Toney, Sarah.pptx - Illinois State Bar Association

Sarah E. Toney The Toney Law Firm, LLC ChicagoDefenseFirm.com 312-­‐854-­‐1933 Sarah@ToneyFirm.com 1 Duty of Honesty
Rule 4.1
Rule 7.1
Rule 8.4
2 3 Rule 7.2
4 5 Rule 1.9
Rule 3.6
6 Rule 7.3
162 people saw this post 7 8 9 10 11 Rule 1.9(c)
Supreme Court Rule 765
12 Rule 3.5
Rule 4.2 and 4.3
13 14 POLICE: Man Arrested With Loaded Gun Near School ASer Driving Drunk with Daughter in car 15 Blogging 16 “Evil, unfair
witch”
17 www.PleaseHireMe.com ChicagoDefenseFirm.com ToneyFirm.com DUI-­‐IL.com SayNoToTheBlow.com 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 August 2012 • Volume 100 • Number 8 • Page 424
The Magazine of Illinois Lawyers
Reprinted with permission of the Illinois State Bar Association.
Legal Technology / Marketing
Lawyer Websites: The New Yellow Pages
By Bonnie Booth
When most people search for lawyers, they search the Internet. So why don't more lawyers have websites?
It's a safe bet that when most people want to search for almost anything these days, including legal services, they
turn on their computer or get out their smart phone or tablet and start with an Internet search.
But while the Internet is often considered the new "yellow pages," many attorneys - especially those in solo practice
or small firms - have not yet chosen to create their own website.
"For a lot of lawyers the business model continues to be referrals," said Michael P. Downy, a partner at Armstrong
Teasdale, LLP in St. Louis and a member of ISBA's Committee on Professional Conduct. "They are just not
expecting to generate business from it."
Downy believes that many attorneys in solo practice chose to use third-party sites such as findlaw.com or
lawyers.com instead.
"It's not their own URL but they do have a presence," he said, adding that a lot of attorneys don't see the need to go
through all the work and expense they perceive it to be to create and maintain a website.
Nerino Petro, practice management advisor for the law office management assistance program of the State Bar of
Wisconsin and a member of ISBA's Committee on Legal Technology, said that a basic website is a must for an
attorney in today's practice environment.
"The alternative of having nothing is even worse," he said. "The Internet really is the modern day yellow pages. As
the potential client base gets younger, more and more the way people look for information is on the Internet."
Chicago attorney and ISBA Committee on Legal Technology member Todd Flaming agreed.
"Probably pretty much every attorney should have a presence on the web," he said. "I am surprised how many solos
don't."
Taking control of your web presence
Petro said there are a number of reasons why solo practitioners and small firms still do not have websites. Some
lawyers don't see the benefit, he said, while others aren't sure what needs to be done to get a site up and running. In
addition, some lawyers think it is too expensive to have an attractive website and others don't want to create a
website because they don't think they can maintain it.
Experts agree that a law firm benefits from having a website.
A website is the best way for a lawyer to take control of his or her web presence, Downy noted.
"A Google search of a lawyer or law firm is likely to turn up something even if that attorney or firm doesn't have a
website," he said. "Most lawyers have some content out there. And without a website you are giving up control over
what that is."
Petro also noted that a website provides usual information to potential clients. "Even a static website with only a
downloadable brochure has potential. If the person who finds the website doesn't become a client, that person may
pass that brochure along to someone else who does," he said.
And a website can be especially valuable if you are trying to build a niche practice.
"You can post articles you have written that show your knowledge in a specific area," Petro said. "You are building
credibility to a potential client base." (See sidebar for ethical issues that arise for lawyers with websites.)
'[D]esign it to do what you want it do to'
Once an attorney sees the value of a website, the choices that accompany a decision to create a website can be
daunting. Do you want a simple one-page site with basic directory information or something with multiple pages?
Do you want people to be able to send e-mails to you through the site and, if so, what are the ethical implications of
that contact (see sidebar)? Do you want to link to other sites? Do you want to start a blog? All of these questions will
need to be answered at some point, but not necessarily at the beginning.
"My thought is to start small," said Bryan Sims, of Sims Law Firm, Ltd., in Naperville and the ISBA's Committee on
Legal Technology. "It doesn't have to be perfect but people need to be able to find you and see that you are
legitimate."
Experts agree that the type of website a firm ends up with should be driven by the firm's needs and expectations for
the site. Is it to be a "yellow page" listing, a more detailed look at the firm, a marketing tool, a communications
vehicle for new and continuing clients, a showcase for expertise, or all of the above?
Although he describes himself as a "card-carrying nerd," Flaming cautioned against technology for technology's
sake. "You have to design your website to do to serve a purpose."
When Flaming started Kraus Flaming, LLC with partner Ken Kraus in 2011, he had already been involved in
creating several websites, including one for his former law firm. As a result, he had some pretty clear ideas about
how he wanted his new firm's website to look and what purpose he wanted it to serve.
"You have to design it to do what you want it to do," he said. His firm was not particularly interested in using the
site as a way for people to randomly find it. The site has pages that hold the firm's vision, biographies of Flaming
and Kraus, contact information and information about the types of cases the firm litigates.
"The work we do, we are not going to attract clients that way," he said. Instead, the site is meant to help someone
who is looking for more information on the firm after hearing about Kraus Flaming through referral or some other
means.
"For the most part, we don't change it much," he said. "All we are updating are our areas of expertise."
The result is an informative website with some unusual elements that don't necessarily jump out at the viewer but
that make the site professional and unique.
"I'm not in favor of bells and whistles," said Flaming. "Keep it simple is my philosophy."
Dynamic content
And while Flaming did not design his website with the goal of attracting random business, that is what many law
firms are looking for. If that were the goal, Flaming would change the content of his website more.
"People like information," Flaming said. "Search engines elevate a page that is updated frequently, especially if it is
one that people link to from other sites."
Chicago solo practitioner Gianna Scatchell agreed. She said a law firm serious about attracting new business through
its website has to be more conscious about its content, especially in highly competitive areas of the law.
"If you don't have dynamic content, your posts start falling," she said. "In highly competitive areas, personal injury
for instance, it is important to create new content because that is where you are going to make your biggest impact."
Obviously, a website's purpose is going to drive both the cost for creating and maintaining it and the decision about
whether to hire someone to do that work or to try and do it yourself.
Sims started his solo practice about two and one-half years ago and at that time he was simply concerned with
getting a site up and running that would help prospective clients learn about him and his new firm.
"Any time anybody goes out to try a new service or a new company, they find out about that via the Internet," he
said. "It is important to have a presence there. I know there are those law firms that don't yet have a website but I've
yet to hear a good explanation for it."
He is now looking at redesigning the site he has used since his firm's inception.
"Essentially, the site is information cobbled together from where I used to be before the firm broke up," he said. "I
hired somebody to put it together and when I want changes done, I have him do it."
It's affordable
Petro said that the cost of having someone else create a page for a law firm can be as low as $50 depending on the
content (see sidebar). In the past, he said, people thought you had to spend thousands of dollars to have a website
and while you still can spend that much, it isn't necessary.
"The reality is that it's affordable for anyone to get some type of web presence up," he said.
Flaming also uses a service to maintain and host his web page. But, he noted, there are plenty of opportunities for a
law firm to create and maintain a site on its own.
Choices for content management software include everything from templates that allow you to fill in predefined
fields to packages that allow design from scratch.
In the end, Petro said, the lawyer needs to decide how much time and money or combination of the two to invest.
"Some people have taken the idea of having a website to heart and update it regularly themselves," said Petro.
"Others don't want to go to all that trouble. It comes down to whether you are going to be spending your time as a
web guru or a lawyer."
