Category Archives: Legal Issues and Trends

Blogging, Social Media & Marketing Tips for Small Firms and Solo Attorneys from the LMA Tech Conference

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At the Legal Marketing Technology Conference/West in San Francisco Thursday, I spoke on a panel about blogging, social media and online marketing for small firms and solo attorneys. As a self-proclaimed “reluctant blogger” who used to cringe at marketing, I was happy to share some of the reasons why I’ve embraced social media and what I’ve learned since starting a business in the legal industry. I also felt fortunate to speak with the two other panelists, who were terrific. What follows are some of their key take-aways and a few points that I made, which I hope will help other attorneys build their practice and strengthen their network.

On the panel, I was joined by Stacy Stern, president of Justia.com, a very useful and user-friendly portal for legal info and legal research with a public-interest and community-minded mission; and Jeena Cho, a bankruptcy attorney with the JC Law Group. Jeena is in a two-person firm, and thanks to her successful blogging—as well as her podcasts, videos and use of social media networks—she is well known in her field and comes up near the top in Google searches for bankruptcy attorneys. Continue reading →

How to Use Technology Effectively in Mediation

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Yesterday, I co-presented a CLE webinar on “Technology for Better Mediation” along with two San Francisco trial attorneys, Miles Cooper of Rouda Feder Tietjen & McGuinn, and Jeff Smith of Abramson Smith Waldsmith. One of the things I admire about both Miles and Jeff is their forward-thinking use of technology and graphics in litigation—not just for trial, but also for briefing and mediation. Since both Miles and Jeff specialize in high-end personal injury and wrongful death litigation, these type of cases were the focus of this discussion. This post summarizes the practical take-aways we shared, which we hope will help attorneys get the best results possible for their clients.

When we talk about “technology for mediation,” we’re often really talking about ways to create visualizations of the case; that is, ways to show your case in an understandable, engaging way. You might be asking yourself, “Why is this something I should bother with for mediation?” Continue reading →

Graphics to Help You Better Build Your Construction Case

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When it comes to construction issues, I feel like the actor in that old ad on TV who says, “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV.” I’m not in the construction field, but I litigated construction cases for over a decade and consequently couldn’t help but develop an expertise in construction standards and practices. In a similar way, some med-mal attorneys I know have a better understanding of proper standard of care than even doctors do. When you have to prosecute or defend a case that revolves around highly technical issues, you’re sure to learn the subject inside and out.

With this in mind, making the transition from litigating construction-related cases to developing graphics for those types of cases has been a natural fit for me personally and for Cogent Legal as a firm. We strengthened our foundation in this area, so to speak, by bringing two architects onto the Cogent Legal team, whom I’ll tell you about below.

One construction attorney I know mentioned to me that he hesitates to use graphic design firms for litigation since he has to spend so much time explaining what he needs and what the case is about, which is frustrating. This is a shame since there are few other areas outside of patent law cases that virtually require the use of well-done graphics to present the case, since the cases are highly technical and lend themselves to visuals that show what caused problems, what the standards of care are and other issues.

To give attorneys ideas about how they can build and present their construction cases with timelines, animations and other interactive informational graphics, I asked my office to prepare an online brochure (click here or on image below; note, it must be viewed on a Flash-enabled computer or mobile device). Continue reading →

California Net Verdict Calculator for the iPad

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One of my first posts on this blog discussed all the complications involved with calculating a verdict in California for personal injury cases, especially when a workers’ compensation lien and/or prior settlement must be taken into account. Given my growing love of the iPad for litigation, I figured it was time to update that post and put my verdict calculator on the Apple program Numbers for iPad. (drumroll, please …) You can download the Numbers file directly to your iPad and work along with this post: Download Numbers Net Verdict Calculator. Please note, you will need a copy of Numbers on your iPad to view the file; it works best to open this post on your iPad, then click the download button, then choose “open in Numbers” from the icon at the top right of the screen.

If you have not used Numbers on the iPad, I suggest the quick tutorial that comes with the app on the iPad to orient you to how it functions. Numbers is the Apple equivalent to Excel, but it is much more robust in its ability to make visually appealing graphs and charts. Continue reading →

The ABA’s Top 100 Blawgs and Some of My Top Posts

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The ABA Journal publishes a “Blawg Directory” of more than 3500 law blogs (get it? blog + law = blawg), and each year the ABA accepts nominations to choose the 100 best. If you’ve appreciated the blog posts here, then I hope you will take a minute to vote for Cogent Legal Blog through this link. (Note, the link only works on desktops or laptops, not mobile devices, which I find rather strange. Apologies if you try to click through on your iPhone and iPad and get a “cannot connect” message. I hope you’ll try it on a computer.)

