Nolo's Lawyer Blog

West Coast Tech Talk from Legal Tech in Los Angeles, June 23 & 24, 2010


Beyond the NBA championship team, Los Angeles played host to this year's west coast Legal Tech trade show, held at the downtown convention center. Nolo was in attendance, checking out the various solution providers and their latest products and services for law firms. From document management to turn-key client billing and account management solutions, hundreds of attorneys and tech support staff were on-hand.

The LACBA (Los Angeles County Bar Association) made quite a presence on their home turf, representing their more than 20,000 member attorneys. ALM itself had a major impact with their host of media publications and products, including Law.com,

The American Lawyer, and The National Law Review, as well as state specific publications like Texas Lawyer and California's Recorder.

One of ALM's most interesting products was their Virtual Legal Tech show, lead by ALM point-person Scott Pierce. Avatars roamed the virtual exhibit halls while presenters dished out the CLE seminars via webcams and streaming video. Is this virtual environment going to replace face-to-face contact amongst clients and vendors? No, but as the bandwidth pipeline continues to expand, expect to see many of these visions of the future become a reality sooner than you might expect.

Check out Nolo attorney blogger Carolyn Elefant's most recent post on her My Shingle blog on the joys of small law practice.

"Back when I worked for others, my heart was tight and mean.  My cramped vision of the legal profession as a zero sum game left little space for generosity or good will towards my colleagues.   Each time I learned that one of my classmates made partner at a big firm, or that another lawyer at my agency received a promotion or that a fellow associate would first chair a hearing, I seethed with envy.  I bad-mouthed my bosses and cursed the fates that consigned me to jobs where I couldn't thrive. 

I never questioned my behavior.  After all, I was surrounded by colleagues who acted the same way.  I simply assumed that living in a perpetual state of resentment came with the territory of being a lawyer or was part of growing up and growing jaded.

After I'd been practicing on my own for a couple of years, I noticed a surprising change (read more).

Nolo representatives Catherine Berryessa and Greg Roden headed from Berkeley to Orlando, Florida for the 2010 National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) annual meeting - "Planning for Change." There were more than two hundred member attorneys who focus on elder and special needs law attending general sessions, CLE's, networking mixers and more throughout the week. Nolo was very well received and we gave out more than 150 elder law related books to attorneys interested in becoming Nolo members.


Most of these attorneys were focused on estate planning, conservatorships, special needs trusts and general "end of life" planning. Many NAELA members we spoke with shared how the field is growing past just wills, trust and estate issues to encompass inter-disciplinary areas of law including family law, tax planning, social security, and medicare / medicaid issues.


Attorneys who know Nolo were pleasantly surprised to see us in attendance, and were very interested in learning more about how they can partner with us. We gave out a lot of books that were a hit with attorneys, including Long-Term Care, Special Needs Trust, and the 15th Edition Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions.

We look forward to attending the fall NAELA conference in San Diego in November and thank all of the attorneys here in Florida for the warm welcome to our first-ever NAELA annual meeting!

Strategic Online Partnerships

In our efforts to provide more exposure and online visibility to Nolo member attorneys, Nolo has partnered with a few key legal websites to form the Nolo Legal Network.

Meet Justia

Former CEO and co-founder of FindLaw, internet legal guru Tim Stanley now heads up Justia, providing premium web sites, blogs and online marketing solutions to law firms. Justia also works with organizations like Nolo that provide free legal information to the online community.  All Nolo member attorneys receive a free enhanced placement listing on Justia's lawyer directory as well as a 'verified by Nolo' badge. Through Justia and its strong web affiliations, Nolo is able to connect its member attorneys with some of the best legal sites on the web.

Cornell University's Legal Information Institute (LII)

The leading provider of free public legal information, Cornell created the Legal Information Institute, the first legal website on the Internet back in 1992. Known for listing all opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court since 1992, together with over 600 earlier decisions selected for their historical importance, Cornell also lists attorneys--including Nolo member attorneys--as a service to members of the public with questions about the law.

OYEZ - US Supreme Court Multimedia Archive

"Oyez aims to be a complete and authoritative source for all audio recorded in the Court since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. The Project also provides authoritative information on all justices and offers a virtual reality 'tour' of portions of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of some of the justices" (from the Oyez website).

These are just a few examples of the growing list of leading legal information providers that Nolo proudly calls its partners. Find out more about becoming a member of the Nolo Lawyer Directory today!