Either way, Flaming said, the fact that lawyers need a website cannot be reiterated enough.
"It doesn't have to be a big expensive thing," he said. "Just having a website is worth something."
Bonnie Booth <bonniebooth@sbcglobal.net> is a lawyer and freelance journalist.
Website resources
Here are just a few of the many resources available to lawyers who want to create and maintain a website.
ESQSites
Lawyers looking for a simple, low-cost, low-tech approach to creating a website should consider
EsqSites123.com. Find out more at http://www.isba.org/practicetech
Starting a Website from the ABA's Legal Technology Resource Center
You'll find a lengthy article with advice on creating content, finding a web host, and many other topics at
http://www.americanbar.org/groups/departments_offices/legal_technology_resources/resources/charts_fyis/webs
itefyi.html#Other
Faulkner's Practical Web Strategies for Attorneys: How to Select a Website Designer from LLRX.com
A good, if dated, article on choosing a website designer from the ABA's webmaster:
http://www.llrx.com/columns/faulkner6.htm
Get Found! Search Engine Optimization Demystified from GPSolo (May/June 2012)
A look at the important topic of making your website show up higher in search engine results:
http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gp_solo/2012/may_june/get_found_search_engine_optimization_demy
stified.html
March 2013 • Volume 101 • Number 3 • Page 128
The Magazine of Illinois Lawyers
Reprinted with permission of the Illinois State Bar Association.
Law Practice Management
Riding the DIY Wave
By Maria Kantzavelos
Like it or not, do-it-yourself law sites like Rocket Lawyer and Legal Zoom are proliferating. An Illinois lawyer
thinks fellow practitioners should respond by using technology more efficiently and by serving and billing clients in
new ways - by riding the DIY wave instead of getting swamped.
When estate planning and elder law attorney Ben Neiburger hears from clients about their desire to put together their
own legal documents with help from one of the many online services that offer those forms for free or cheap, he
offers a tongue-in-cheek response.
"I love telling my clients: 'Please do your will over the Internet. Do a trust. Yeah, do it. Don't even come to me.
Because I'm going to make so much more money later unscrewing it up than if I just did it. So go ahead,'" Neiburger
said. "It's great reverse psychology."
It's also part of educating clients about the potential dangers of do-it-yourself documents and low-cost online legal
services plans that he says can't provide nuanced advice or the wisdom of a lawyer's experience on how the
documents and the different facets of the law work with a client's unique and often complex situation.
Many attorneys cringe at the mention of Internet services that offer do-it-yourself legal work - websites that make it
easy for consumers to purchase their own divorce settlement agreements, prenuptial agreements, estate plans,
affidavits of heirship, incorporation forms, bills of sales, leases, subleases, and so on.
Still, the emergence of Internet-based legal service providers like Legal Zoom, Rocket Lawyer, Docstoc.com,
Docracy.com and others, and the commoditization of the practice of law, are changing the landscape for small-firm
legal practice, Neiburger said.
"You take this, combined with free information, combined with smart baby boomers who can do it themselves, and
what do you get? You get something different than what we think people are buying from us," Neiburger said.
More than document production
Neiburger of Elmhurst-based Generation Law, Ltd. was speaking last fall to attendees of his seminar on "Baby
Boomers, the Age Wave, and Commoditization of the Practice of Law: How to Survive the Storm" during the ISBA
8th Annual Solo and Small Firm Conference in Itasca.
To survive this new and growing competition, small-firm lawyers and sole practitioners would be wise to change
their paradigm to one that emphasizes value, experience, and wisdom over document production, Neiburger said.
"Think about what you can do to give them [clients] more value, how you can sell value, how you understand the
value of what you do," he said.
Several online providers have expanded their offerings to include more than just a database of do-it-yourself legal
forms. Rocket Lawyer, for instance, touts that it offers consumers access to a network of lawyers who can review
customers' legal documents, answer questions, and provide other legal services at discounted rates.
"What's worse is because we have an oversupply of lawyers, they [can offer] free legal review of the document you
create by a real lawyer," Neiburger said. "An uninformed consumer can go out there and think it's good enough to
get Rocket Lawyer for 10 bucks a month for his legal forms. Or, if they need a real lawyer they can get the discount
one on there. Or, there are lawyers out there selling their services for less than they're worth."
"That's what we're fighting against," he said. "We have to tell our clients and our prospective clients what value we
add that makes us worth more, and why they should come to us. And if you can't convince a prospective client of
that, you don't want them as a client."
Neiburger cited estimates suggesting a supply-and-demand concern. In 1950, he said, there was one lawyer for every
709 Americans; today there is one for every 257.
Considering the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics' estimate of 45,000 students graduating from law schools
each year through 2020 and the number of lawyer jobs in the U.S. increasing by approximately 70,000 over that
period, "we have a severe overproduction of lawyers," Neiburger said.
"What happens when there's an excess of supply? Prices go down," Neiburger said during his presentation.
And when attorneys are willing to work for little pay, he said, it cheapens the public's perception of the value of a
skilled lawyer's services.
"You're not Walmart; don't be. Don't lower your prices; sell value," Neiburger said. "But realize that the price
pressure is downward and you have to deal with that - outsource things or systemize things to [cut costs]."
Riding the technology wave
Neiburger pointed to British lawyer Richard Susskind's 2010 book "The End of Lawyers?" in which the author
describes how technology will change the way people consume legal services and says that automated document
assembly systems and free legal advice provided through open source technology will be among the most disruptive
technologies for the practice of law.
Susskind says that online information is the first place people look for legal advice, Neiburger noted.
"Susskind believes that, except for the most customized, top-of-the line engagements, legal work will soon be very
standardized through the use of complex document assembly programs, the use of more paralegals and nonlawyers
for quasi legal work, and other innovations," Neiburger said. "He claims this will lower costs to clients and make
more legal services available to the public, and possibly mark the end of the big law firm as we know it today. He
believes it will also affect small law firms."
But, Neiburger stressed, "if the small firm practitioner positions herself correctly, as a value and wisdom
proposition, she can fall into Susskind's 'customized, top-of-the-line, engagement.'"
Another of Susskind's predictions in "The End of Lawyers?" reflects the disruption caused by the electronic legal
marketplace, including online ratings of individual lawyers, online auctions, bulk purchasing of legal services on the
corporate level, and readily available price comparisons online.
"Susskind predicts that the purchase of legal services will become a buyer's market with a large push towards drastic
reductions in fees," Neiburger said. "I believe that if the small firm practitioner sells value - she sells the concept
that she will be there to hold the client's hand when the client needs it and provide great customer service and advice
- the practitioner can overcome these Susskindesque obstacles."
Fred Ury, a Connecticut attorney who lectures around the country on the future of law practice, said online legal
service providers that sell documents at one-quarter of what attorneys typically charge is only the beginning.
"The end, and where we're going, is where you take LegalZoom.com and add artificial intelligence to it. And that's a
game changer," Ury said.
For instance, he said, websites like neotalogic.com and Koncision are starting to use artificial intelligence to help
customers fill in the blanks, write contracts, and write the deals.
"That's the future of this commoditized practice," he said.
Then there are so-called crowd sourcing sites that allow users to pose questions and get a multitude of answers from
fellow visitors of the site. Lawpivot.com is among the crowd-sourced sites that offer legal answers for businesses.
"That's pretty amazing. You've got the commoditized practice, and now you're putting out questions. Now we're
getting into advice," Ury said.
Then there are sites like JDSupra.com, where firms upload commoditized products that could be downloaded for
free. "Why is that? They're hoping you'll hire them," Ury said.
Another future "game-changer" example, Ury said, is the website docracy.com, a home for contracts and other legal
documents socially curated by the communities that use them.
