Make yourself known, write for your local bar newsletter

There are a couple of ways to become a thought leader in your field. One way is to write and the other way is to speak before a group. Since speaking in front of a group is one of the more common fears, right up there with fear of flying or creepy crawly things, writing is probably an easier choice. It can be done at any hour of the day or night, at your computer or by hand, in casual or formal wear and reviewed many times until it is close to perfect.

Writing for your local bar association newsletter is a great way to start getting your name recognized

in your legal community. Usually the guidelines are few: articles can be on any topic, if in doubt, send a query describing your topic to the Editor. Article lengths vary depending on whether your newsletter is published solely on line or a combination of paper and on-line. If it is coming to you soley on-line, the rules of writing for the web must be considered.

As I have mentioned in the past, on-line readers don’t read, they scan; and, they scan in an F pattern. To accommodate their reading habit, remember to:

·      Make your sentences and paragraphs short;

·      Use as few adjectives and adverbs as possible,

·      Add graphics and bolded headlines for interest,

·      Use bullet lists to break up space, and

·      Insert links where relevant to the material.

Your goal in writing for the screen is to make it as easy to get the information as possible. Our readers, all busy lawyers, want the material presented in a clear, easy to read style that they can absorb quickly.

Get more traction out of your article

Let’s say, you write your article, read it over, think it is brilliant, and want to get more exposure out of it. Your clients and fellow lawyers out in cyberspace should know about this. Since Google punishes sites that copy and paste the same exact content repeatedly on multiple pages, it is better to hyperlink your article on the your other social media platforms. Start by adding a comment about the article and a link on your web page.

Then move on to LinkedIn. Add your content as a status update; make an introductory comment and link the post directly to your Brief’s article. Twitter is one of the easiest ways to quickly share your knowledge with a wide audience. Attract your reader with a few key words, add hash tags to indicate search terms, and send it off to your followers.

Facebook is also a possibility. Many of you use it, so post the link to your article with a few descriptive words and drive more traffic to your posting. By sharing your article over multiple platforms, you have broadened the scope of your visibility. Don’t have all these social media tools yet? start with one and as it gets easier, add more. Soon you will build visibility for all you create.

The future--under the Dome or in the law firm

I am reading two books. One is Under the Dome by Stephen King, a great tale told by a talented author. The other is Tomorrow’s Lawyers by Richard Susskind, an interesting tale that looks at the impact of technology, the high costs of lawyering and other matters that will lead to new and exciting method of delivering legal services. 

I will probably finish the “Dome” before I finish Susskind’s book, which requires more thought, however from what I have read of it so far, I am intrigued with his predictions. 

Susskind writes that the biggest challenge facing lawyers and law firms is that the high cost of lawyering is driving more potential clients away. The family in need of a will, the small business owner seeking advice on how to write a contract or work with a labor union is let to his own devices because he can't afford to hire a lawyer to advise him. Susskind, who is British, calls the current form of servicing clients as bespoke, comparing it to the difference between a hand-tailored suit and the Men's Warehouse variety.  

Available on Amazon.com

Susskind believes one way to cut costs while giving good service is to serve communities of legal users rather individuals or organizations on their own. He calls this commoditization and defines it as work once handcrafted can be routinized and disposed of quickly with little need for lawyers intervention.

This is the more for less challenge facing lawyers. How to deliver more services for less cost. He claims dropping prices or pricing differently is not the answer. 

The better answer is to work differently--to work more efficiently. And the way to do that is to identify the work that requires more process than judgement, procedure instead of strategy or creativity and to have that work routinized and undertaken by less qualified humans or by computer. An example could be the software used to search discovery materials for key words determined by the lawyer to be necessary.

His second suggestion is have clients come together and share the costs of certain types of legal services. He calls this the collaboration strategy. Susskind admits that this strategy will require a change of thinking, a much more difficult process. The example he gives is of banks that have to comply with regulations--one lawyer or law firm could work with collaborating banks.

