Functionality of social media and connectivity are growing on the Internet. Many businesses are creating Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. Direct marketing and relationship marketing thrive with these forms of interactive tools. Another innovative technique lawyers are using to market their firm is Google profile and alerts. These may seem foreign but setup is a breeze.

Google Profile allows anyone to create a personal, searchable page on Google. Once an account is created (if you do not have one already with Google), you begin by entering in data about yourself or business into the form and any links you would like displayed. Google allows users to upload photos and contact information. Click the ‘create profile’ button and you are finished. Here is an example of a Miami firm’s profile.

Google Alerts keeps you updated on stories or people you are interested in. It works by allowing users to isolate key phrases or words they often search for and emailing or delivering via feed new results. For instance, a VP at Pampers may want up to date information about its competitor, Huggies. By creating a Google Alert for “Huggies”, they no longer have to dedicate time to searching for themselves. Google will email them any new developments posted on the web about Huggies.

Other applications for Google Alerts include monitoring what others are saying about your business (or you). By creating an Alert for your name, any occurrence of it in the press will immediately be mailed or show up on a Feed Reader.

To create a Google Alert, first login to your account and go here. Proceed to type in whatever search term(s) you desire. Google gives you the option to search only news, videos, blogs, groups or all of the above (comprehensive). This can be useful as a filtering mechanism. Next, they want to know how often you would like updates. The choices are once a day, as it happens or once a week. Finally, Google needs to know how you want this information sent to you- to either a Google account email or feed.

These two quick and useful tools go a long way to monitor and market. They are both extremely powerful and user-friendly. To get an account with Google and get started go here.

For more information on Canadian Lawyers, Lawyer Marketing, Law firm advertising visit http://www.lawyerahead.ca/

Law offices vary in size from single lawyer firms to large, multinational entities. To understand how an office is typically setup the surrounding climates must be taken into consideration. Smaller firms tend to be more specialized to a certain branch of law. Larger firms with huge stores of experienced attorneys are able to take on a broader variety of cases, knowing that someone amongst their ranks can handle the case.

Specialization. The firm’s ability to handle different types of cases can grow as the firm expands. In a small firm with a handful of lawyers, they focus on one or two specific types of law like family, bankruptcy or negligence and build a clientele in these areas. Branching out to litigate other sorts of cases lessens the quality of service at this level so being specific ensures a good reputation.

Partnership. Partnerships tend to range from two lawyers to a few dozen. In this structure, partners work together to determine fees, strategies, advertising, and hiring practices the firm should pursue. As a firm grows, the tendency grows for more specialization within the firm or a more “corporate” framework. Having someone specifically for certain tasks or establishing a hierarchy of partners avoids the “too many cooks spoil the broth” scenario.

Expansion of the firm is not always the desired path either. Some partnerships may prefer to remain small. Partners may feel that a less strenuous workweek is more beneficial than a more lucrative caseload (hopefully, these two are not mutually exclusive). They may want their firm to emit an air of friendliness that a $4 million office building could not deliver.

Economic downturns force firms to reevaluate the way they do business. Firms deeply rooted in old ways of doing business are transitioning to systems that reward performance over seniority. There is a push to setup “rainy day” funds in firms to avoid losing their hat during a recession. Mitch Kowalski discusses this in “Law firm structures - a blast from the past”. In response to the fluctuating revenue streams firms face and the catastrophic implications this bodes during an economic slowdown, Kowalski contends, “the businesses that are able to weather this current recession and actually thrive in it, are those that have huge hoards of cash that they diligently put away each year.”

Lawyerahead.ca is easily the best place for a canadian lawyer to be recognized by clients and colleagues alike around the world.  

Earlier is better than later. In almost all legal actions, finding and retaining a lawyer early in the process will aid the resolution of the case. The longer you wait, the harder it will be for your lawyer to gather relevant evidence or prevent a misstep. Retaining counsel early may actually save money because witnesses and evidence are easier to track down and preserve.

How do I find an attorney? Although this is the first time you have retained counsel, it is likely that people you know have used the services of a lawyer before. If they had a good experience, ask them who they used. Even if that attorney doesn’t handle your type of case, they will be able to recommend lawyers who do. Failing that, research local law firms and lawyers on the Internet. You will find information about what sort of cases they handle and how experienced they are. Lawyerahead.ca is a great place to start your search for a lawyer. 