"It's free. Does this appeal to me as a consumer? It's like going to a doctor online and saying, 'Can you please
diagnose this?' But for young people used to looking on the Internet, they're very comfortable with it…."
The boomer DIY influence
With the influx of baby boomers reaching retirement age, it helps to know some of the general personality
characteristics of this generation and how they might consume legal services in the future, Neiburger said.
"First and foremost, baby boomers are confident, self-assured, and self-reliant," Neiburger noted in a paper
accompanying his presentation. "They are smart and they like to do things themselves.…They might not want to use
a lawyer for all of their legal needs when they can sidestep that and prepare legal documents themselves."
Neiburger noted that the baby boomer generation tends to question authority as well as the status quo.
"As a result, they tend to be sophisticated purchasers of legal services and also want, to a large degree, to do things
themselves and only purchase enough in services to educate themselves enough to do it on their own."
That's even more of a reason for the small-firm practitioner to educate clients and potential clients about the true
value of the attorney's wisdom and knowledge in applying the law while creating the forms and giving advice,
Neiburger said.
For instance, with his own clients who insist on do-it-yourself documents, he may assume the role of advisor in a
limited scope arrangement.
"What is happening in my practice is they're doing it themselves but they want to hire me hourly to look over their
shoulders," Neiburger said. "That's what they want. If I fought it and said, 'You have to use only documents I create
or nothing,' I'd lose the business."
Not all gloom and doom
Despite the heightened competition that comes with technology, Neiburger's outlook isn't all doom and gloom.
"There's plenty of opportunity," he said. "You just have to be creative and figure out what they're willing to
buy....There are things you can do that provide the collateral documents so that you can do the brain stuff. That's
what they're hiring you for anyway."
Neiburger offered several more tips for lawyers to take to survive - and, perhaps, flourish - in the midst of a storm of
changes in the way consumers get legal information and purchase legal services.
Embrace office automation. Document automation and practice management software can help attorneys leverage
their time. By implementing document assembly platforms such as Hot Docs or Pro Docs, lawyers can create a solid
first draft that closely resembles the one they would create from scratch, Neiburger said.
"There are a lot of packages out there that allow you to work at a lower price level and make more money for your
time," Neiburger said. "But remember that you want to be that trusted advisor.…In the future, clients will not buy
documents. Don't sell them documents. When I sell my high-priced estate planning, I tell them: 'If you look at all the
hours I put in at $300 an hour, the documents are free, almost. You're buying my wisdom and my time. They expect
me to be on the phone a year later when they have questions because that's what they're buying. That's what you
sell."
Educate clients on the value and hazards of do-it-yourself documents. "There is a saying that all the knowledge in
the world is on the Internet but that knowledge does not contain wisdom," Neiburger said. "That wisdom, through
advocacy and counseling, is what people will buy and what the new paradigm cannot produce without the individual
lawyer.
"Just realize what they're buying. Think about what you can do to give them more value, how you can sell value,
how you can make them understand the value you bring to the table," Neiburger said. "They don't know what they
don't know, and they think they can download the form and do it themselves. And they're going to do it anyway.
You have to help them find the holes in what they know.
"We're going to educate them and counsel them and help them, and that's where the value is in your practice,"
Neiburger said. "Tell them the horror stories of people doing it incorrectly. Educate them about all the issues
involved."
Turn to marketing, Facebook, and social media. "Networking is going to be really important to survive in the future.
Why? Because…somebody wants a recommendation from their Facebook friend, and what lawyer to use for this
and that and the other thing," Neiburger said. "You have to use social media and other techniques to engage the baby
boomers, to engage the people who are going to buy your services."
Neiburger recommends finding creative ways - short of giving away legal advice, of course - to engage prospective
clients through law firm marketing programs or websites. For instance, Neiburger said, you might answer someone's
simple question, help solve a problem, make data or some law more easily understood, provide a different
perspective, create or participate in discussion, or share something new you learned. Of course, a lawyer should
always be wary of the professional responsibility traps in this type of marketing.
Engage in alternative fee arrangements. Discuss with clients options that might include flat fees, value-based billing,
hourly billing, or a combination of those. Or, Neiburger said, maybe the client wants a limited scope engagement to
get help with a specific part of what he or she is trying to do.
Use checklists. Since practitioners are finding they have to do more with less and get work done in a shorter time,
Neiburger said they should use legal procedure checklists to make sure nothing is missing from a procedure or
process.
"This way if a client hires you for a limited scope engagement, you can make sure you define the exact beginning
and end of a project in writing, so you don't get punished for what the client didn't hire you to do."
Consider a virtual office. If you don't need frequent face-to-face contact with your clients, a virtual office can reduce
overhead, allowing you to do more with less.
Focus on responsive client service. Clients want to make sure their phone calls and emails are returned within a
reasonable time and that things proceed as promised. "Focusing on customer service with each one of your clients
will help you retain them and get additional referrals, too."
Delegate and outsource. If you know of someone who can do a non-legal task cheaper than you, subcontract (with
the client's consent) to them so you can get the client the lowest possible cost for the services that you provide.
"There are ways to safely do this and protect client information," Neiburger said. "Get your client's permission first:
'Client, can I give a [another provider] the accounting I'm doing for this estate? They charge $20 an hour and I'm at
$300. Is that okay with you?'"
Use mobile technology. With mobile technology, attorneys can limit their down time and travel and also change
lifestyles to be where they want to and when, while still serving clients.
"Be creative, understand the markets, understand where the gaps are and move in. Use technology even if it causes
you to break out in hives," Neiburger said during his ISBA presentation. "And remember, you are smart, you are
valuable, and you are nimble. You can make the changes to get through the storm."
Maria Kantzavelos <mkantz@comcast.net> is a Chicago-based freelance writer focusing on legal topics.
Skating your way to new clients
Ben Neiburger's passion for inline skating helped him build his practice.
With a little creativity and attention to the evolving market for legal services, elder law attorney Ben Neiburger
says lawyers can take on pro bono projects that not only make a difference but also help bring in business by
connecting to clients' passions.
Neiburger did just that last year, when he helped a group of baby boomers change the law to let them do what
they love: Speedskating on Illinois' roadways.
Inline speed skating has been a hobby for the Elmhurst attorney in recent years as a member of Team Rainbo, a
speedskating club of about 80 members who are mostly in their mid-50s and meet for exercise and training in
northwestern Illinois.
"I do inline speedskating. That's what the name of the sport is. When I'm doing it there's no speed involved
whatsoever," Neiburger said in a presentation last fall during the ISBA Solo and Small Firm Conference.
At any rate, when Neiburger heard the complaints of his teammates - many of whom can sustain speeds of more
than 20 miles per hour during a 26-mile marathon - that some municipalities and their police departments were
ticketing them for skating on the street, he put on his lawyer's hat.
Illinois law treated these skaters as pedestrians, making it unlawful under the vehicle code to use the roadway
where a sidewalk is available and practicable.
The law also required skaters, like pedestrians, to travel on the shoulder and on the left side of the road, against
traffic, when a sidewalk is not available.
What are the potential dangers of skating 20 miles per hour against traffic? "Ever see a bug on a windshield?"
Neiburger asked.
"You can do that?" When the Elmhurst attorney suggested that the group work to change the law so members
could skate outdoors, they replied: "'You can do that?'" Neiburger recalled.
He said he rolled up his sleeves, using his legal skills to help the skaters with their passion and give them a
positive experience with laws and the legislative process - from gaining the support of a state senator to sponsor
the legislation and attempting to draft an amendment to the bicycle code to leading the group in lobbying and
negotiating with interested parties. Stakeholders included the state police, the downstate truckers' interest group,
and the bicycle lobby group. The skaters drummed up support to push the legislation through the Transportation
Committee, the Senate floor, the House, and to Gov. Pat Quinn's office for signature. And Neiburger provided
his services pro bono.
