Wordpress

I will be speaking tomorrow about Blogging at Social Media for Lawyers II tomorrow at New York Law School.

Here is an outline of the topics I will be discussing:

  1. Chris Anderson, Free and it relation to legal blogs;
  2. Chris Brogan, Trust Agents and how it relates to how lawyers write on the web.
  3. Why blogs are powerful;
  4. How to get started with your blog;
  5. Discussion of WordPress, themes and widgets;
  6. Thoughts on what to write on your blog;
  7. Ideas on how to draw traffic.

For more: https://www.gothammediaventures.com/commerce/orderform.php?id=60

Social Media:

Social Media for Lawyers II (CLE)

October 14, 2009

8:00am-11:00am

Location:

Price:

$75.00

Social media has become a part of the legal landscape. An understanding of Twitter, Face Book, Linkedin and blogs have become critical for understanding clients and their issues as well as emerging as a potent form of marketing and valuable research tools. These sessions will offer a unique and highly target look at social media. A panel of legal experts who have become leaders in the social media arena will offer hands on sessions as well as leading sessions on the inherent risks, limitations and potential vulnerabilities and liabilities of these social media tools.

Session 2: Blogs, Facebook, Linkedin For Lawyers

Registration is available for one or both sessions, and a total of 6 CLE credits will be available, pending accreditation by the CLE Board of the NYS Bar. Financial assistance for these seminars is available upon request.

Registration: For Day 2 Only: $75

Panelists:

Frederic Abramson, Esq. Attorney, Blogger, Social Media Practioner

Deena Burgess, Esq. An attorney specializing in issues relating to social media and technology as well as the representation of entrepreneurs

T.C. Coleman, Esq. Lawyer, Marketing Strategist, Blogger, CEO Upward Action LLC

Roman Fichman, Esq.Frederic Abramson, Esq. Attorney, Blogger, Social Media Practioner

Michael Grygiel, Esq. Chair, Media and First Amendment Law Practice, Hiscock & Barclay; Chairman, NYS Bar Association’s Committee on Media Law

Ronald Minkoff, Esq. Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, LP; In 2009, he was named a New York-area “Super Lawyer” for Professional Liability

Eric Robinson, Esq. Staff Attorney, Media Law Resource Center; Blogger, Citizen Media Law Project

Cameron Stracher, Esq. Professor of Legal Writing and Publisher, Law Review, New York Law School; Author; Fmr. Litigation Counsel, CBS

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

Chris Anderson, Free Content and Legal Services.

by Fred Abramson on October 1, 2009

Once upon a time your lawyer was a person. Potential clients would walk into an attorney’s ornate office to hire him based on a referral from either his accountant,  mother or hairdresser.  Then your attorney became software.  Think Nolo books and Blumberg forms.   With the advent of LegalZoom, your attorney became software on the web and the costs to the consumer were reduced dramatically.  LegalZoom has been able cut into the business of lawyers by offering cheap forms.  Why pay a lawyer $500 to draft a simple will when they can do it themselves?

According to Chris Anderson, author of Free, the marginal costs of distributing content is now zero. This is a game changer.  Lawyers can now give away free content on their blogs and charge for legal services. Bandwith costs nothing.  This has radical implications on how legal information is disseminated.  With a simple free content management system such as WordPress, lawyers can post legal forms for free on their blog and create free podcasts and videos.

The goal now is for lawyers to use free to reach the broadest range of people as possible.  Once a consumer  has a complicated legal matter, they are n0t going to want to settle for the free legal form online. They are going to want to go to a person and that person is going to advise them. That person can charge  more for offering up more specialized work.  You can charge more than the commodity because it is unique and customized and it takes advantage of the lawyer’s brain. Things that are simple can be turned into software and would become free.  They become marketing for something else.

The goal for lawyers is to get potential clients to use their product online, experience their product and put their data into the product. When it comes time to make a more complicated transaction, are they going somewhere else to finish the work, or are they going to go to place where the data is already entered and pay into it?

What are your thoughts? Is free really a game changer for lawyers? Do potential clients really care about free information when hiring an attorney? Will free ever take the place of referrals?

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]