That's it for now. I am going back to the struggles of the folks stuck under a dome. It is not so mind boggling. I'll keep you posted on my progress through the future of lawyers.

Are you a screen sophisticate?

Screen Sophisticate: One who has a highly developed knowledge of the ways of the computer screen.

I am not. I am learning but I will always be behind the folks who are growing up with the screen as an integral part of their lives.  

I thought of that when I was cruising the local mall recently. I paused and watched a young father show his toddler how to use her finger to navigate a game on the father's smartphone. I am sure the child is learning to walk and talk, but she will know how to use her finger on the screen long before she is an accomplished walker or talker. If the child becomes a lawyer, she will think nothing of walking into court with a tablet computer or something as yet to be created, which will, of course, have all the files needed and be wirelessly connected to the court's system. 

Today's law school graduates are quite comfortable with the screen as a tool. The rest of us can learn. Like all disciplines, there is a learning curve and the first task is to learn the language of screens. Let's start with some of the basics:

• Binary--the number system used in computer science is binary or a base-2 system using two symbols: 0 and 1. The binary number 11000101110, for example, is equivalent to 1582. Frankly, that is as much as you need to know unless you want to explore the base 2 world, which I don’t. I had enough trouble understanding our base 10 system. I am a lawyer not a mathematician.
• Bit--(binary digit) is the smallest piece of information used by a computer consisting of either 0 or 1; there are eight bits in a byte 
• Byte--(binary term)--the basic measurement of computer data and consists of 8 bits. Computer storage is measured in larger increments of bytes such as Kilobyte (1024 bytes), Megabyte (1024 Kilobytes) Gigabyte (1024 Megabytes) then Terabyte, Petabyte, Exabyte, Zettabyte, Yottabyte, in order of increasing volume and following the same pattern. What does that mean in paper? One Megabyte is about 500 pages or one thick book, while 1 Terabyte is about 1 million thick books. 

If opposing counsel says he is sending 3 Megabytes of discovery, that's a lot but may be doable; if, however, he is sending a Terabtye or two, you might want to file a motion seeking help from the court or just say no. 

While that is probably enough of the techie stuff for today, I will add two more:

App or application--is the program in which you do your work. If on an iPad, you access the Apps with a touch of your finger--Your app screen, might look like this:

IPad screen

Apps are narrowly useful since the apps on the tablet screen are used to find information, not for creating it and each must be opened individually. Apps such as Quickoffice Pro can be used to write a letter or document but might be awkward when it comes to editing it. 

If you are using your tablet to read a brief or court case, there are, for example, apps (such as GoodReader or iAnnotate) for writing notes, highlighting text, making comments or underlining parts of a document that are helpful. 

Software--files on a disk that contain instructions for a computer--such as Microsoft Word or Excel or Firefox--which you install on your computer to use when creating documents or spreadsheets or going on the Internet. These programs have many more bells and whistles than the apps. 

That is probably enough techie stuff for today. I think, by learning a few terms and practicing on your tablet or computer, you and I can become more proficient and less awkward and truly be screen sophisticates. I will keep at it and I welcome you to join me.   

Reading on screens vs. paper

In another life, before law school, I taught first grade. My six-year-old students showed up in their shiny new clothes the first day of class fully expecting to go home that day able to read. To satisfy this expectation, I taught them a simple sentence and, in those days, it was probably "See Spot run." They were given a paper copy complete with picture, painstakingly colored with their new crayons, to take home and read to their parents.

They left that first day tired from the strain of being at school all day, but thrilled that they had tangible evidence of their reading ability. And, in their minds, it was a done deal. They could now read.

But what if, instead of a paper to clutch in their hands or stuff in the new lunch box along with the scraps of lunch they were too excited to eat, they had an e-reader with the sentence and picture? Would the thrill be the same?

Researchers are saying maybe not. According to a recent article in the Scientific American by Ferris Jabr, there have been over 100 published studies on the topic with varying results. While older studies concluded that screen reading is slower, less accurate and less comprehensive, more recent studies found few significant differences.

