What’s the Best Online Content for Law Students? (a la @StudentAppeal )

Amidst a week that is filled with law school events, I was pleased to read a blog post that explores the “top websites for law students.”

Whether your law school days are current, recent or receding into the mists of time, let me know what you think of these choices.

The post itself appears on The Student Appeal, who describe themselves thusly:

“The Student Appeal is an online law journal that publishes legal articles and editorials discussing law and policy issues, law school, and different legal careers available to JDs. We welcome submissions from all members of the legal community, American and international.”

For more information, see their Submission page.

I’ve noted the site before. If you—law students or lawyers—are seeking a great outlet for your own writing, you should consider The Student Appeal.

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Website by @cobarassoc Dedicated to Solos a Hit #nabecomm

I am in Denver this week (my first time here; can you believe it?), where I’m attending a great communications conference. While here, I am pleased to be leading a panel on how to manage the avalanche of content that seems to overwhelm us (rest assured, our actual title is much nicer than that).

Whenever I travel for work, I try to find great ideas to steal learn from. And that’s what takes me to an award-winning blog site: Solo in Colo. 

I invite you to look it over. The website, created by the Colorado Bar Association (“Colo”) aims to give voice to the wealth of solo-lawyer knowledge and experience. (The Colorado and Denver Bars are also hosting this week’s national conference, so they’re talented and generous!)

I am used to my own avalanche of content that I must create, curate, rewrite and post. But even given the horrorshow that is my daily calendar, I am in awe of this site. It includes a breadth and depth of value that continues to amaze long after they launched it.

What do you think? Should the State Bar of Arizona take on such a task? Do Arizona’s lawyers—particularly its solos—have any wisdom to impart? (That’s a trick question. They do.)

In what I am sure is no coincidence, the Denver conference includes as a speaker Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, of the great website Attorney at Work. She will speak on (Re)Building Your Blog:

“Using the real-life example of Attorney at Work, Partner/Catalyst Merrilyn Astin Tarlton shows how to create and manage a multi-author blog. She will discuss building readership, creating interaction, creating presence, content development, daily blog management and more. Plan to take good notes so you can head home with a plan to launch or spruce up your own bar blog.”

Any site whose slogan is “One Really Good Idea Every Day” and that manages multiple contributors is worth stealing learning from. Here’s to great ideas!

I return from the Mile-High City Friday evening, laden down with a treasure trove of “borrowed” ideas (and a smile that comes from cooler weather). But I’d like to hear your take on SoloInColo and Attorney at Work, and what you think of getting more voices “out there.”

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“One-Stop Shop” for Probate Information Launched by @azcourts

Here is some news from the Arizona Supreme Court:

Last year, the Arizona Supreme Court approved new mandatory probate forms, Fee Guidelines for lawyers and fiduciaries, and minimum training requirements for lawyers handling probate matters, investigators, and non-licensed fiduciaries.

To support these new rules and assist the public with implementation, a new web page has been developed serve as a “one-stop shop” for probate information, particularly as it relates to guardianship and conservatorship cases, and is geared toward non-licensed fiduciaries who likely will need the most assistance. The new website can be found here.

More detail about the new initiative is on the State Bar of Arizona website.

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Why It Matters if Facebook Comments Are Advertisements

If comments are “advertisements,” should we just go back to chatting?

Not to be overly dramatic, but the conversation may be the heart of social media, its very lifeblood.

Anyone who has ever launched a Facebook page, blog, Twitter handle or Pinterest board knows that what they really seek is engagement, a dynamic involvement by readers and other posters.

To social media, the comment is a nutritional daily requirement.

But what if that comment were both sustenance and a poison pill that could undermine your entire site?

Lawyers who have created their own websites or Facebook pages should be interested in the evolution of the following important question: Are comments “advertisements”?

A ruling by an advertising standards board—in Australia—ruled that the two are essentially equivalent, at least on Facebook pages of companies that sell products.

Here is how a recent article on the topic opened:

“A ruling that Facebook is an advertising medium—and not just a way to communicate—will force companies to vet comments posted by the public to ensure they are not sexist, racist or factually inaccurate.

“In a move that could change the nature of the social networking site forever, companies could be fined or publicly shamed for the comments that appear on their Facebook ‘brand’ pages.

“Last month the advertising industry watchdog issued a judgment in which it said comments made by ‘’fans’’ of a vodka brand’s Facebook page were ads and must therefore comply with industry self-regulatory codes, and therefore consumer protection laws.”

Read the whole thing here.

A few factors suggest to me that lawyers need not be too concerned about this quite yet.

First, there’s been no such ruling stateside, so this may be an outlier.

Second, the reasoning underlying this ruling applies to products. There may be such a thing as legal products, but a law firm Facebook page is more along the lines of communicating its services, a different thing entirely.

Third, we already know that posts and comments may cause legal problems, and so we look out for that.