The end result was a new law, effective Jan. 1, that considers skaters age 18 and over as "quasi-pedestrians" who
can use bicycle lanes during daylight hours on roads with speed limits of 45 miles per hour or less. They are no
longer required to travel against traffic on the left side of a two-way highway.
"The lesson is: I help them with their passion and, while doing that, I help them get a positive interaction with
the law and with the system - something that's going to benefit them much more in the future," Neiburger said.
Purpose and meaning. In paying attention to where the buyers of legal services are going to be, the so-called
baby boomer age wave is very important, Neiburger said.
"We love baby boomers. Why? Because they've got money," he said. And "baby boomers aren't going to retire."
Another general characteristic of baby boomers, Neiburger said, is that "their quest for career and material gain
will be replaced by a searching for meaning and purpose in life."
"We have to think about that - on who our future clients are and how we're networking with clients," Neiburger
said.
While guiding his fellow skaters in getting the law changed, Neiburger was also marketing his skills as an
advocate.
"This group of baby boomers, who love to skate, got excited about the process. They called their legislators, and
we got through it," Neiburger said. "I get so much estate planning business from them because I helped them
with their passion.…I saw purpose and meaning. It was pro bono, of course, but I helped them get there - and I'm
getting business from it.
"That's what you need to look for in your practices as they change - how to help people….[Baby boomers are]
going to be purchasing purpose and meaning. And if you help them get there, it's the best form of advertising."
- Maria Kantzavelos
April 2013 • Volume 101 • Number 4 • Page 180
The Magazine of Illinois Lawyers
Reprinted with permission of the Illinois State Bar Association.
Social Media
Marketing Your Practice via Social Media
By Maria Kantzavelos
You can find clients on Facebook and LinkedIn. Or, more to the point, they can find you. But only if you go about it
the right way. The good news? That usually means following your interests and passions and being yourself.
Networking has long been a leading way for lawyers to bring in legal work, with some of the best business garnered
via word of mouth and reputation.
And whether that networking takes place at a bar association event, a golf outing, or a black-tie benefit for charity,
success isn't necessarily about leaving the party with a thick stack of business cards.
"It's not going to do any good if you don't do anything with it," said attorney Allison C. Shields, president of New
York-based Legal Ease Consulting, Inc.
The same can be said of lawyer networking and marketing via multi-million-member social media platforms like
Facebook and LinkedIn, where one of the highlights associated with each user is an up-to-date tally of the number of
online "friends" or "connections" made.
Consider the act of setting up a profile and building a network on LinkedIn, where lawyers and other legal
professionals constitute one of the largest groups of users.
"It's not about collecting the most connections you can get," said Shields, who helps lawyers with law practice
management and marketing issues, including improving their use of LinkedIn and other social media platforms.
Rather, Shields said, "You learn something [about the business connections] and continue that conversation.…Send
them an individual message, either by email or through the service. Maybe it's a link to an article, or maybe it's
connecting them to somebody you know who can be helpful to them, or getting involved in a group they're involved
in. Or, just in your updates to your entire network, you're including information that would be helpful."
It's about relationships
Social media as a lawyer marketing tool is just an extension of the way you network offline, Shields said.
"For a lawyer, you're building relationships with potential clients, you're building relationships with other attorneys,
you're building relationships with referral sources. You have to ask, What's the best strategy for doing that and how
can I translate that from the real world to online?" she said. "Lawyers who are networking, whether it be by
participating in bar associations or the community, what do they do if they want to establish relationships? They
meet, then follow up, tell the person what their needs are.…If you meet somebody at an event, then what would you
do next? You're trying to move the relationship forward.
"It's the same thing when you set up a profile, for example, on LinkedIn."
If a key approach to effective networking is to go to where your target market is, then the internet age's social media
- which include blogs and Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Plus, video-sharing sites, and other vehicles for
electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, messages, and
other content - is an obvious hot spot.
Still, while the knee-jerk reaction may be to focus primarily on how using social media is going to help build your
practice, "If you go into using social media expecting that it will immediately and directly yield results in the form
of new business, [you're] likely to be disappointed," said Chicago attorney Evan D. Brown, whose popular
InternetCases.com blog recently marked its eighth birthday.
Brown, who is also an avid user of Twitter and LinkedIn and has both a transactional and litigation practice focused
on information technology and intellectual property law as a senior counsel at InfoLawGroup LLP, said it's a
circuitous route from a lawyer's point of entry into social media to someone "walking through the door with a
retainer check."
"There are these other, much-more-difficult-to-quantify benefits. Those benefits are to the lawyer and community,
and they don't always translate into revenue," Brown said. "You often won't know whether and to what extent your
social media activities contributed to the client's decision to hire you."
"For me, it has been the unusual situation for a client to find my blog, call me up, and hire me," Brown said.
For the most part, the way he has developed business through social media has been networking with potential
sources for referrals, like the attorney on the west coast with clients facing a federal lawsuit in the northern district
of Illinois, who hired Brown - whom he had gotten to know through Twitter - to represent them here.
"You can indeed get good paying work from using Twitter effectively. I'm living proof of that," Brown said. "It's
really about the development of the relationship, and Twitter is the medium by which authentic, human relationships
can be developed."
"Don't go into social media expecting you're going to make five dollars per blog post," Brown said. "It's so difficult
to quantify. It's much more organic and artful and unsystematic."
It's all about them, not you
Lawyers generally were late adopters of social media, and many remain reluctant to add those online social
networking tools to their marketing repertoire, Shields said.
"Part of it is their concern about confidentiality issues with clients, the ethical rules and where the boundaries are,"
Shields said. "A lot of the advertising rules in the different states are still, even now, not completely caught up with
the technology. Advertising rules were written, really, in the age of print. In some cases they've been changed; in
some they haven't."
What's more, Shields said, "There's a lot to learn with all of these platforms, and lawyers are busy. They're
concentrating on doing work for clients. It's hard for them to find the time to do the marketing they know how to do
already," let alone learn to use social media effectively, she said.
Those are legitimate concerns, at least to some extent, according to St. Louis-based information technology lawyer
Dennis Kennedy, a well-known author and speaker on legal tech topics who blogs at http://denniskennedy.com.
As such, Kennedy said, lawyers should learn their jurisdiction's ethical rules that affect their participation in social
media platforms. Whether your social media home is in Facebook or LinkedIn, in the blogosphere, on Twitter, or in
a combination of them all and more, good judgment and common sense can be key in avoiding ethical pitfalls.
A general rule of thumb for lawyers is: "You really have to look at it as a parallel to what you do in the real world,"
Shields said. "Ask yourself: Would I say this if I were in a room full of people? If not, I shouldn't say this in a virtual
room full of people."
That rule of thumb applies to lawyers looking to avoid ethical pitfalls as well as those who may be inclined to
inundate Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, or Twitter followers with streams of blatantly self-promotional
posts, status updates, and Tweets, which tend to be ill-received in the social media realm.
"Avoid the blog posts and the Tweets and LinkedIn updates that say, 'Look at how wonderful our firm is.' Or, 'Look
at our wonderful success.' There's a time and place to talk about those things, but those should not be the primary
form of content," Brown said.
On Twitter, for instance, "Generate and share content that is relevant to followers because of what the followers
want to hear," Brown said. "Seldom do I put a tweet up about what I have done or accomplished. I'll link to a blog
post, but that's just in the spirit of sharing content that I hope my readers will find interesting."
On Facebook, which has ads for selling, users typically don't like to be "sold to" in friend updates that appear on
their Facebook newsfeed, legal technologist Kennedy pointed out.
Shields put it this way: "Is it all promotional - all about you? If that's the case you're like the person at the
networking event that everyone is trying to avoid."
