most cited musician in legal writing? Bob Dylan takes the landslide victory, with 186 references to his song lyrics. The clincher? “You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows.” Often used by California courts, the lyric is often implemented when expert testimony is not required to explain scientific evidence to jurors.

But lyrics don’t always have to convey a message. They can also be helpful in clarifying courtroom transcription. Judge Terrance Evans of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals often uses lyrics to break the monotony of a dry opinion. In a case out of the 7th Circuit, U.S. v. Murphy, 406 F.3d 857 (7th Cir. 2005), Judge Evans explained a court reporter’s error in transcribing witness testimony. The court reporter typed the word “hoe” instead of the derogatory term, “ho.” To clear up this potential misunderstanding, Evans added a footnote in his opinion, defining the difference between the two spellings, using lyrics by rap artist Ludacris, “you doin’ ho activities with ho tendencies.”

Legal writing carries quite a bit of weight, and requires a certain amount of gravity. Associate Justice Richard Huffman, who sits on the California 4th District Court of Appeals in San Diego advises, “We have to be serious because we are dealing with people’s lives. We aren’t there to make light of it, but it doesn’t have to read like Black’s Law Dictionary.”

What’s your inspiration?

Joshua Knox, Global Product Operations Manager at Google, will cover Google Analytics and Website Optimizer at the Avvocating Conference in Orlando, Florida:

Learn how to use Google’s free Website Analytics tool to monitor how many people visit your website, where they come from and what they read. Learn the definition of key terms like visitors, sessions, bounce rates, entry pages, time on site, time on page and how to filter your audience into different segments for advanced behavior tracking. Discover how to improve your website’s performance through A/B testing by implementing Google’s free Website Optimizer Tool.

Josh has worked on Google Analytics for the past five and a half years, and as the Global Operations Manager works on product strategy and roadmap. He also manages several consultative projects in the global sales organization to drive adoption and usage of data for strategic AdWords, AdSense and DoubleClick clients. His background includes work on AdWords and Website Optimizer.

Join us for Avvocating in Orlando, Florida May 19-20!

On Friday afternoon at the Avvocating Conference we’ll be talking all about Facebook with Cindy Speaker of Speaker Media and Marketing:

Social media is different for law. Let’s face it – no one is going to “like” their DUI lawyers or their criminal defense firms. To effectively market using social media, lawyers must understand how to get their target audience engaged with private legal matters in a very social setting. Marketing expert Cindy Speaker will walk through a case study showing how a law firm used Facebook to develop broad appeal among a consumer audience that ultimately drove business to their door. She’ll share the strategy, tactics used and reveal the actual results from the Facebook campaign. Discover how social is different for the law and how to turn that difference into a competitive advantage.

Cindy Speaker is a marketing advisor, coach and consultant to some of the largest and most successful personal injury law firms in the United States. As president of Speaker Media and Marketing (S/M²), she focuses primarily on marketing strategies aimed at growing relationships, leveraging technology and building systems. Her ultimate goal for her law firm clients is to help them generate a consistent stream of referrals.

As a result of her efforts Speaker Media and Marketing has been called the secret weapon of some of the top plaintiff’s law firms and trial lawyers in the US. S/M² works with law firms on a market exclusive basis and Cindy’s vision for her clients is for them to be on the cutting edge of marketing and technology and to have a dominant position in their respective markets.

Currently the firm’s focus is primarily on social media, online video, mobile marketing, and staying on top of emerging trends.

In addition to coaching and consulting, Cindy owns and operates StateLawTV.com,  an Internet TV channel where consumers can find law related information and resources as well as a directory of reputable attorneys.

Cindy began her legal marketing career in 1994 as the Marketing Director for a multi state personal injury law firm headquartered in Philadelphia, with additional offices in New York City and Washington, DC and affiliates nationwide, but she says her career really took off in 1999, after she authored an audio CD series, “Power Marketing for Attorneys.” Once that was published, Cindy began speaking to and consulting for personal injury (PI) firms throughout the US. Attorney clients took note of the fact that Cindy didn’t just advise them to market their services, she used statistical analysis to calculate the cost per call, cost per case and conversion ratios associated with various advertising strategies and case types. As a result of this quantitative research she was able to project and predict return on investment so that client firms were able to make informed decisions regarding the allocation of their marketing budget and resources.

Join us for Avvocating in Orlando, Florida May 19-20!