Finally, most firms get substantially fewer comments from readers than, say, Target or (ha!) Chick-fil-A. The process of reviewing recent posts for appropriateness likely doesn’t take very long.

But all of us who enjoy that give-and-take with readers should be aware that comments may take on even more legal significance in the future. Keep those comments coming—at least as long as they’re not advertisements.

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Good Lawyer Websites Put the Awe Into Law

What’s on your website?

If current research—and my own informal surfing around—are any indication—the answer may be: Not much that folks care about.

Portion of image results for search of “lawyer website”: Draws you right in, doesn’t it?

Or, if you don’t have a legal website, let me put it another way: What do you look for in a lawyer’s web presence when, for instance, you’re looking for someone because you have a case to refer?

Are you looking for 10-year-old writing samples from when the lawyer externed for a judge?

Surveys say …. Blecch.

How about 70 photos of gavels, or courthouse steps, or maybe the scales of justice?

Well, OK, but all things in moderation. I saw one law firm site that ran ALL of those on EVERY page and sub-page.

We get it! You went to law school!

There are a lot of terrific sites out there, but many others are cluttered with who knows what.

Here, from people more expert than me (Larry Bodine and Gyi Tsakalakis), are a few elements that consumers and even lawyers seem to respond to: lawyer bios and Q&As.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget how to choose a good picture of yourself. It matters; it really matters.

What are some stellar lawyer websites you’ve seen? Share the URLs and I may do a future story on one or more.

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In Memoriam Page a New State Bar Feature

A member organization is often assessed based on what it gives its members. And why not? At least one of its many goals is usually to serve those people.

In that assessment, high-profile initiatives get most of the limelight. Lawyers appreciate free legal software and discounts on professional liability insurance. But recently, the State Bar of Arizona rolled out a feature that until now has been low on the radar.

It’s a new In Memoriam page on the Bar’s website.

Yes, lawyers are pleased to receive a wealth of other benefits. But it is a pretty common occurrence for us to hear from a lawyer, pleased that we had published an obituary or even a one-line death notice in Arizona Attorney Magazine. Those members point out that friends and colleagues fall out of touch, especially after retirement. Providing news of deceased members allows the living to pay their respects. And in doing so, they often reconnect with other fellows who are still alive.

We’ll continue to publish lists of deceased members in the print magazine. But kudos to the Bar for rolling out this more timely and complete list feature.

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State Bar of Arizona Wins National Awards

Last week, Nashville was the site for a great conference attended by me and a few Arizona colleagues. Now, I’m pleased to report that the Bar won awards in two communications categories at the National Association of Bar Executives (NABE) workshop.

NABE is an affiliate of the American Bar Association. Last week’s meeting was the annual gathering of the NABE Communications Section, one of NABE’s oldest and most established (I am privileged to be a member of the NABE Communications Section Council, though I was not a judge in this year’s awards).

In addition to the many great educational programs the Section offers at the annual meeting, it also honors bar products and services in multiple categories and based on bar association size (the State Bar of Arizona is considered a large bar). This year’s awards were sponsored by legal research service Fastcase, which is a partner to a growing number of bar associations nationwide (click here to see the list).

At Friday’s awards luncheon, State Bar products were recognized in two categories: Website Design (click here for the Bar’s site) and Special Publications (recognizing the annual report).

Congratulations to everyone who helped brainstorm, design and produce the projects.

Here are a few photos from the event:

State Bar of Arizona Chief Communications Officer Rick DeBruhl and Art Director Karen Holub, center, hold Luminary Awards. Also pictured: Christina Steinbrecker, Fastcase Bar Relations Manager, and Philip Rosenthal, Fastcase President

2011 Luminary Award winner representatives, National Association of Bar Executives Communications Section, Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 21, 2011

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20 Website Candles

Happy Change of Venue Friday.

I know this will cause confusion, but here goes: The World Wide Web reached its 20th anniversary back in 2009. But this week—August 6—we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the world’s first website.

Yes, there was a Web before there were any websites populating it. We could have celebrated the Web’s birthday in October, but today it’s all about the site.

If you’re eager for more history, go to the source. CERN describes itself as “the website of the world’s first-ever web server.” Pretty big talk. But in this case, they happen to be right.

(I know you’re wondering, so let them explain: “CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. The name is derived from the acronym for the French Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or European Council for Nuclear Research, a provisional body founded in 1952 with the mandate of establishing a world-class fundamental physics research organization in Europe.” Or, as I say it, they are the folks with the particle accelerator and the Large Hadron Collider. So there.)

Unfortunately, no screen shot of that first site was ever made. But here is a later “rebuilding” of what the page included.

Tim Berners-Lee

The first website may have been pretty plain Jane, but the story of the Internet’s birth is even better. The Web’s creator, Tim Berners-Lee, had a transformative idea to help speed communication and the transmission of information.

Here is the story of his proposal:

“In March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for an information management system to his boss, Mike Sendall. ‘Vague, but exciting,’ were the words that Sendall wrote on the proposal, allowing Berners-Lee to continue.”