Clicks, hits, visits, uniques, impressions, page views, conversion rates, click-throughs, CPM (cost per thousand impressions), RPM (revenue per thousand impressions) CPC or PPC (cost per click), CPL (cost per lead), CPA (cost per acquisition), ROI (return on investment) -- what does it all mean?

Are you drowning in a stormy sea of unfamiliar terms and conflicting information, trying to quantify and measure the success of your online marketing? Are legal marketing companies making promises based on SEO metrics and page one placement with major search engines like Google and Bing?

Value vs. Volume

The bottom line for attorneys, especially solo practitioners and smaller firms: it's a competitive landscape out there, and at the end of the day, you're just trying to attract more clients who want to hire you. You can have all the "traffic" in the world, lots of clicks and unique visitors, but how do we qualify this traffic, and how many of those qualified visitors end up becoming clients?

Let's take a closer look at overall online marketing and advertising strategies and try to get to the bottom of the great traffic debate.

Online advertising continues to drive the majority of revenues with the big four search engines; Google, Yahoo!, Bing and AOL, leading the pack. According to Price Waterhouse Coopers, "search revenue accounted for 47 percent of 2009 second quarter revenues, up from the 44 percent reported in the second quarter of 2008. Display advertising, the second largest format, accounted for 35 percent, followed by Classifieds (10 percent), and Lead Generation (7 percent) of 2009 second quarter revenues", totaling $5.5 billion.

Different advertisers and marketers are paying for different types of online exposure. But exposure alone doesn't necessarily mean more customers. Paying for clicks, hits or visits on one site might not provide the same ROI as another site, depending on visitor demographics and how qualified the traffic is.

Here at Nolo, for example, we pride ourselves on being a full-service legal resource center where millions of visitors come for help with their legal needs. When a consumer browses our thousands of pages of free legal content, we provide geo-targeted attorney listings related to the information our visitors are seeking. A site visitor who clicks on one of those attorney listings should be a more likely client than one who clicked on a paid Google link through a general key-word search.

Despite the promise of absolutely trackable results and metrics for every dime invested in online marketing, the age-old adage of "there are no guarantees in advertising" still rings true -- buyer beware.

Nolo Member Attorney Interview with Blackie Burak

Nolo catches up with busy Walnut Creek, CA DUI attorney Blackie Burak on why he became an attorney, best practices for lawyers just starting out, as well as tips on what makes a good DUI lawyer.

Blackie Burake Interview_edit.mp3

SEM vs SEO - What's the difference and what does that mean for lawyer websites?

"If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a sound?"  If you build a website, and no one visits, how can you generate more business online?  Okay, not quite the same comparison but still applicable for today's internet businesses. How do you promote your website once you've transitioned your law firm online?  It might be time to consider investing in some form of "Search Engine Marketing", or SEM.

Not to be confused with SEO "Search Engine Optimization", covered in a previous post on the Nolo Lawyers blog, SEM is the general practice of increasing a website's visibility in search engine results.  Most commonly, SEM refers to greater search engine visibility through pay-per-click advertising and paid placement.

SEM can be part of a comprehensive overall online strategy to boost your website's visibility in search engine results, but other important factors include unique content, link building, social media marketing, and optimizing a website via SEO. The primary function of SEM is to affect your appearance in search engine results and know that consumers can find you.

There are agencies that can help you implement an SEM program, or you can go it alone with legal directories, Google AdWords, and other forms of paid advertising. When choosing an SEO consultant, make sure to follow some if not all of these best practices.

At the end of the day, it's all about results and the ability to measure them. Make sure that you have a historical baseline of metrics before implementing an online strategy and allow time for your efforts to take hold.  For example, do you know how many unique site visitors you get each month, and what sites they most originate from?  Using a month or two's worth of data might reflect exceptions in the marketplace, or peaks and valleys with times of year, rather than a true reflection of your return on investment.  Metrics also allow you to understand what might be resonating most, or least, among potential clients, and how they're most likely to find you.

The Nolo Road Show in Full Effect

It's 1:30PM PST here in Vegas and the attorneys have just departed for the day. Three Nolo team members - Kay, Kimber and Greg - hit the ground running here at Caesars Palace in lovely Las Vegas on our quest to find the best attorneys that we can to represent our consumers nationwide. We are reaching out to DUI / DWI attorneys attending the 13th annual 'Defend with Integrity' conference. Approximately 550 participating attorneys are here to receive their CLE's for DUI specific areas of their Criminal Law practices.