As for concerns about social media activities taking away from potential billable hour time, Kennedy likes to say he
has first-hand knowledge of how possible it is to participate in social networking sites without impinging on lawyer
work time. Consider Facebook, Kennedy said, and where and when we commonly tend to see users engaged in the
medium, checking in on the site while they're in restaurants or waiting rooms, standing in coffee shop lines, at
sporting events, or watching TV.
"When you actually do it, it's outside [work] hours," Kennedy said. "What it takes away from is TV-watching time,
for me. You can be having a whole conversation on Facebook while you're watching Top Chef, or during the
commercials.
"Ultimately, it's less time than people think. Even with blogging. A lot of blog posts take 15 minutes of actual
writing."
Leveraging lawyer-friendly LinkedIn
LinkedIn, which even has a special set of pages in its help section dedicated to lawyers - likely because of the site's
popularity among this group of professionals - is perhaps the easiest point of entry into social media for lawyers,
Shields said. She and Kennedy co-wrote LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers and Facebook in One Hour for Lawyers
for the ABA (see sidebar).
"LinkedIn is and has always been a professional network. People are there as business people to do business, as
opposed to some of the other sites where a lot of them are there for social purposes," Shields said.
In looking at social media platforms, it helps to think of online networking tools like LinkedIn in terms of three
essential building blocks: the profile, which on LinkedIn is like an extended resume or professional biography;
connections, which tend to reflect your business and professional relationships; and participation, which usually
calls for a more professional and thoughtful tone.
"LinkedIn has been around so long and always had the impression of being very professional," Kennedy said. "You
talk about connections, and there's resume-type material. It's very structured - that feels right to lawyers."
Kennedy offers a "classic example" of how lawyers can use social media tools like LinkedIn to further "real life"
relationships. If you're planning to travel to another city, for instance, a great way to use LinkedIn is to tap into your
list of connections and identify those clients or strategic partners who are in those cities and arrange a get-together
with one or two of them while you're there, Kennedy said.
Lawyer LinkedIn users should also update regularly to stay "top of mind" with their network, the co-authors
advised. "Lawyers think of LinkedIn as a way to get information to and make yourself better known to referrers of
business," Kennedy said in an interview.
Here's an example of how this can be accomplished: "Say you're doing estate planning work," Kennedy said. "You
use LinkedIn to connect with the financial planners, life insurance people, bank people you already deal with. The
information, the updates you put into LinkedIn, would be useful to that group - something about developments in the
law or useful tips - so those people will remember the next time somebody asks for an estate planning lawyer."
In the April 2012 American Bar Association GPSolo eReport, Kennedy and Shields highlighted 10 simple and
specific steps lawyers can take to quickly improve their LinkedIn experience and results - no matter how active the
user already is (see sidebar).
One of their tips is joining relevant LinkedIn groups - the Illinois State Bar Association's members-only group, for
example, and groups that serve the clients you seek - and participating in the discussion.
Since LinkedIn is a network that works just like your real-life networking groups, except that it eliminates
geographic constraints, groups can be a great way to learn about topics of interest and see what thoughts leaders are
talking about in these areas.
"Use these groups as places to seek or give advice and discuss issues of interest," the co-authors noted. "You can
demonstrate your expertise through group discussions and even get to know the leaders in your field."
Facebook without fear
Many lawyers are wary of Facebook and its more personal environment, and not without reason. Facebook is where
"plenty of lawyers already have embarrassed themselves" and where a number of ethical opinions have been
focused. In his article in the February 2013 issue of the ABA's Law Practice Today, Kennedy offered 13 Facebook
tips for lawyers to "up [their] game" on the most popular social media platform, which now has more than one
billion members (see sidebar).
His first tip advises lawyers to look for ethics guidance specifically on Facebook use, to add any necessary legal
disclaimers, and to familiarize themselves with rules on advertising, solicitation, and confidentiality - "three big
areas where lawyers have gone wrong."
That said, the social networking behemoth has undeniable marketing value - if the focus is on potential referrers
rather than directly on potential clients, Shields said.
Like LinkedIn, Facebook features three building blocks: the just-revised timeline, which is far more personal and
visual; friends and "friending," most of whom tend to be family members and real-world friends; and more personal
participation than on LinkedIn.
"Lawyers tend to think of things in boxes: 'I'm a lawyer. That's my business side.' But we're really whole people,"
Shields said. "Even if you decide to use Facebook just socially, there are ways you can use it strategically so people
still know what you do for a living, and you may get referrals from it."
Here's one way to do so, Kennedy said: "Your friends and your family [may] know you're a lawyer, but they don't
know exactly what you do. Maybe from time to time, your updates on Facebook include helpful, practical
information. Then they'll remember what work you actually do and say, 'My cousin or friend from college does
estate planning work. You should talk to him.' Get yourself into the minds of people who already like you and know
you."
If, for instance, you're an estate planning lawyer on Facebook, an update might be, "Here are four times when you
need to think about revisiting your will: when someone dies, marries, etc.," Kennedy said. "[Other users] see that on
Facebook as they scroll through and say, 'That's nice of him to do that. That's useful.' But they'll remember that that's
the type of work you do."
In taking the Facebook exercise a bit further, Kennedy said, lawyers can join organized groups on the site and
periodically provide some helpful information to users who share similar interests or backgrounds, along with some
personal information.
Then, if there comes a time when a user seeks legal help and you, the lawyer "friend" on Facebook, have
demonstrated familiarity with the area of law, "that personal element you can show on Facebook could make all the
difference in the world," Kennedy said. A potential client, or referrer, may think, for instance: "This one also raises
Great Danes like I do. Or, this person went to the same school I did. Or they like the same movies. If they've reached
a decision point where it becomes more intuitive or emotional, the personal connection on Facebook could make a
difference."
Plus, Kennedy said, in Facebook that same lawyer may build out those interests by joining groups on the site. "Now
you're part of this group of people who raise Great Danes. They know I'm the lawyer in the group. When somebody
they know has a legal question, they'll think, I'm going to recommend him."
This is not unlike when a lawyer joins certain groups in the real world.
"It's a slow-built thing," Kennedy said. "I don't think you join a country club…and say, 'I'm going to try to sell
everyone on hiring me.' You say, 'I'm here for reasons other than marketing. This is a real interest of mine.' And
then, over time, it actually becomes a source of referrals."
As with LinkedIn, taking the online relationship offline can be a good networking move for lawyer Facebook users,
Kennedy said. Or, he said, when you notice that someone changes jobs, gets an award or has a major life event,
communicate with him or her via Facebook and set up a breakfast or lunch. The information you've culled through
the social networking tool, like an update on a friend's recent vacation in Hawaii, or interesting observations or links
he or she shared, could serve as good fodder for conversation when you meet in person.
"It doesn't just need to stay right within the LinkedIn or Facebook world," Kennedy said. "That's what really makes
it interesting, when you start to blur the lines between the Internet and the real world."
If you're still uncertain about blending the personal and the professional, Facebook does offer a way to use the
platform in just a professional manner, allowing lawyer users to create separate professional pages for their practice.
"Maybe people will follow your firm's page, but the page doesn't have to be all about the law," Shields said. "Say
you're a real estate lawyer. Maybe your update is: Ten tips for moving - what you should ask a moving company
before you sign an agreement, a checklist of things you need to do. It's information that the people in your target
audience would be interested in getting, but you're not boring the heck out of them with what the latest regulation
is.…If you're a good source of information, people are going to come back to you."
Be authentic
"If you're authentic in social media it sometimes leads to surprising things, as opposed to calculating: What sort of
image should I show?" Kennedy asked.
Consider the example Kennedy relayed about a tweeting experience involving Kevin O'Keefe, the CEO and founder
of LexBlog, Inc.
