As I’ve started talking about the game I’m developing, I hear people throw out the phrase “gamification of legal services” to describe my project. That’s actually not what I’m doing and the terminology does make a difference. There is gamification, serious games and simulations and then there are games. The difference really has to do with the design goal.

Today I gave a presentation which was live but also webcast for the Chicago Bar Association.

One of my law students recently raised this question to me: Could a lawyer allow payment for legal services in Bitcoin? It’s not a question I’ve ever gotten before and it’s a good one. Bitcoin is digital currency and it’s not managed by any central authority but the transactions occur through Bitcoin miners which is basically a server that communicates and confirms the transaction and records it on a ledger. They can be transferred by mobile devices. Recent articles have suggested that eBay and Paypal may open up their sites to the use of Bitcoin.

The NY State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics has published a new ethics Opinion 964 on April 4, 2013 that affects virtual law offices.
The opinion is more related to lawyer advertising rather than about virtual law offices but it affects advertising for virtual, traditional and hybrid delivery models. The opinion was prompted by an inquiry from a lawyer who delivers immigration law services primarily online. Like many lawyers with virtual law offices, the lawyer rarely meets with clients in person and communicates using video conferencing and other digital methods of communication.

For what it’s worth, here are some thoughts on my quote that was published in an article on Attorney at Work today by Ruth Carter entitled, Is Work-Life Balance a Fraud?

Please take a minute to read Richard Granat’s post entitled “10 Top Law Schools Teaching Law Practice Technology.” The eLawyering Task Force is working on a project to identify law schools that are adequately preparing their students to enter practice with practical skills related to the use of technology.

I’m making a game and it involves legal services. For the past six months, I’ve researched the idea of creating a game that would engage and empower the public to learn legal issues surrounding personal legal services.

This weekend I gave a presentation for Avvo’s Lawyernomics Conference in Las Vegas. I was talking about the subject of my new book and giving examples of the online marketing tools that branded networks provide for lawyers in their network to use to connect and work with clients online. There were several great questions from the audience throughout, but one question in particular struck me: Couldn’t we use the same techniques the branded networks are using on our own law firm sites?

This is the video of my brief interview with Colin O’Keefe about the topic of my presentation for Avvo’s Lawyernomics Conference next week in Las Vegas.

This is a video I recorded for a technology exposition that is being held at Wake Forest University. It explains how I am using the virtual law firm simulation to teach a course for Wake Forest Law School entitled Technology in Law Practice.