Book Excerpt: “The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success”

Excerpted and adapted from The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Success: Essential Tips to Power Your Practice by Reid F. Trautz and Dan Pinnington.

We all have a tendency to send and reply to e-mail messages when it is not absolutely necessary. E-mail messages are just so darn easy to create and send. In North America alone, tens of billions of e-mail messages are sent every day. All those messages end up in someone’s inbox. Time to think globally and act locally. You can help. Before you hit Send, consider these questions and pointers to help you send fewer e-mails:

  •  Does everyone in the To: line really need to get this message? If not, deletetheir names.
  • Does every person in the CC: line really need to get this message? CC is intendedto be helpful, but isactually quite dangerous.We all start with good intentions and start adding namesfor reasons that are totally unrelated to the actual message.Resist the temptation! If they aren’t on the To: linealready, it probably means something. Ask yourself: whoreally needs to be CC’d on this message? Include thosenames, and leave the rest out.
  • When using Reply-to-all, does everyone that got this message in the first place really need to see a reply to it?
  • Use distribution lists or group addresses very sparingly and only if absolutely necessary. It is certainlymore efficient to reach out to a group with a singlee-mail address, but only when absolutely necessary.
  • Never use the Everyone group address (unless you smell smoke).
  • Meeting RSVPs should usually go to just the sender, or does everyone need to know if I will or will not beattending the meeting?
  • Don’t forward virus warnings! 99.99 percent of them are hoaxes.
  • Don’t forward jokes, SPAM or chain-mail messages. It is unprofessional to send a client e-mails of this nature. Not only does this waste your time, it wastes the recipient’s time and Internet capacity.

Book excerpt: “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers”

Completing Your LinkedIn Profile

 

Adapted and excerpted from LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers by Dennis Kennedy and Allison C. Shields.

 

Your firm or personal Web site is your “home base” online, and your Profile is your “home base” on LinkedIn. Your Profile is where people go to find out information about you, and it is where much of your LinkedIn content resides. You can also think of your Profile as an online “living” resume or biography.

 

Building Your Initial Profile

When you set up your account, LinkedIn will automatically get youstarted on your professional Profile. The first few screens you encounterafter you set up your account will ask questions about your currentemployment, which is automatically transferred to your Profile. However,the initial information you enter when you set up your LinkedInaccount is just the first step in creating a complete LinkedIn Profile. Inthis Lesson, we will take you through the rest of the steps to compileyour Profile.

 

To fully complete your Profile, you must go to the “Edit Profile” button located under the Profile tab on the main navigation bar.

 

You can input Profile information by hand, but LinkedIn also offers a great way to automate the process. If you have a resume readily available, LinkedIn allows you to upload it, which makes building your Profile a bit faster. Simply click on the “Import your resume” button, find the document on your computer, and follow the directions to upload it. LinkedIn will import the information from your resume and populate the appropriate fields on your Profile. The fields are fully editable so that you can pick and choose which information you want to include.

 

Once uploaded, LinkedIn will request that you review the information before it is published to your LinkedIn Profile. Even if the information appears correct, we recommend that you click on “Edit” so that you can revise or update as necessary for the LinkedIn audience. Click on “Save Changes,” and the information will be published to your LinkedIn Profile.

 

Editing Your Profile

To edit your Profile once you have registered for your account and input the initial Profile information (or uploaded your resume), click on “Edit Profile” and then look for the small “Edit” buttons.

 

Profile Photo

Your photograph is an important part of your LinkedIn Profile. Professional photographs are preferable, but do not wait until you have time to get around to having a professional photograph taken. It is perfectly acceptable to use a high-quality digital photograph from your own digital camera or a cropped family or personal photograph of your face— so long as it looks professional and presents you well. Why is your photograph important?

·         People may recognize your face before they remember your name

·         Many people use LinkedIn to prepare for a meeting; having a photograph

on LinkedIn makes you easier to recognize

·         People do business with people they know, like, and trust; posting

·         a photograph helps your audience feel that they “know” you

 

Click on the “Add Photo” button and upload the photograph from your computer, or to upload a new photograph in place of your old one, click on “Edit Photo” under your picture.

 

Profile Link

Make it easier to find, advertise, and share your LinkedIn Profile. Edit the “public Profile link” generated when you create your Profile. It looks something like this: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/johnsmith/26/4a1/114.