The first problem, according to the studies, is the loss of the feeling of where you are in the story. With screens there is a beginning and an end, but the scroll of the finger doesn't tell readers how far they have traveled. The second problem is a sense of control over paper text. The reader can highlight parts, write notes in the margin, or return to a previous page for more in depth reading. The text on the screen is an ephemeral image--it appears and disappears with a touch of the finger.

And, third, there is the problem of comprehension. Researchers suggest that because screen based reading is more mentally taxing than reading on paper, people comprehend less. Also screen readers take shortcuts, they spend more time scanning and browsing and will usually only read a document once.

What does this mean for the lawyer writing briefs, client communications or marketing materials? A brief meant to present a winning argument or a client communication may require careful, attentive reading while the marketing materials can be scanned. Does this mean one should be sent on paper and one for a screen?

Or, will readers print out the materials that need careful review, such as complicated contract questions or a long trust document and thus defeat the paperless concept? Does the push for e-filing need adjustment? Or will the technology gurus come up with a solution?

Those are some of the questions. I suspect that time, experience, and, yes, technology will provide the answers.

To read the article: The Reading Brain in the Digital Age: The Science of Paper versus Screens, please visit: (http://www/scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=reading-paper-screens)

More learning to be technologically adept

Recently I was asked to deliver a talk on Potter Park Zoo here in Lansing where I volunteer. The event was a Kiwanis breakfast meeting. They wanted to know about the history of the zoo, which will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2015. 

Since I now know how to attach my iPad to a TV or a projector, I was confident I could add some graphics to the show. According to my source, there was a television available. First, I downloaded all my zoo pictures worth viewing onto the iPad images file making them available for the tablet.

As I mentioned Keynote is Apple's Power Point. The first step was to start a new presentation and then load the pictures on Keynote, one at a time and in the order  in which they are to appear. Once they are loaded, they need to be formatted to be a self-playing show.

I hate to read directions but I did and learned to do the following to create the slideshow: 

Wrench screen

1. Begin with a tap on the little wrench at the top of the page 
2. A screen will open; tap on 'advanced' and you will see a new screen like so:

If you want the show self playing, looping over and over, tap "On" for loop presentation; tap self-playing and pick the number of seconds for each slide. 

3. Next tap each picture in your presentation to reveal a little box that you tap to select how you want the pictures to move one to the next. I picked "dissolve" since it seemed easiest to me. 

4. Once all the little pictures were done, I clicked on the triangle in the top figure and the pictures came up one after the other.

My next problem was "How do I stop this?" I tapped all over the screen but could not figure it out so I turned off the iPad, which is my solution for most technological problems. I turn whatever it is off and let it rest a minute while I find more coffee and then click it on to get to the help menu. Well, a little research revealed that to end the presentation, you "pinch" the screen, the little menu appears and it will stop. 

Now I knew how to turn it on and off, the pictures were ready and my plan was to run the pictures during the eating part of the meeting and shut down to use the iPad for my speech. A reasonable and excellent plan that, to my amazement, worked. At least up to a point.  

My outline for the speech was in Dropbox, ready to help me remember all the points I wanted to make. Dropbox is a cloud based item. The concept of items in the cloud is new to me. I sort of think of them floating above my iPad ready to appear at a moment's notice. And that is true if you have WiFi or some other access to the Internet. If you don't, you're out of luck. 

I was out of luck. No WiFi at the Kiwanis and my almost two year old phone had not been set up to find WiFi and somehow magically send it to the iPad. And, even if it could, I didn't know at that moment how to do it. Fortunately, I have given the speech before so all was not lost, but it made me realize that I needed to save my outline on my iPad as well as Dropbox and learn to use my phone as a "hot spot." 

I will do better next time.

Writing for the screen

The "biggest change to law practice in our lifetime has been the switch from paper to screens,"said Robert Dubose, attorney from Texas, speaking at a conference of lawyers and judges.

