Virtual Law Practice

Month: October 2011

  • Updating the Marketing Strategy for a Virtual Law Practice

     

    This Saturday I’m giving a live lecture focused on virtual law practice marketing strategy for my students in Concord Law School’s Small Business LLM program. I’m having the students slowly add in components of a business plan with each assignment so that by the end of the semester they have a complete and ready-to-implement business plan for a virtual law practice. Some of them are going to have completely web-based, unbundled practices and others are adding a virtual law office to their traditional, full-service offerings. Each form of virtual practice will require a unique marketing strategy based on their approach to providing unbundled services online and the state of their existing brand development.

    I’ve written about marketing issues in virtual practice on this blog before. But because marketing a virtual practice is so dependant upon web-based forms of marketing which changes at a crazy pace, your strategy has to be regularly re-evaluated and revised.

    Below are some bulleted tips and things to consider. Be warned, I am not even touching how social media plays into your strategy (which should be a major part) and for once, I’m not going to harp on ethical issues other than to tell you to check with your state bar and use some common sense.

    Start out by asking: (more…)

  • Semi-Annual Virtual Law Practice in the News Roundup

    Twice a year I compile a list of links to published articles and posts related in some  way to virtual law practice.  I’m a bit behind this year largely because of how quickly this area of practice management is evolving. I don’t just pull this together as a resource for the blog. It’s also a way to organize my thoughts around where trends are heading based on these developments.  If you don’t think the last nine months has been particularly busy in the elawyering arena, then look back at my list from this time last year.

    Starting where I left off the last time, here is the list in loose chronological order.

    California State Bar publishes ethics opinion, FEO 2010-179, related to the use of technology in law practice, specifically addressing an attorney’s duty of confidentiality to clients when using technology that may be accessed by a third-party. December, 2011

    Pennsylvania Bar Association publishes Ethics Opinion No. 2010-060, January 2011. It’s not published online, but Niki Black wrote a summary of the opinion.

    Regulatory Barriers to Virtual Law Practice, by Darryl Mountain, Slaw.ca, January 14, 2011

    Total Attorneys Takes Proactive Role in Shaping the Future of the Legal Industry – Secures Investment from BIA Digital Partners, Business Wire,  January 19, 2011

    LexisNexis Launches FirmManager at LegalTechNY LexisNexis Firm Manager, January 2011

    IBM’s Watson is a contestant on Jeopardy and makes some in the legal profession ponder the use of computers to take over portions of a lawyer’s work. “Watson Computer, Making ‘Jeopardy’ Debut, Could Do Associate Research, IBM GC Says”, ABA Journal, By Debra Cassens Weiss, Feb 15, 2011

    James M. McCauley, ethics counsel for the Virginia State Bar, writes an article for the February issue of the Virginia Lawyer Magazine, entitled “Cloud Computing — A Silver Lining or Ethical Thunderstorm for Lawyers?”, February 2011 (more…)

  • Upgrading My Virtual Law Office Website

    After five years, I finally got around to updating my virtual law office website. I’m still kicking the tires and making a few tweaks, but I’m pretty pleased with it as it is. I’ve got grand plans to update my whitepapers and to send out monthly emails to my online clients.  I’d also like to add realtime chat and more instructional videos and testimonials in the near future.

    Because most of my clients are seeking online legal services, I needed to focus on the integration of social media applications and online “calls to action” to provide free, useful content related to NC Estate Planning. This approach should generate additional prospective clients for my practice.  I’ve also added a property analysis calculator for prospective clients to use to get an estimate of the value of their estate. The site launched last Tuesday afternoon and that week I landed a new estate planning client and saw an increase in prospective clients registering on my site. Not bad. Note also the disclaimer at the bottom of the homepage regarding information about my physical location, jurisdiction and office hours. There should be no question in anyone’s mind where I am licensed to practice law and serve clients.

    I worked with Cynthia and Selena at Rowboat Media on the redesign. Feedback is welcome.

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