Arts Winners of @azatty Displayed as May Facebook Profile Pictures

“Pima County Jail Parking Lot” by John Levy, a photography category winner of the 2013 Arizona Attorney Magazine Creative Arts Competition

Last fall, I wrote about the pleasure I take in Facebook’s then-new broad profile photo. I argued that it could especially be useful for businesses on that social media channel.

The question of whether to keep your message’s delivery unchanging and rock-solid, or to alter it in ways permitted by Facebook, is not an easy question. I pointed out that, as an editor on a monthly magazine, I like to visually feature a snapshot of each month’s cover story.

This is May, though, and I faced the dilemma of representing our arts competition winners. Last year, I decided to curate my own shot (see below). The result was a mass of art supplies surrounding our May issue. I still like it (though opinions may differ).

Arizona Attorney Facebook Screen shot May 2012

This year, though, I tried something else: featuring some of the great visual work that won our prizes.

Therefore, if you go to the Arizona Attorney Magazine Facebook page this month, you will see that the broad cover image changes about six times throughout the month. Those changes give us the chance to display a variety of great work in the categories of photography and painting.

Our page is at http://www.facebook.com/ArizonaAttorneyMagazine

I just changed the image this morning, so it now displays John Levy’s photograph “Pima County Jail Parking Lot.”

To see all the photos, past, present and future, be sure to “Like” us on Facebook. And stop by our photos page to see what else we’ve shown.

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Guest Post: The Evolution of Google Results for Lawyer Searches

The power of the Internet to transform business has been revolutionary. And in that transformation, Google and its functionality have been leading change-agents.

Attorneys—already occupied by the law and business sides of their work—likely scratch their heads at the possibility of being “found” by anyone among Google’s billions of bits and bytes. That’s why I was pleased to hear from Texas attorney Scott Morgan, who offered a primer on the topic of getting found in Google search (more about Scott follows his great post; I’m also pleased to note that he’s a prolific blogger). And if you thought you already understood Google’s algorithm before, read on, because the math of search has changed.

Here is Scott:

For many law firms, the Internet, and particularly Google, has developed over the last several years into their primary source of new clients. Many law firms use pay per click advertising (PPC) as a way to rent online real estate for important keyword phrases. Other law firms use search engine optimization (SEO) as a way to get in front of those same searchers without having to pay every time they click.

While SEO sounds great in theory, the reality is that it is extremely changing and, as we will discuss below, constantly changing. This article will discuss how Google results for local attorney phrases have dramatically changed over the past year and what law firms can do to best position themselves.

Google’s Search Results—A Brief History

Our analysis begins with a comparison of what a Google search results page for a local phrase such as “Phoenix divorce lawyer” looks like currently as compared to as recent as 2012.  Since I didn’t have the foresight to take a picture of an old results page back, I will have to replicate it by using a phrase that won’t trigger Google’s “localization” of the results. It actually took some work to find an appropriate phrase, but eventually I came across “Phoenix divorce property division,” which looked like the old-style results.

As shown in the picture below, the results basically had some paid ads at the top and right sidebar, but the rest of the page was just the 10 highest-ranking organic results for the phrase. Under the old system, the key to ranking highly for almost any particular phrase was to get lots and lots of links pointing to your site with anchor text (the words that are in the link) that either exactly matched or were close to matching the phrase you’re trying to rank highly for.

Google search results for “Phoenix divorce property division.”

So if you were trying to rank for “Phoenix divorce lawyer,” you would get links pointing to your site with that anchor text, ideally from other highly ranked sites, preferably in the legal niche. Many professional SEO firms made a lot of money by promising (and occasionally delivering) to get lawyer websites to the top of the rankings for their desired keywords using just this strategy. While certain types of links became more and less effective with Google over the years, it was still a relatively straightforward process to get a website to rank for a particular keyword phrase.

Fast Forward to the Present

Let’s now take a look at how the Google results pages have changed over the past year using the keyword phrase “Phoenix divorce lawyer” (below).

Google search results for “Phoenix divorce lawyer.”

As you can see, the results still show PPC ads at the top and right side of the page. What is significantly different are the seven local listings that are blended in with the organic results. On this particular search there are actually three results that appear above the local listings. In many locations, the seven local listings appear above all the organic listings.

While at first blush this may seem like a relatively minor cosmetic change in the results, it is anything but. Here is the often misunderstood part of the new localization of the results: Google uses two separate algorithms to rank the local results and the organic results.

Attorney Scott Morgan

In other words, you could be the #1 ranking site in organic but not be found at all in the local listings. The end result of this change could have been that overnight you went from having the top listing for multiple client-generating keywords to being pushed all the way to the bottom of the page by the local listings, causing your traffic and potential client inquiries to slow from a flood to a trickle.