"He's in Seattle and used to tweet about being a Green Bay Packer fan. He was made fun of for that," Kennedy said.
"It turned out he got a number of clients who are Green Bay Packer fans." (See sidebar for more about blogging as a
business-development tool.)
But social media isn't for everyone. "Use social media because you enjoy what you're talking about," Brown said. "If
you are doing it and it feels burdensome to you, or you're bored, that may be a sign that you're trying to push a
square peg into a round hole. Maybe social media is not for you."
If it is for you, Brown said, "Be patient. Remember, it's a circuitous route from the effort you put into it to the
reward that you expect from it. It takes time, cultivation. It's an organic process."
Be real when you enter the social media realm, Brown said. And be interactive. Interact, for instance, "with that law
student who reaches out to you with a direct message from Twitter about their job search," he said.
"This is social media after all. It should be bidirectional," Brown said.
Blogging - 'the hub of the wheel' of online branding
A Chicago lawyer uses blogging to build his online presence while learning about legal developments.
Blogging, a social media platform that allows lawyers to showcase their knowledge and expertise to the world,
including prospective clients and referrals of business, can offer many benefits, both to the attorney who chooses
to write a blog and the community at large, Chicago attorney Evan Brown said. His own blog posts on
InternetCases.com focus on new court decisions, legislative developments, and news related to the subject of his
practice area.
"It is extremely helpful for me to stay abreast of trends and developments in my practice area, because I've
developed the discipline of not only reading about those developments, but actually writing about them."
"It probably takes more time at the beginning than it does once you get into the habit of it," Brown said. "But this
is something that we as lawyers are supposed to be doing anyway, staying current with the developing trends of
our practice area, being visible to the community at large to represent the profession in a positive way."
He considers his long-running blog to be "the hub of the wheel that is my online efforts to develop a personal
brand."
The spokes of the wheel, Brown said, include Twitter and LinkedIn, and his many speaking and other writing
engagements that have surfaced as a result of his blogging efforts.
Many bloggers, including Brown, can also be found by journalists for interviews as an expert on a particular
topic.
"Everything sort of builds on itself [in social media]," St. Louis-based information technology lawyer Dennis
Kennedy said. "They become the golf law expert or the horse law expert because that's what they're interested in,
and they just keep writing about it."
Blogging could also be viewed as a way for lawyers in transition to position themselves and move into a
different practice area where they have a strong interest, but are unsure about how to build that practice.
"You can use social media to create a name for yourself, learn what's out there, and get involved with some of
the leading people in the field and, over time, develop a new area," Kennedy said. "That's especially the case for
somebody who's about to retire or slow down a practice. If you've got some time, you can kind of create that
branding in the area you want to do through social media that will help you with that transition."
The networking that one can do via the blogosphere, where bloggers tend to link to each other fairly liberally, is
another of the more tangible possible benefits of the social media mechanism, Brown said.
The same can be true of "microblogging" - i.e., tweeting and following others on Twitter, which Brown has been
doing since 2007.
"Twitter is a really superlative way of connecting to others, whether it's other attorneys, members of academia,
people who are working in the industry that legal counsel desires to serve, and law students," said Brown, who
has even used the platform to do a little bit of mentoring here and there with budding attorneys.
"Over time, I've evolved my twitter use to be a way of sharing relevant content with others," Brown said. "You
can't say a whole lot in 140 characters, but you can link to longer articles that go into more depth. And, most
importantly, you simply stay in your followers' top-of-mind consciousness by saying anything at all. As long as
you're not being annoying or too self-promotional, you're doing yourself a favor. You're reminding them that you
still exist, and that you are passionate about the subject matter that you are focused on and ready to be of service
to those who need help."
- Maria Kantzavelos
Find out more about marketing on Facebook and
LinkedIn
· Dennis Kennedy and Allison Shields, LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers and Facebook in One Hour for
Lawyers. Both books were published in 2012 by the American Bar Association, sponsored by the ABA's Law
Practice Management Section.
· Dennis Kennedy and Allison Shields, Ten Tips to Get the Most Out of LinkedIn, ABA GPSolo eReport (April
2012), online at
http://www.americanbar.org/publications/gpsolo_ereport/2012/april_2012/ten_tips_linkedin.html
· Dennis Kennedy, Thirteen Facebook Tips for Lawyers in 2013, Law Practice Today (February 2013), online at
http://www.americanbar.org/content/newsletter/publications/law_practice_today_home/lptarchives/february13/thirteen-facebook-tips-for-lawyers-in-2013.html
May 2013 • Volume 101 • Number 5 • Page 232
The Magazine of Illinois Lawyers
Reprinted with permission of the Illinois State Bar Association.
Legal Technology
The Lawyer’s iPad: Using Tablets in Your Practice
By Maria Kantzavelos
If you don't have a tablet, you're probably thinking about getting one. But can you really use one to practice more
effectively? Tech experts say "yes" and tell you how to use mobile devices to increase productivity and gain an edge
in the courtroom.
If you're not using a smartphone in your law practice, you're in the minority. Likewise if you aren't at least thinking
about getting a tablet for tackling law-related tasks while you're away from the office. Lawyers, not known as early
adopters of other technologies, have enthusiastically embraced mobile.
Smartphone use by lawyers today is nearly universal, according to the American Bar Association's 2012 Legal
Technology Survey Report, in which 89 percent of attorneys surveyed reported using a smartphone for talking,
emailing and other law-related tasks while away from their primary workplace. And 33 percent of lawyers reported
using a tablet computer in 2012 as part of their practice, a jump from the 15 percent in 2011. In addition to Apple's
popular iPad, there are Android tablets like Amazon's Kindle Fire, Samsung's Galaxy Tab, and the Nexus 7 by
Google, to name a few.
"I think there's a gee-whiz factor, but I'm seeing more and more lawyers having a tablet of some kind," said lawyer
Nerino J. Petro, Jr., practice management advisor for the Law Office Management Assistance program of the State
Bar of Wisconsin and a member of the ISBA's Standing Committee on Legal Technology. "[Some are] not sure
what to do with it. But others are using them in their practices on a daily basis." Aside from the gee-whiz factor,
lawyers who don't leave the office without their tablet cite convenience as its main draw.
"Either a smartphone or a tablet helps the lawyer to be mobile, helps lawyers to conduct business while they're out
of the office, to be able to serve their clients better, to be able to actually run their law practice when they're out of
the office," said Dallas-based lawyer Tom Mighell, author of the ABA books iPad in One Hour for Lawyers, iPad
Apps in One Hour for Lawyers, and iPad in One Hour for Litigators.
Mighell, a self-described "technology nut," is a senior consultant with Contoural, where he helps companies deal
with records management and electronic discovery. In his blog iPad4Lawyers, a companion to his books, Mighell
shares some of his latest tips and tricks on using the iPad and reviews apps that lawyers can use to increase
productivity at work and elsewhere (see sidebar).
"A mobile device helps you carry on your practice whether you're on vacation, in court somewhere, or on the road
somewhere," Mighell said. "It helps to be your office away from home."
Rockford attorney Aaron W. Brooks agrees that if you find yourself with two hours of downtime while out of the
office, turning to a mobile device equipped with the right apps can make for a productive wait.
"That two hours can be productive if you have everything in front of you to bill two hours," said Brooks, a member
of the ISBA Standing Committee on Legal Technology. "In the past, I'd have two hours, but all my stuff is in my
office. It helps capture a lot of time in your life that would otherwise be unproductive, which leaves a lot of other
time to do fun stuff. It's more about working when you want to, where you want. The only way to do that is to make
sure all of your information is available where you are."