Our intial response by attorneys has been overwhelmingly positive as we have some of the biggest crowds out of all the exhibitors. Many other exhibitors have stopped by to validate this as well (read - pat on our own back). Our Nolo legal guides for consumers are also very popular with attorneys, FREE for qualified attorneys that will give us five minutes of their time to tell us a little about their practice.

We'll be back at 6:30 PM for the first (of a few) schmooze & booze cocktail hours. Actually, Nolo will be hosting our own informal get together tomorrow night at the Voodoo Lounge on the 50th floor of the Rio hotel - members only. 

Tip #2 - Write a Good Tag Line

Next to your profile picture, the second most important part of any online attorney profile is a good tag line. Similar to a headline, you want to capture the viewers interest and attention right up front. Being witty, literary, clever or even cute can be OK but more importantly, you want to get your message across right up front, letting people know who you are and how you can help them right now.

Here are a few key pointers when thinking about a tag line for you and your firm as part of your online social networking profile.

• Keep it Simple - The best tag lines are short, clear, and concise, spelling out exactly who you are and what you do in simple plain English. Good tag lines are typically six to eight words but can sometimes be shorter.

• Be Specific - Grandiose, ambiguous or overly general tag lines take away from you and your core message. "We help people in their time of need" doesn't tell a potential client what you do or how you can specifically help them. "Reputable & Discrete Bankruptcy Attorney Serving Southern California" may not be the sexiest tag line on earth, but it it is a clear and strong message that will resonate with potential clients and set you apart from the pack.

• Borrow from Others - Find other profiles of attorneys that you like and use what stands out. Being totally original is one thing but getting the job done is another. Not that we would even condone plagiarism but use best practices from other attorney profiles can be a good way to help you in developing your own.

• Get Feedback - Typically its best to have two or three different tag lines that you like and then bounce them off of your staff, partners, spouses, colleagues, family and friends to get some encouragement and feedback. Don't try to create something this important in a vacuum.

Remember, your tag line should represent you. Spend some time reviewing your core competencies and strengths and identify the one or two key words that really sum up who you are and what you do.

For more in-depth information on how to create a great law firm tag line, check out Nolo's Legal Marketing Blawg by Carolyn Elefant and her post - 'Tag(line) - You're it!'

Tip # 1 - Start with a good picture

When we think of social networking profiles, whether they are personal or professional, we tend to think of this standard dictionary definition - an informal biography or a concisely presented sketch of the life and character of a person. More relevant to this post perhaps, is this definition - profile is a picture or representation of the side view of a head.

The first and most important part of your profile is YOU! Sure, you can wax poetically about your educational background and your most recent victories in court but the first and most important thing that people are going to see and remember is that profile picture of you.

So of course it makes sense to post the best picture possible. Even though it may be tempting to whip out the ole point and shoot and have your secretary take a snap shot indoors with the flash, here are a few key suggestions to consider when creating and uploading your attorney profile picture.

• Neutral backgrounds are best - Typically we don't tend to pay much attention to the background but often backgrounds can make or break your photo. Unwanted and distracting lines, shapes, colors and textures can take away from the visual impact of your image. TIP: Stand as far away as possible from the background and then have the photographer stand as far back as possible from you, and then zoom the camera lens in all the way!

• Facial expressions are key - It's not just smile vs. frown. It's all about communicating emotion. If you want to show people you are a happy person, think of something that makes you happy and then smile. If you want to communicate strong and aggressive, think about strong and aggressive emotions.

• Get a second opinion - It's always best to have a couple of your favorite images to choose from. Pick your two or three favorites and then Try a couple different expressions and a change of wardrobe and background.

• Hire a photographer - When all else fails, go with a professional. Since your image is so important to your online persona, consider this small but important investment and hire a photographer. In most towns and cities both large and small you can usually find a decent photographer from online classified listings like Craig's List that will do headshots for less than $200 a session. This is usually a small price to pay for someone else to focus on you and to get you quality images of yourself that you can use for both business and pleasure.

A good headshot should just show you; your face, head and shoulders and nothing more. You might want to do some full-length body shots in addition but the primary goal is a good single shot of you.

Finally, you should try and keep your profile picture as current as possible. Sure, we all have that one picture that we like from ten years ago but 21st Century web 2.0 lawyering is all about who you are in the here and now.