“Vague, but exciting.” Holy crap. Never has a supervisor’s routine green light had so much impact. I will give careful thought to the story’s lessons next time someone brings me an idea.

You may read the actual proposal here. Let me know if you can figure it out. Blissfully, it omits any mention of pop-up ads or cat videos.

More about Tim Berners-Lee is here. He gets the same questions so often, he created an FAQ page here.

And below you’ll find a more developed flow chart that Berners-Lee created in his proposal.

A hat tip to my colleague George Schader, who shared the website-birthday factoid. Time for cake. Have a great weekend. Get out there and start surfing.

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Memorial Day Marks Launch of ABA Site To Benefit Vets

Happy Memorial Day. I am hoping that you are spending some wonderful time with friends and family. That is always a high point of the Memorial Day weekend.

Somewhere in there, here’s hoping we all take a moment—or more—to remember why the holiday exists. In my job, I’ve been privileged to report on recent efforts to assist military members (see here and here). And today, there is news of a great initiative launched by the American Bar Association—its “Home Front” website that provides resources for servicemembers and their families.

Here is the concept, as described by the ABA. Please pass it on to anyone you think may benefit from it.

American Bar Association

Division for Communications and Media Relations

http://www.abanow.org

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE FOR MILITARY FAMILIES

ABA Home Front Provides Resources for Understanding Legal Issues and Obtaining Law-Related Assistance

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 17, 2011 – The American Bar Association has launched a new website, ABA Home Front, dedicated to providing servicemembers and military families with resources for understanding legal issues and obtaining law-related assistance for the problems they face every day. This site features an Information Center, a Directory of Programs and a Military Pro Bono Center, all designed to deliver legal information and expert assistance to military families.

“Being in the military is a 24/7 commitment that takes its members and their families across the country, and around the world,” said ABA President Stephen N. Zack. “That’s where the online legal center comes in. At any time, someone can access basic information on the legal issue they’re dealing with — whether it’s a family law matter, tax question or problem with a creditor.”

The Information Center consists of easy-to-understand resources about Working with a Lawyer and the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, which provides legal protections for active-duty military and their families. The site also has a Family Law section that explains law-related implications and options in such areas as marriage and divorce, domestic violence and custody disputes.

“The center offers information on a number of legal topics,” Zack said. “We will continue to grow it in response to what servicemembers tell us they need.”

The Information Center will be expanded to include additional materials about landlord-tenant disputes, health law, immigration, contracts and leases, tax, and employment law.

The Directory of Programs can help military families find services in or near their community with state-by-state listings of legal programs and organizations. Programs can include military legal assistance offices, legal aid and pro bono organizations, lawyer referral and information services, and military-specific programs where available. Although many of the programs are pro bono, some may require payment of some costs or impose income-eligibility limits.

The Military Pro Bono Center is a resource for lawyers interested in providing pro bono representation for military members or in providing pro bono lawyer-to-lawyer consultation with military legal assistance attorneys.

With nearly 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world. As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.

 

Bloggers – Your Time Is Now!

Holy cow! Was it last November that I started beating the bushes for bloggers? (And we all know how painful that can be.)

That’s right, November. The State Bar was in the throes of its website transformation, and we here at Arizona Attorney Magazine had been granted the deepest wish of our heart’s desire. No, not a raise, or profit-sharing, or a mai-tai-strewn lanai. We were going to get a News & Information page.

For a long time now, we have been champing at the bit to have a path that will us allow us to tell more and diverse stories. The days are past when a print magazine alone can carry the information load. And that’s why we have broadened our reach through social media, sharing news and opinion through Facebook, Twitter and this blog.

All of that, we agreed, was great. But we lacked a great anchor—a website that is cutting-edge and that provides flexibility and functionality.

I am told that all of our brainstorming is about to come to fruition. A mockup of the page is below, and we are very pleased. (Click to make it larger.) We can’t wait to get started. (Our magazine home page is also being redesigned, and it will continue to provide magazine-focused content.)

In the next 30 days, I am told that the entire website, including our news page, will be focus-grouped. And then we’ll be up and running.

Which gets me back to my call for bloggers. I’ve already heard from some, but more is (often) better.

As I explained, we will feature a rotating stable of bloggers. On our page, we will provide a teaser and link to four or five different bloggers every day. That way, no one is expected to write every day, and I can change the teasers when someone has posted great new content.

To launch, we will focus on those Arizona lawyers who are already blogging. So if you are already out there, on WordPress or Blogger or some other site, contact the editor (me) at arizona.attorney@azbar.org. That’s all there is to it. You may continue to market your site wherever else you’d like. Our new page will simply offer you added visibility. And it will provide our readers more good stuff.

I am also looking forward to collaborating with lawyers who want to begin blogging but have not yet done so. Putting our heads together, I think we can get you up and writing.

Contact me now, and we’ll be sharing your thoughts and analyses before you know it.