While laptops can give lawyers a measure of this connectedness, they don't do it as completely and effectively as
tablets and smartphones (they don't call them "mobile devices" for nothing). And increasingly, organizations and
other entities are acknowledging the burgeoning technology by allowing users to interact with them in a more
mobile-friendly fashion. For example, the ISBA recently rolled out a mobile-optimized version of its website (see
the sidebar on page 236 for more about viewing the IBJ on your mobile device).
Don't app for app's sake
So how can lawyers get the most value from these mobile tools that seem to be everywhere? Mighell's answer starts
with a question: "As a lawyer, what do you want to be able to do when you're away from the office?"
"The first step is to figure out what is it in your particular practice that you want to be able to do on the road that
you're either not getting done now or is not working the way you'd like it to."
The answer to that key question, Mighell said, can then lead lawyer tablet-user wannabes to the right applications to
help accomplish those tasks.
That's what Brooks does when he looks for apps for the mobile devices he uses in his own practice at Holmstrom &
Kennedy P.C. "I first define the problem I need to solve. I'm not looking for an app just to have an app," he said.
Brooks, who focuses his practice on the law of health care technology, offered this advice on finding apps that are
right for you and your practice: "Define the parameters of what you want the app to do to solve that problem. Then
go to look for those apps that have the most downloads with the highest ratings. Try three and stick with them for a
while."
"A lot of people get addicted to finding that new silver bullet for productivity, so they jump from app to app and
never settle into a system and grow it," Brooks said. "Find one that works really well and grow it, expand it. Really
dig into it and don't abandon it for the next shiny object that comes along."
And, Brooks said, try to avoid "app overload." "If you have too many apps going at the same time, your information
is going to get fragmented and you're going to get lost," Brooks said. "Use as few apps as possible, so that all your
information is centralized."
No matter which sort of mobile tech tools you settle on, "To get the most out of your tablet you've got to learn how
to use it," said Petro. He recommends New Orleans-based attorney Jeff Richardson's iPhoneJ.D. and Oklahoma City
attorney Jeffrey Taylor's The Droid Lawyer as two of the many blogs on the subject, and he advises lawyers to
spend some time on technology informational sites like MakeUseOf, which offers free user guides, as well as HowTo Geek.
Naperville attorney Bryan M. Sims of Sims Law Firm, Ltd., who focuses his practice on commercial litigation and
civil appeals, is an avid tablet user.
"I have an iPad and pretty much don't go anywhere where I'm going for work without it," Sims said. "It's got my
email, calendar, contacts. I can also access all the documents in all my files from my iPad.
"We all think and work a little bit differently. Find an app that works the way you do, rather than force yourself to
work another way," Sims said. "Generally, there's not just one app in any particular category."
For lawyer mobile device users, Sims said, "It's a real benefit if you make sure that your calendar, your email, your
contacts are all synchronized with the information you have at the office, the information you have on your
smartphone, so that information is the same on every device.
"I run into attorneys where that is not the case," Sims said. It's a simple thing to achieve and it really pays off. No
matter what device you have, you can make a change, put an entry in, and it appears on all of your devices."
It's simple, Sims said, because with just a one-time set-up everything stays synchronized. He does this by using a
hosted Exchange server, which is designed exactly for this purpose. "If you are not an Outlook fan, you can use
Google Apps for business. It will accomplish the same thing," Sims said, noting that either of these solutions costs
about $5 per email account per month.
Lawyer-worthy apps
Though there's more to smartphones and tablets than apps, apps are a key component of mobile's appeal. "The
reality is, I do most of my research on my iPad rather than my computer," Sims said. "[That's] mostly because I find
that the apps on my iPad are scaled down so you don't have a lot of clutter on the screen. I prefer that over what I'm
seeing on the computer."
So what are some apps lawyers need? TranscriptPad is among Sims' favorites. "It's designed to allow you to read
and annotate transcripts from depositions and trials. You read it on your iPad, you can mark it up, and when you're
done, you can export it in a variety of different formats."
He uses the app Keynote, Apple's version of PowerPoint, to prepare presentations on his mobile device.
"I spend a lot of time away from my office because of the nature of my work," Sims said. "I'm in court waiting for
cases to be called. There's time you could be working that you're otherwise not if you don't have a way of doing the
work. I can take my iPad with me and do my work wherever."
He said he uses "a ton" of apps as part of his practice while out of the office, including rulebook, which allows users
to download various court rules. With the rulebook app, which is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch and iPad,
lawyers can take all the rules they have downloaded anywhere they go and quickly access them without the need for
an internet connection.
"I use that for Illinois Supreme Court rules and Illinois rules of ethics, federal rules of evidence, the code of civil
procedure," Sims said. "It doesn't matter which court I'm going to.…If I need to look up one of those rules, it's right
there without having to remember which book to carry with me, or carrying multiples. And it doesn't weigh any
more. It's all in my iPad."
"There are a dozen different pdf apps out there," Sims said. "If I'm reading I'll use a particular app. If I'm annotating
a case, marking it up, I'll use a different app."
In March, the Cook County Clerk's Office unveiled a mobile app designed to put court-related information at the
user's fingertips. The Court Clerk Mobile Connect app, which is free, can be downloaded for use on an Android or
iPhone, iPad I, II and III, and iPod touch. It offers a variety of features, including options to search the court's
electronic docket for civil and traffic cases, search the court call roster, get updates on fee schedules, and locate and
contact Cook County Court facilities.
Evernote is another one of those "really useful applications" for lawyers, Petro said.
"That's available for all the platforms and the data is shared across all the platforms," Petro said. "It's like an
electronic binder. You can easily take notes and get information into it. It synchronizes between all your devices and
desktop computer. If you save something from your tablet or phone in an Evernote note, when you get back to your
office it's on your desktop as well."
Leveling the field for litigators
Trial lawyers in particular are putting tablets to work. Many had already traded clunky foam-core boards and paper
files for laptop-centered presentations. But now lightweight, easy-to use tablets - and their assorted apps - are
leveling the playing field for litigation technology.
Before mobile devices like the iPad came along, Mighell said, a lawyer who wanted to use technology to present
evidence in court had to hire a technician or recruit a tech-savvy assistant or paralegal. "It's not very practical for a
lawyer to try and run that technology from a laptop and run a case at the same time," Mighell said. Lawyers who
were without the resources were "stuck with hauling boxes of paper to the courtroom, and watching as betterequipped lawyers across the aisle presented their cases effectively and efficiently using technology."
With a slim, easy-to-use tablet such as an iPad, Mighell said, "If you're a solo lawyer and want to go to trial and
can't afford an assistant, it allows you to do these things by yourself with minimal technological knowledge."
Nowadays, Mighell said, "You can just walk into a courtroom with an iPad and try a case. Many lawyers are doing it
very successfully today."
"An iPad is not ideal for every kind of case," Mighell said. "In some cases you've got so many documents that you're
probably going to need to hire somebody to help present them. But for other cases, the iPad makes a lot of sense."
And the iPad is the leading tablet for trial practitioners, at least for now. "If you're planning on using a tablet in the
courtroom, the iPad still has the most legal-specific apps," Petro said. "If you're going to be in court a lot and you're
going to use it for trial, you'd probably want to go with an iPad still." But maybe not for long. "Some of the trialbased apps that are available on the iPad are now available for the new Windows 8 platform," Petro said.
From the very beginning of a case, when the client first walks through the door, Mighell said, "You can do client
intake on an iPad and take notes on it when you're meeting, tally deadlines, review documents, review and take
depositions, review transcripts, conduct jury selection. You've got a number of trial presentation apps to help you
present evidence in the courtroom. You can have your entire law library on the iPad."
Tablets also offer mobility in the courtroom.
"You're so liberated," Mighell said. "Being able to present wirelessly really makes it easy to get around the
courtroom, walk back and forth, and still be able to show things on the screen to the jury.