This contest is sort of the Oscars for legal blogging and can really help gain blog readers and elevate a firm’s profile. You can nominate more than one blog, so I encourage you to nominate any and all blogs you believe other attorneys should check out. Continue reading →

What Attorneys Need to Know About the Cal. Supreme Court’s Important Ruling on Animation Admissibility

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[Update: The September 2012 issue of Plaintiff magazine features an article by me on this topic. For an expanded discussion, click here to read a PDF of the printed article.]

On Monday, the California Supreme Court issued a thoughtful opinion that finally provides strong guidance on the use of animations in trial, affirming their proper place in supporting expert testimony.

The decision People v. Duenas (click here for PDF of opinion) arose out of a criminal murder trial where the defendant objected to the use of a re-creation of the scene done by a biomechanical expert that purported to show the locations and direction of the defendant shooting a police officer. This post summarizes the opinion and gives three questions that attorneys should ask themselves when considering developing and using demonstrative evidence. Continue reading →

Why You Should Join the Growing Number of Attorneys Using iPads

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I’ve been giving a number of presentations at law firms on the use of iPads for attorneys, with a focus on new apps for the courtroom and mediation. I generally start the presentation by asking how many attorneys own an iPad, with about one-third saying they do. Of that group, many say it’s mostly used by their kids for games, and they have not really started using it much for work. Part of the issue, say the attorneys, is that the IT people in their offices say either that an iPad cannot be supported by their network, or more simply (and perhaps honestly) that the IT people don’t really know how to support the iPad.

With this background, I found the comprehensive study released by the ABA on attorneys’ use of technology very interesting. Kevin O’Keefe summarized the study done by Jeff Richardson as follows:

  • In 2012, 33% of all attorneys report using a tablet for law-related tasks (more than double the 15% in 2011)
  • 91% of the 33%, or 30% of all attorneys, are using an iPad Continue reading →

Blogging and Social Media for the Legal Profession: Advice on What Works and Why

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At the recent American Society of Trial Consultants convention in New Orleans, I was part of a wide-ranging panel discussion on social media and marketing that considered the benefits and effects of blogging and other social media. Since I’ve been developing this blog and using social media for professional networking to grow my startup firm, this topic genuinely interests me. I started blogging and became active on Twitter and LinkedIn in early 2011 with little to no training, figuring it out as I went along, and I’m always eager to learn from others and share what I know. With that in mind, here are some of the key points made at the presentation that may be useful to attorneys, trial consultants and legal marketers. Continue reading →

What Trial Lawyers Can Learn From a Songwriter to Strengthen Their Case

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At the American Society of Trial Consultants annual conference in New Orleans last week, I had the opportunity to be on a panel discussion about social media and blogging for the legal profession. One of my main pieces of advice was to avoid making blogging predominantly about “me-formation”—that is, self-promoting news about yourself—instead of information. Taking my own advice, I’ll blog about my experience at the conference later and first share information about one of the best presentations for trial attorneys I have seen in years.

How many MCLE’s have you attended where within a few minutes you’re biting your lip to not cry? No, this wasn’t about a tragic case where a family lost everything. Rather, it was an attorney presenting a moving song about a girl riding her bike and telling her dad she was ready for him to let go: It’s time for her to do it on her own. With that little piece of a story, sung by E. Thomas McCarthy, Jr., a songwriter/attorney from Michigan, the hook was set. (Click here to hear the MP3.) His presentation, “What Trial Lawyers and Consultants Can Learn From Songwriters,” showed how to bring the art of songwriting and storytelling to the courtroom, and it was really entertaining and useful.

Continue reading →

Law Firm Marketing and Design Lessons Learned While Redoing My Website

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Earlier this year, I embarked on a months-long process of building a new, more sophisticated and customized website, which I’m happy to unveil at cogentlegal.com. This post will share some of what I learned about website design and law marketing through the process.

First, let me clear up confusion if you think you’re already looking at my website. You’re not—this is my blog, built separately on a WordPress platform—and I deliberately keep the two separate. I subscribe to the view that a firm’s website and blog are two related yet distinct vehicles with separate roles to play. Continue reading →