What Should Law Firms Do Now?

So the bottom line is that if law firms want to get in front of potential clients on Google result pages without having to resort to PPC, they will need to rank highly in the local listings. While this is no small task, given the amount of potential clients that a high ranking on a good keyword can generate, it is worth it to master this new area of SEO. Here are some basic things that you can do to improve your chances of your website being listed highly in local:

• The very first thing you should do is claim your Google local listing. By claiming it you gain control over the content of the listing, including the basics such as your business name, address and telephone number, as well as more advanced features such as pictures, videos and periodic postings about your practice.
• Many other websites have local listings, such as Yelp, Yahoo local, Bing Local, Yellowpages, and Localeze. You should claim these listings as well. Not only can it generate some website visitors for you but Google looks at these listings as a way to confirm the information on your Google local listing.
• Work on getting your name, address and phone consistent across the Internet. This is probably the most common problem that websites have in getting good local rankings. If over the years you have moved your office once or twice or changed phone numbers, it is likely that the old data is floating around the Internet still. This will cause Google to have less confidence that the information they have for your business is accurate and will cause your local rankings to plummet.

Hopefully, this article has given you some insight into how the new Google results pages for lawyer searches work and what you need to do to improve your chances of getting a steady flow of clients from this very valuable channel.

About the Author

When not obsessing about his firm’s search rankings, Scott Morgan is busy representing divorce clients in Texas. He is a board-certified family law attorney and founder of the Morgan Law Firm, which has offices in Sugar Land, Austin and Houston.

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Three Arizona Attorneys To Appear in “8” Play

An Arizona production of a nationally recognized play will be staged next Tuesday, May 7, and include a cast of leading residents, including at least three attorneys. As of April 11, three local attorneys had agreed to perform: Bill Sheppard, Nicole Stanton and Grant Woods. Others who were slated include Cindy McCain.

The play, titled “8,” was written by Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, and it “chronicles the historic federal trial challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 banning same-sex marriage.” A ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court is expected in late June.

A play written about a court case? Well, it’s in good company (try To Kill a Mockingbird, Inherit the Wind and 12 Angry Men, for starters).

Tickets are $50 and $35 and can be purchased through the Arizona Theatre Company or Ticketmaster. As organizers say, “Following the performance, there will be a short discussion between Black, others and the audience on the issues presented in the trial.”

You can read more about the play here.

In a New York Times story, the writer described the play and his process:

“The play consists mostly of verbatim dialogue and statements from the trial transcript, [writer Dustin Lance] Black said, as well as his own observations from sitting in the courtroom most days and interviewing people on both sides of the case.”

“Roughly a dozen people from the trial are portrayed as characters, including Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the lawyers for the two gay couples who sued California over the ban; Charles J. Cooper, the lead defense counsel; Kristin M. Perry and Sandra B. Stier, a lesbian couple who were among the plaintiffs; and the judge, Vaughn R. Walker of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of California.”

“Mr. Black, who won an Oscar in 2009 for his original screenplay about the life and assassination of Harvey Milk, a gay man on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, said he became determined to write the play after the United States Supreme Court blocked the trial judge’s plan to broadcast the hearings over the Internet.”

And here is how the producers describe the legally based play:

Dustin Lance Black

“‘8’—a new play by Academy-award winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (Milk, J. Edgar)—demystifies the debate around marriage equality by chronicling the landmark trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Hollingsworth v. Perry). Learn about the historical context of marriage from expert testimony. See the human cost of discrimination. Uncover the arguments used to justify bans on marriage for gay and lesbian couples. Using the actual court transcripts from the landmark federal trial of California’s Prop. 8 and firsthand interviews, ‘8’ shows both sides of the debate in a moving 90-minute play.”

“The Arizona production of ‘8’ announced the addition of five leading Valley residents to the cast.  Local actor Damon Bolling, producer/singer David Burrola, former TV news anchor Marlene Galan, former State Representative Steve May and Phoenix attorney and arts advocate Bill Sheppard will join the previously announced cast members for the May 7 presentation of ’8′ at the Herberger Theater Center in downtown Phoenix.”

“Previous cast members announced include Black, Tony-nominated Broadway actor Rory O’Malley, CNN and ESPN commentator LZ Granderson and LGBT activist and AIDS Memorial Quilt creator Cleve Jones. Arizonans in the cast include business and community leader Cindy McCain, attorney and Phoenix First Lady Nicole Stanton, radio and TV personality Pat McMahon, former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, State Senator Jack Jackson Jr. and Phoenix City Councilman Tom Simplot.”