If your audience is reading on screens, such as you are doing right now, the writer, he argued, needs to be aware of how people read on their e-reader, iPad or Smartphone. Quoting from Jakob Nielsen's research, he said one,  people don't read, they scan; and, two, they scan in an F shape pattern. Readers start in the upper left corner, take two horizontal swipes across the page, then swipe vertically down the left. Three, readers look most above the fold or at the top of the page.

How does that affect your webpage design?

• Put the most important content first--no need for a fancy intro.
• Don't center text and keep headers flush to the left margin
• Make webpage text easy to scan by using bold headers and bullet lists 

Credibility is important to web visitors. They will ignore a page that looks like an ad or uses market hype. They are busy people who want the straight facts.

Dubose recommended lawyers design legal documents to look like a web page using the same principles:

• Short text
• Focus on Headings
• Bookmarks over to the side, and include
• Summaries, which are critical.  

The goal for the lawyer writing a brief that is read on a screen is to make it "as easy to get information from our brief as possible." And readers want that information fast.

That is the same goal for the lawyer writing a blog post for clients. You need to make it easy for your client to get your message as quickly and as easily as possible.

For more information on eye tracking: www.nngroup.com/topic/eyetracking/

Getting started with LinkedIn

Recently I, along with 1999 other folks attended the ABA Tech show in Chicago. I went for Thursday only, the day devoted to social media along with several other tracks. There were four sessions covering a range of topics such as Leveraging LinkedIn and Finagling Facebook, Maximizing your investment in social media and social media as an information-gathering tool. After a day of listening, I learned that, as of that day, the most popular social media outlets for lawyers were LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. 

                                                      

I decided to start my social media efforts with LinkedIn so I bought Allison Shields and Dennis Kennedy’s “LinkedIn in One Hour for Lawyers.” There were a number of books available, however I liked the One Hour promise and the cost, which for the ABA, was cheap at slightly less than $30.00, a special rate for the conference.

Once home, I opened the book, set myself up to spend an hour on my computer the end of which I planned to be on page 120, the final page. Of course, that was not so. At the end of three hours I was on page 24, having upgraded my profile and was about to move on to learn about connections. I hope to complete the book with its excellent suggestions within a month.

Why does it take so long?

First, there is the issue of language. If we recall our early days in law school when we weren’t sure what a plaintiff or defendant was and had nary a clue as to the meaning of such terms as per se, pro se, or res judicata, then it is easy to understand why there is a steep learning curve. LinkedIn also has a language that must be learned.

Second, there is a lot of writing to be done. While some facts such as education, current employment and interests can be done in a short amount of time, assuming you can remember it all, it is not so easy to give a summary of your professional experience, goals, and specialties in about 330 words. At this point this piece is a bit more than 330 words so you can see that brevity is vital and knowing what to include could be difficult.

The entire process takes a lot of thought. For example, your professional headline, a one-line description that accompanies your name, requires pondering. A simple line such as partner or associate attorney is not enough. There is room for 120 characters and the authors recommend using them all. They suggest you describe your practice area, your services or your type of clients, information deemed to be helpful to someone outside your field.

Then there is the photo. They recommend a professional photo for LinkedIn. A photo with your spouse, kids, dog, or standing regally on the courthouse steps will not do. That means finding a photographer, getting the time to have the picture taken, paying for it, uploading onto your computer and then onto LinkedIn.

Even though I believe the title of the book was written ‘tongue in cheek’ and one hour is clearly not enough time to achieve all that can be accomplished with LinkedIn, I still recommend it.

It is easy to follow and, so far, at least, has been most helpful. I think my profile looks better. And I found a quasi-professional photo without the dog to upload. You can see for yourself at:
Roberta M.Gubbins | LinkedIn  

Now I will move on to the chapters on getting started with connections, participating on LinkedIn using updates and groups, and finally learn how to monitor my network and optimize my settings.

Then, I guess if I am lucky, LinkedIn will not have been replaced and I can move on to Facebook.