This Friday [YES - this Friday! Do you have your ticket for Avvocating?!?] Doug Mandell will be back to talk about LinkedIn for lawyers:

LinkedIn: Developing and Implementing a Professional Brand Management Strategy
Learn how to use LinkedIn to execute an online and offline brand management strategy. Doug Mandell, former General Counsel of LinkedIn and the first attorney on LinkedIn will discuss how to optimize your LinkedIn for business development; other ways to use LinkedIn in your practice; and why you need to engage with social media.

Doug Mandell is an expert in the social networking and consumer internet space and was LinkedIn’s first General Counsel and member of the Executive Team in 2007 and 2008, a company he began representing when it was founded.  Doug was also the first attorney on LinkedIn.

Doug is the managing partner of the Mandell Law Group, PC, a boutique law firm he founded in 2001 specializing in employment law (representing companies and senior executives), technology transactions, and general counsel services.

Doug developed early expertise in the consumer-internet space as Vice President & General Counsel of ememories in 2000, one of the first online photo-sharing sites.   Before founding MLG, Doug was an attorney with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP in San Francisco, California, where he was a member of the Employment and Intellectual Property practice groups.  Doug began his career at Littler Mendelson in San Francisco.

Doug has been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer for the past five years and is one of the youngest attorneys to have been selected for this honor.  Super Lawyers identifies the top 5 percent of attorneys in Northern California, as chosen by their peers and through the independent research of Law & Politics. Doug has also been recognized by Martindale-Hubbell as an AV® rated attorney.

Doug received his undergraduate degree in Political Science with honors from Washington University and studied International Relations at the London School of Economics. He received his law degree with honors from Tulane Law School.

Join us for Avvocating in Orlando, Florida May 19-20!

We love criminal defense lawyers. They’re a feisty bunch. So it came as no surprise that many blogging CDLs seized upon the cautionary tale of one Joseph Rakofsky, a wet-behind-the-ears attorney who imploded in his first criminal trial. From far and wide they commented on the story, which started with the 2009 Touro grad puffing his qualifications and experience and ended – appropriately enough, on April Fool’s Day – with a mistrial and scathing comments from the bench about Rakofsky’s lack of competence and ethics.

Or that would have been the end, if Rakofsky hadn’t filed the mother of all stupid lawsuits, a defamation case naming some 74 law bloggers and media entities as defendants. The lawsuit claims that the various reporting and conclusions drawn from the sad end to his trial slandered his reputation. He wants all of the offending posts removed from the internet, and an order enjoining any of the defendants from writing further about him without his permission.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that Rakosky is going to be very unhappy with how this suit plays out.

As I’ve often pointed out, suing for online defamation is a tricky thing. Even if you’ve really been wronged, it’s still not worth it to sue in most cases, thanks to the Streisand Effect. Far better to let time work its healing magic, or counter the speech you don’t like with more speech.

So how much worse is it to sue for defamation when a) you’ve screwed up and b) you’re suing the people who wrote about your screw-up, and c) those people buy digital ink by the barrel and aren’t in the least likely to be intimidated by your lawsuit?

That’s right – it’s much worse. Much, much worse.

If Rakofsky thought that filing this thing would restore any reputation he might have had for professional competence and good judgment, he’s accomplished quite the opposite.

A final thought: We at Avvo are no strangers to attorneys trying to silence us. And as you might expect, we’ve got zero tolerance for attempts to stifle free speech rights. The Rakofsky incident struck a chord with lawyers, ranging from head-shaking beffudlement to musings on the changing nature of legal practice, education, ethics and marketing.

Here then, for your reading pleasure, are the offending posts from the “Rakofsky 74” defendants. I’m sure I’ve missed some; let me know and I will add them.

The Washington Post
Washington City Paper
Above The Law
ABA Journal
Carolyn Elefant (MyShingle)
Scott Greenfield (Simple Justice)
Eric Mayer (Military Underdog)
Jeff Gamso (Gamso – For the Defense)
Crime & Federalism
Faraji Rosenthall
Mark Bennett (Defending People)
TBD.com
Restoring Dignity to the Law
Jamison Koehler
Eric Turkewitz (The New York Personal Injury Law Blog)
Maxwell Kennerly (Litigation & Trial)
Lori Palmieri
Brian Tannebaum (Criminal Defense Blog)
David Wells (Wells Law Blog)
Rob McKinney (Nashville Criminal Law Report)
Deborah Hackerson (Law Professors Blog)
Michael Doudna
Mace Yampolsky
Jeanne O’Halleran
Leah Weaver (Minnesota Lawyer)
George Wallace (Declarations and Exclusions)
Antonin Pribetic (The Trial Warrior Blog)