 

Get rid of the random numbers and letters to customize the link to include just your name, a keyword or two, or your name and firm name by clicking on “Edit” next to your public Profile link.

 

Other Links

LinkedIn allows three links in the Profile. You can link to your Web site, blog, firm bio, etc. Use all three opportunities, but do not use LinkedIn’s default settings for the link titles (e.g., “Company Website”). Customize the link titles by clicking “Edit” next to them on the Edit Profile screen. Choose “other” in the first box and create your own name for the link. Use keywords or the actual name of your firm or site. If you have only one law firm Web site, use one to link to your firm Web site’s home page and one to link to your individual biography on the firm site. Use the third to link to another profile of you on the Internet, your blog, or the firm page for your practice group.

 

Professional Headline

Your professional headline is a one-line description that often accompanies your name when you interact on LinkedIn. The professional headline field defaults to your current title. You can change this to make it much more descriptive and useful by clicking “Edit” next to your name.

 

Instead of just your title or insider firm descriptions (“associate” or “partner”), use all of the 120 characters allotted in the Professional Headline field and provide information helpful to someone outside your firm. Describe your practice area, your clients, or your services and make sure you use “lawyer” or “attorney” in your description for those all-important search results.

 

Summary

Next is the “Summary” field, which consists of two separate sections. “Professional Experience and Goals” allows 2,000 characters (approximately 330 words) of description. This field appears at the top of the Profile. Because your summary often is read more than the description under your current position, do not overlook it. Describe what you do. Make it interesting. Consider it a chance to give your “elevator pitch.”

 

“Specialties” is a shorter section (256 total characters), usually written with keywords rather than in narrative format (think one- to three-word bullet points rather than longer descriptive sentences). If you are concerned about ethical prohibitions against lawyers identifying themselves as “specialists” in a particular field, include a disclaimer indicating that rather than specialties, you have listed your practice areas instead. (We discuss the “specialties” issue further in the ethics discussion in the Advanced Topics section.)

 

Experience/Positions

Positions display in your Profile under “Experience” in reverse chronological order. List all of your relevant past and present experience and positions, including the name of the company or firm for which you worked, the dates you worked there, your title, and a description of what you did. Use keywords that are important to and recognizable by your target audience. Include important experience or skills that help to differentiate you from other lawyers in your field. You have 1,000 characters to describe each position. Be complete in adding all of your previous positions. We will discuss in Lesson 4 how LinkedIn uses this information to help you connect to current and former colleagues.

 

You may list bar association or other community positions (such as board service, etc.) here, too. Listing these activities helps others find you when they search for the organization name and makes it easier to invite others associated with that organization to connect.

 

Be aware that LinkedIn will list your positions in reverse chronological order and this cannot be changed. This may result in bar or other volunteer positions appearing ahead of your law practice. Alternatively, you may choose to list these positions under “Groups and Associations” in the “Additional Information” section or in the optional “Organizations” section.

 

Education

School alumni can be valuable contacts, as we discuss in Lesson 4. Include your educational information, both for your law school and for any undergraduate or other post-secondary education.

 

Making Your Profile Complete

As you build your LinkedIn Profile, you will see a “completeness bar” on the right side of the screen that measures how complete your Profile is. Your goal is a Profile that is considered “100% complete.”

 

LinkedIn considers your Profile “100% complete” when it contains:

·         Your current position

·         Two past positions

·         Your education

·         Your Profile summary

·         Your Profile photo

·         Your specialties (remember to consider the ethical issues discussed in the Advanced Topics section of this book)

·         At least three recommendations (we will cover Recommendations in Lesson 8 and ethical considerations relating to Recommendations in the Advanced Topics section of this book)

 

We recommend that you spend some time completing your Profile, but it does not need to be done in one sitting. If you commit to spending only fifteen minutes or so per day to completing the basic sections of your Profile mentioned in this Lesson, you will have a completed Profile in a few days without feeling overwhelmed. If you begin by importing your current resume, the process can be completed quickly.

 

For more LinkedIn tips and strategies, order LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers by Dennis Kennedy and Allison C. Shields today!

Register for the ABA/LPM Annual Meeting in Chicago!