“‘8’ will be produced by the Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) and directed by Matthew Wiener, Producing Artistic Director of Actors Theatre-Phoenix. Former Tempe mayor and current San Francisco AIDS Foundation Chief Executive Officer Neil Giuliano is the executive producer.”

Again, here is the ticket information, through the Arizona Theatre Company or Ticketmaster.

Follow the Arizona production of “8” on Facebook.

Have a great weekend.

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Prop 207 Panel with @MayorStanton Tonight by @BloomingRock on Property Rights versus Downtown Neglect

Does Prop 207 protect or harm neighborhoods? It may depend on where you hang your hat.

This evening, another panel that has had a lot of engagement will occur. The topic is the controversial Proposition 207 (which you can read here, at A.R.S. § 12-1134).

Titled “Diminution in value; just compensation,” the law has done more to protect property owners from a loss in value—or to doom neighborhoods to zero improvements, depending on your position—than almost any statute.

The panel discussion includes Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton and runs from 6 to 8 p.m. It is sponsored by Women Design Arizona and Blooming Rock Development. I covered a previous panel of theirs on water use and conservation, in their “sustainable urbanism” series.

It will be held at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market. (I understand a fleet of food trucks will be available to increase the value of the parking lot and to meet our every culinary need.)

Over here at Arizona Attorney, we haven’t covered eminent domain and property issues like this since 2006. Kelo v. City of New London (remember Kelo?) changed the landscape, you could say, quite a bit. Shall we cover it again? What’s changed? (You can see our opening spread below.)

Here is more detail from the panel’s organizers. I hope to see you there. But I’ll also be tweeting with the hashtag: #Prop207Phx

“Join panelists of the March 20 Sustainable Communities Lecture Series in a discussion about the status of Proposition 207, enacted by Arizona voters in 2006, and its impact on property rights, neighborhood blight and safety, and historic preservation. Does Prop 207 really protect property owners or does it make it harder for municipalities to protect themselves from slumlords, criminals, and developers with little or no interest in neighborhood and community revitalization?

Panel:

• Mayor Greg Stanton, City of Phoenix
• Christina Sandefur, Staff Attorney at the Goldwater Institute
• Grady Gammage, Jr., attorney, real estate developer, author, Morrison Institute for Public Policy

More information (and Join-ability) is on Facebook.

Tickets are $5 in advance (supposedly by March 19), and $10 at the door. Buy them here, if you’re still able.

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Paul Schiff Berman Exits Dean Position at @gwlaw

Paul Schiff Berman

Let me keep today’s post pretty short and a little less than sweet.

Something odd happened back east to a law school dean. And that former dean has ties to the Grand Canyon State.

Anyone up on updates regarding the ASU Law School probably learned this weeks ago, but for everyone else, it may be news that Paul Schiff Berman has exited the deanship at the George Washington University Law School.

Berman, you may recall, helmed the ASU Law School for a time (you can read our interview with him here). But he headed east to lead GWU Law, which was announced in April 2011. That, however, didn’t last long. By summer 2012, discontent was evident. By January 2013, he had left the law school, and the university named him vice provost for online education and academic innovation.

More than ever before, law deans have proven to be a transitory bunch. But even in a world in which deanships are rarely calculated in decades, Berman’s exit is noteworthy for its speediness. And according to the university newspaper, his departure was welcomed by a majority of law school professors. The story, titled “Law faculty plotted to oust dean,” opens:

“Faculty say they launched a near coup to remove the former dean of the GW Law School, who unexpectedly announced last fall he would resign after holding the position for just 18 months.”

“Paul Schiff Berman stepped down in January and moved to a new vice provost position after professors drafted a petition to reject his leadership, citing staff tensions and poor decision-making about how to restore a reeling legal education system, The Hatchet has learned.”

Yes, the independent student newspaper is called “The Hatchet.” Draw your own conclusions.

If you want another take on the dean’s departure, be sure to read Above the Law.

A hat tip to Arizona lawyer (and ASU Law alum) Ruth Carter for sharing the news. If there is a followup or more of a response from Professor Berman, we’ll share it.

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New Technology Newsletter by @AZStateBar Is Out

The State Bar’s electronic newsletter dedicated to technology items has just come out in its winter 2013 issue. As I’ve mentioned before, this quarterly news source provides a wide variety of headlines on topics that may affect your law practice.

Among the stories is a lead item on addressing the digital accounts of the dead.

If you’re interested in the topic, you should turn to the current Arizona Attorney, where Rex Anderson writes on digital assets in estates.

And while you’re at it, do you like how we transformed this month’s Facebook profile picture for Arizona Attorney? The image is below (click to make it bigger and look closely). (We like to change the image every month depending on our cover story.)