"You can walk to the podium with all your evidence, you can walk to the judge and show case law," Mighell said.
"It just makes it easier to get around in the courtroom and show things that you couldn't do if you were using
technology otherwise."
The gadgets can also have some influence on juries.
"Juries have started to have expectations about using technology," Mighell said. "There is a cool factor with the iPad
and being able to demonstrate it. Juries have commented on that.
"You want to be most effective in showing them evidence. Showing documents by paper is becoming less and less
effective and a less meaningful way of presenting evidence at trial. The iPad really shows that to a jury."
While he acknowledged that the world of apps is ever-changing, Mighell highlighted a few litigation apps for the
iPad that he said are worth checking out, including TranscriptPad for reviewing and annotating transcripts, and
TrialPad, "the number one evidence presentation app out there" because of its many easy-to-use features.
There's even an app, complete with avatars, that's designed to allow trial lawyers to use their tablets as a tool for jury
selection.
"As you go through the voir dire process, you can make notes, create a diagram of the jury box.…You've got the
information that's readily accessible on a tablet that you can take with you and study, instead of flipping through
[paper] notes. It's an efficiency thing," Petro said.
Change is the constant
All of this is just a snapshot, of course. The world of mobile is constantly changing. Smartphones are available in
bigger versions and tablets in smaller models, so that the two seem to be meeting in the middle. Ultraportable
laptops are beginning to blend the power of traditional computers (think real keyboards and software like Word and
Excel) with the simplicity of apps in a smaller, lighter package. Some content providers are abandoning native apps
- the kind you download - in favor of mobile-friendly html that adjusts its display to the kind of device you're using.
But these are refinements of mobile, not replacements for it. The challenge for lawyers - and for courts, whose
restrictions on smartphone use frustrate many lawyers - will be to keep up with developments and keep looking for
the best ways to use mobile technology to serve their clients and their practices.
Maria Kantzavelos <mkantz@comcast.net> is a Chicago-based freelance writer focusing on legal topics.
Two cheers for tablets
As tablets continue to grow in popularity and erode PC and laptops sales, skeptics point to what they regard as
weaknesses for business users. Two stand out for lawyers.
First, tablets use virtual keyboards. "[A]lthough more people are warming to virtual keys, there are still many
folks around the globe that like having the standard physical keyboard found in PCs," writes Don Reisinger in
eWeek. "And why not? Typing on traditional keyboards with two hands is far more accurate and efficient." You
can add physical keyboards to tablets, and many users do, but it costs extra.
Second, despite all the fancy apps available for tablets, in some key areas they don't have the functionality of
PC/laptop standbys. "Nowhere is that more apparent than in the comparison of Office [notably Word] on mobile
and PCs," Reisinger writes. Don't forget that laptops allow mobility, too, and ever-smaller versions are
challenging the tablet on that front.
Reisinger's article, Tablets Still Cannot Replace Laptop, Desktop PCs: 10 Reasons Why, is at
http://www.eweek.com/mobile/tablets-still-cannot-replace-laptop-desktop-pcs-10-reasons-why.
- Mark Mathewson
More top tablet apps for lawyers
In addition to those listed in the main article, our tech experts point to their favorite apps and related tools for
the iPad and other tablets.
Must-have iPad apps. In his book iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers, Tom Mighell said he attempted to take
the roughly 200,000 to 300,000 apps made especially for the iPad and distill them into a curated collection of
recommended apps for lawyers in different categories - productivity, legal-specific, news and reading, reference
and research, travel, and utilities.
In an interview with the IBJ, he shared some of his picks for apps that he calls "must haves."
"The first app anybody should have on a device is Good Reader," Mighell said. "It helps not only to read
documents, but also to annotate and review documents. It also helps you manage the documents you have. I
know a lot of lawyers who actually do all of their case management through this app."
For taking notes on an iPad, Mighell recommended Noteshelf. "I like it because it's simple to use, it provides you
with a great note taking experience, and [lets you] save those notebooks in a pdf format," he said. Another
helpful app for taking notes, Mighell said, is Notability, which lets you "record a meeting and take notes at the
same time."
For working on documents, Documents To Go is a "solid app," Mighell said. And PDF Expert is his favorite for
working in pdf files.
External keyboards. Whether they're using an Apple, Android, or Windows device, lawyers need an app that
will not only open files but also allow highlighting and annotation, Nerino Petro said. "The idea behind that app
is, wherever you are, you need a way to be able to read [a document] and make notes on it if you want to be able
to share that with someone else or capture the information yourself at a later date," Petro said. For an Android,
he said, RepliGo Reader or ExPDF are good options.
Petro said tablet users should also have a document storage app, "ideally one that integrates with the various
apps on the iPad, [such as] Dropbox and Box.com. The nice thing about those is they work on your smart
devices, your laptops, and they also have an internet component."
And, Petro said, "If you really want to be productive on these [tablets], you're going to need an external
keyboard. "If you're really planning to work, having the keyboard is just easier," Petro said. "You're generally
going to be faster than typing it on the screen of the device itself."
Apple and Logitech make popular keyboards for the iPad, both priced at or under $100.
Security. Security is key to a lawyer's use of mobile devices in the practice, experts said.
"You have a lot to consider when talking about security," Mighell said, "[whether] you're a solo lawyer trying to
secure the iPad itself or at a firm and making sure you're keeping secure access to the files of the company."
At a minimum, Mighell said, lawyers should review the security settings on their iPad and make sure they set a
security code of more than four digits. "Four digits is not a secure number," he said. "These days [you need] 10
to 12. Make sure you set a security code, make sure you set an option to erase all the data on your device if
there've been 10 unsuccessful attempts to enter a password."
Petro recommends two-factor authentication apps designed to keep a user's account safe in the event of a
compromised password. An example is the Google Authenticator app, which could be set up to work in
conjunction with cloud-based document storage tools like Drop Box, he said.
On the subject of security, Aaron Brooks advises lawyers to use complex passwords on their smartphones, virus
protection, and a set-up that allows a user to wipe or locate a device remotely. The Find My iPhone app can be
installed on another iOS device to help users locate it on a map, play a sound, display a message, remotely lock
the device, or erase all the data on it.
"Uploading your entire practice to the cloud is disastrous if you're not doing it in a secure manner," Brooks said.
It's also important to make sure all of your apps are cloud-based, Brooks said, so that "whenever you use it on
your phone, it's syncing on all your devices."
- Maria Kantzavelos
Mobile-friendly ISBA website, tablet-ready IBJ
As more ISBA members view websites and publications on their smartphones and tablets, we've developed
mobile-friendly versions to make that experience better.
Phone-friendly website and E-Clips. When you visit www.isba.org with your smartphone, you'll find an
optimized, easy-to-read-and-navigate version of our site instead of the tiny text you too often encounter
elsewhere on the web. A smartphone-friendly version of our popular E-Clips email, complete with links to news
and case digests, should also be arriving in your inbox by the time you read this. You can also access the most
current issue of E-Clips from your mobile device by going to www.isba.org/eclips/current and saving the icon to
your home screen.
Tablet-friendly IBJ. For tablet users, there are two ways to view the IBJ, each with its advantages. If you have
an Internet connection, the web version is a breeze to navigate, links to citations in Fastcase and other resources,
allows you to comment on articles, and lets you browse IBJ content back to November 1998 by subject, author,
and title. (You can even add the IBJ icon to your tablet or phone's homescreen and have handy access to the
latest issue and other features.) If you're going offline, never fear - you can download the PDF version for
viewing later. The PDF preserves the look and layout of the magazine. Use iBooks or a similar program and you
can even flip the pages.
Both are available at www.isba.org/ibj
.