Register today for the ABA Annual Meeting 2012! The ABA Law Practice Management Section (LPM) is setting the pace for a more efficient law practice at the ABA/LPM Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL from August 2-4. LPM will be hosting 4 individual CLE Sessions that address topics relevant to practice management and efficiency:

  • Time Management: Is It Really 5:00pm Already? Where Did the Day Go?
  • Moving Your Practice to the Cloud Safely and Ethically
  • Developing Your iPractice: How Lawyers are using the iPhone and iPad
  • Personal Branding and Implicit Bias

In addition to CLE, members of LPM are invited to participate in our Managing Partner Roundtable and committee meetings, which are responsible for carrying out various initiatives on behalf of the Section. Don’t miss this opportunity to buy LPM books at discounted rates at the ABA Expo, learn essential CLE, and get involved in LPM. Join us for the ABA/LPM Annual Meeting and set the pace for a more efficient law practice.

Coming Soon! "The Lawyer's Guide to Building Your Practice with Referrals"

Coming in June from LPM Publishing! Pre-order the book today to receive a 15% discount.

For many lawyers, referrals are the best way to get the best clients. Gain clients and grow your practice with The Lawyer’s Guide to Building Your Practice with Referrals. This book provides step-by-step guidelines for building relationships with referral sources, getting and managing new referrals, developing networking skills, and transforming acquaintances into clients. This book will help you:

  • Evaluate the referral potential of people you encounter in networking situations, business dealings, or social interactions
  • Create positive first impressions that will translate into client referrals
  • Build relationships and follow up with referral sources
  • “Work the room” at networking and social events
  • Transform acquaintances into potential clients and referral sources
  • Develop an effective referral strategy for your firm
  • And much more!

New e-books available from LPM!

LPM is delighted to announce the publication of 14 new e-books for lawyers! The e-books are now available for download and purchase on Apple’s iBookstore. iBookstore is available via the free iBooks App for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch, or at www.itunes.com/ibookstore.

Available e-books include:

2012 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guide

Google for Lawyers

iPad Apps in One Hour for Lawyers

Job Quest for Lawyers

The Lawyer’s Essential Guide to Writing

The Lawyer’s Guide to Increasing Revenue, Second Edition

The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Word 2010

The Lawyer’s Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2010

Limited Scope Legal Services

Locked Down: Information Security for Lawyers

Microsoft OneNote in One Hour for Lawyers

Social Media for Lawyers

Virtual Law Practice

Women Rainmakers’ Best Marketing Tips, Third Edition

 

Download your favorite LPM books in e-book form today!

 

Coming Soon! "The Lawyer's Guide to Creating a Business Plan: A Step-by-Step Software Package, 2012 Edition CD-Rom"

Linda Pinson has produced an intuitive software application that does 75% of the work for lawyers and business managers who need comprehensive and customized business plans to maximize profits. For new law practices or existing law firms, the 2012 version of The Lawyer’s Guide to Creating a Business Plan will guide practitioners step-by-step toward actualized growth utilizing tested and proven organizational, marketing, and financial strategies.

Based on her award-winning book, Anatomy of a Business Plan (Ben Franklin Award for Best Business Book of the Year) and companion software, Automate Your Business Plan (Version 2011), this stand-alone package has been meticulously customized to address the elements and issues unique to law practice development and management.

There is no other business plan software on the market that provides law practices with these customized tools in one comprehensive package. 2012 Version highlights include:

    • “Save Plan to PDF” feature enables you to save your firm’s plan (text and spreadsheets) to a single PDF file so that your plan can be viewed by associates in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.
    • “Create Business Plan Presentation” guides you through the development of a PowerPoint presentation for your law firm to use for potential lenders, partners, and associates.
    • Complete compatibility with Windows 7 (as well as XP and Vista).
    • Menu tree navigation for all your business plan files.
    • Preformatted text documents and integrated self-calculating spreadsheet workbooks that are customized for your firm and automatically generated — relieving you of most of the work.
    • Complete example business plans for new and existing law practices.
    • The eBook version of Anatomy of a Business Plan.
    • A step-by-step guide to help you develop a highly targeted marketing strategy.
    • Detailed financial plans including cash flow projections, three-year income projections, quarterly budget analyses, profit and loss statements, and balance sheets, break-even analyses, ratio analysis, and financial charts and graphs.
    • Precise documentation for potential lenders and partners.
    • The most current word processing features that allow for easy customization, including insertion and manipulation of graphics, text boxes, and tables.
  • A guide for the development of business plans specific to nonprofit organizations.

Pre-order the book today with a 15% discount!