Future & Trends

Some law firms make history, others write their own history.  At least, that’s what I gathered from this Humphrey Keenlyside’s article  in Bloomberg, discussing the apparent tradition of large law firms producing an auto-biography of a sort, tracing a firm’s history from its humble beginnings to its current powerhouse status. Kennlyside writes that law firm…

Remember Ravel  – that cool legal research system that was ever so generously scanning every book in the Harvard Law Library to make it all available online at no cost?  In yesterday’s big legal news, LEXIS announced  that it had acquired Ravel, and will incorporate Ravel’s offerings – both its free Harvard caselaw file and…

A couple of weeks back, I stumbled across a company called Gust Launch – billed as a one-stop shop for high-growth start-ups.  For $199/month (or $239/month if billed annually), Gust Launch provides startups with ongoing legal, financial, accounting and back-end services dispensed through one convenient cloud-based platform. Somewhat like Clio, the practice management system best…

In my line of work , I’m accustomed to clients – generally a group of neighbors or a community association – taking up a collection or hosting a gala to fund my fees. But in the past week, two potentially new sources for funding legal fees came across my radar: Facebook’s introduction of Personal Fundraisers…

Editor’s Note:  It’s not often that I’ll invite a marketer or SEO consultant to post at my blog because I’ll get nothing but bland content or a listicle full of backlinks to leverage my blog’s traffic. But when I came across an article by Luke Ciciliano, I was intrigued by some of his trend predictions,…

It’s been nearly six years since the ABA Ethics 20/20 Commission green-lighted pay per click  (PPC) as an ethically compliant marketing tool and since then, it’s been a popular mainstay of many practices. But is pay per click still effective? An article by Luke Ciciliano at SEO For Lawyers  suggests not. Although Ciciliano comes at this…

When I ponder the future of solos, I fear most not for the newer solos who know too little, but rather, older solos who know too much. If you don’t know what I mean, spend a few minutes on any bar association list serve, or attend a practice panel at a solo bar event where…

What are older lawyers to do when their time expires at big law due to stringent mandatory retirement deadlines?  Some may decide to stop practicing law entirely – but for those who aren’t yet ready to leave to the courtroom, solo practice offers a second chance for a second act. Consider for example, Lawrence Abner…