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Renouncing Citizenship Not for the Faint of Heart

Renouncing Citizenship article, Arizona Attorney Magazine, Dec. 2012

A news story—about renouncing U.S. citizenship—caught my eye recently. And no, it’s not because I’m thinking of moving my loved ones and every asset to some island nation.

The reason this story intrigued me is that we covered the same topic recently in Arizona Attorney Magazine. But our take was a bit different.

The Yahoo story made quite a bit about the tax savings that could be achieved by renouncing your citizenship and expatriating. It mentioned—with scant evidence—that renunciations are on the increase due to higher taxes. A close look at the article shows that the answer is: Maybe. Maybe not.

Our article in the December issue didn’t seek to suggest anyone should beat a hasty retreat. But it did describe the process required, as well as a few reasons clients have given for their significant decision.

You can read “Adiós, Uncle Sam: Renouncing U.S. Citizenship” (by attorneys Susan Willis McFadden and Kay Kavanagh) here.

And now, because it’s Change of Venue Friday, you really should enjoy a brief video from a hilarious Tulsa newscast that touches on the expatriate subject. Following the 2012 presidential election (as in every election), quite a few people loudly declaimed that they would move to Canada if their candidate lost.

Taking them at their word, this Oklahoma traffic reporter added a unique twist to what is typically very local coverage.

Enjoy your weekend; I hope you beat the traffic.

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Writer Sought To Cover @PhxLaw Lawyers as Peacemakers Conference

You are: Planning to attend a noteworthy legal conference, but would like the opportunity to use your writing and reporting skills to share a follow-up with Arizona’s legal community.

We are: Arizona’s legal community, eager to share your story on the magazine blog.

The Phoenix School of Law Lawyers as Peacemakers and Healers Conference runs this Friday night through Sunday. Currently, it appears no one here at the magazine will be able to attend this remarkable gathering. But if you’re planning to be there and would like to write a story, with attribution, we would like to talk with you.

Ideally, likely writers will be unaffiliated with the conference except as an attendee. Lawyers and law students who have an interest should contact me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

Here is the website for the Lawyers as Peacemakers and Healers Conference, which runs February 22 through 24. And you can Like it on Facebook here.

For background, click here for last year’s program.

And as a great service to the legal community, event organizers have posted video recordings of all presentations from last year.

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Seeking the Legal Heart of Valentine’s Day

Justice has never been so sweet.

Short and o so sweet today, just to remind you that it is Valentine’s Day, and to be sure to love the one you’re with. And if that someone is a lawyer, here are a few messages that may help you on the path to legalistic bliss.

First, head over to the occasionally cheeky Washington State Bar Association “Sidebar.” There, you will spy a few ideas that may put you in the canoodling mood.

OK, perhaps the object of your affections can resist your offer of a chocolate gavel, or collar stays etched with sweet nothings.

If their resistance is firm, then snark may win the day. At least, that’s how it works with journalists. I hope you enjoy some of the humorous paths to the heart as crafted by reporters and editors. (Yes, one of them says, “You’ve scooped my heart.” Don’t judge.)

Enjoy your evening. Here’s hoping you decide to sleep in on Friday.

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Dallas Sight Suggestions Sought, and @jordan_law21 To Explore Future Legal Market at #NABEMYM

Dallas building housing the former Texas School Book Depository

First things first. I am in Dallas this week, for the first time ever: Any tips?

A friend from Alabama also will be in the city known to “Live Large. Think Big” (whatever that means), and he made a pretty good suggestion: We should visit the Texas School Book Depository. For some people, that may not ring any bells, but it is the structure in which Lee Harvey Oswald crouched as he fired fatal shots at President John F. Kennedy back in 1963.

The building is still on Dealey Plaza, and the sixth and seventh floors have been converted into a museum commemorating the awful day. Read more about it here.

Yeah, we may be downers. But what history-lover is not?

But because I may find myself with any additional free time, I would appreciate some tourist insight from folks who know this town. Write to me at arizona.attorney@azbar.org.

On the focused-on-the-conference-front, I will be enjoying quite a bit of learning at the hands of presenters at the NABE midyear conference. And I’m happy to add that I will be one of those presenters. (Thanks again to those who offered suggestions for our panel on social media!)

Jordan Furlong

On Wednesday, just before we present, we’ll have the opportunity to hear from Jordan Furlong. (Follow him on Twitter here.)

Furlong, a Canadian lawyer, is one of a handful of people focused with clear eyes on the future of the legal profession.

I have mentioned Furlong more than once in my blog, but for a real education, head over to his own page. There, you can read his insights on, most recently, legal education. (See posts here and here.)

That’s it for now. I eagerly await your Dallas suggestions!

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