When you first meet your attorney, they will ask you some background questions about your case. They are acting much like a physician diagnosing a patient. They will listen to your story and hear it with ‘lawyer’s ears’ – picking out the essential elements both for and against you. Further investigation may be required, since it is unlikely you will know all the key elements and facts.

However, with this background information, your attorney should have a general idea of whether or not your particular case has merit and how to proceed. He or she will question you about what you envision a satisfactory result to be and comment on how realistic your hopes are.

If it appears that you have a valid case, the next part of the initial interview should be about costs. Attorneys understand that fees and expenses are a real consideration in any legal proceeding. They should be quite up-front about what they charge and what other costs are involved. If your case is taken on a contingency fee basis, they should tell you whether or not you are responsible for expenses and what happens if you lose and no money is collected.

You should not be afraid to lay out all your concerns, even if they seem silly. You are relying on this person to represent your interests - communication and trust are an important part of deciding who to hire.

Your initial consultation should end with a general plan of action. What you should and should not do in the near term. You should ask who is the contact person for your case (it may be an associate or a paralegal – someone empowered to answer general questions you may have and forward information to your attorney). You should be ready to call your contact person with new developments and to get updates on your case.

It is likely that your lawyer will give you a ‘homework’ assignment, perhaps gathering information he will need for your case. You should have a clear idea of ‘what happens next’ when you leave. You should also have a sense that you are in capable hands. Remember, questions aid all concerned. When you are not sure about something, ask. And if you still aren’t sure, ask again.

Facebook today is the largest social network with estimated 175 million active users. If you happen to be not familiar with this system it is easy to understand. You can register in Facebook and create a page with your personal data, like the places where you studied, personal interests, photos, etc., and people who know you will be able to find you in this system. And here we are coming to the first problem – who guarantees that my personal info won’t be available to third party companies. Let us take a closer look at controversies and lawsuits that surround this website and some of its clones.

 The most disputed problem is privacy. Of course no one leaves some real personal info on his social network account, but some main stuff like education, photo or address is required in this system. In the original rules Facebook has the rights to sell the information to third party companies, but the administration claimed that they never intended to do so. Another issue was connected with deleting pages, if you remove your page from Facebook, the data would still be stored on the companies servers. After numerous complains, on February 29, 2008 Facebook was modified and the people could finally erase their data when deleting pages.

Fake profiles is another problem, in any social networks you can create a fake profile of anyone, put some abusing info, and before the year 2008 it seemed to be impossible to track you down and bring you to justice. The historical case for the web happened on July 24, 2008 when the High Court in London ordered Grant Raphael to pay GBP £22,000 for breach of privacy and libel. Raphael posted a fake Facebook page of his former schoolfriend and business colleague, Mathew Firsht. The information on the fake page claimed that Firscht was homosexual and untrustworthy. Before that on February 5, 2008, Fouad Mourtada, a citizen of Morocco, was arrested for creating of a faked Facebook profile of Prince Moulay Rachid of Morocco, there is still no verdict on this case.

 Facebook was sued a few times for copying the idea from various websites, but if we look at this case more seriously, an idea of a social network with personal info is not unique, Facebook was just the most successful site from all the competitors.

 Despite the numerous copyright lawsuits a Facebook twin (even designed exactly the same as the original Facebook) called Vkontakte is openly operating in CIS. It is one of the most popular sites in Russia and Ukraine, it already has 27 million users and is quickly rising and right now it is the 24^th website on Alexa overall traffic world-wide. The rumors in Russian blogosphere concerning this site are very curious, the most popular is that the website is controlled by Russian intelligence and used to gather information on people. A very post-communism version of the social network privacy issue. As for the Intellectual Property issues, there was also a rumor that Facebook will purchase Vkontakte and integrate its client database into Facebook. This will probably be a more efficient solution for this problem than facebook lawyers filling million dollar lawsuits, especially against Russia, where the laws connected with copyright and internet are almost absent.

The current World Crisis has an interesting impact on outsourcing. On one side it is a huge strike on this entire industry, because lots of major outsourcing projects (especially in IT) can’t be financed anymore, due to bankruptcy of the investors and their banks. On the other side the companies that are fighting for survival try to lower the costs and people who considered outsourcing not an option, are now changing their position. And the third side is that many people from various industries who lost their jobs in major companies are joining the outsourcing business. When the whole world is experiencing drawbacks the outsourcing industry is standing before some major changes. With the current economic situation in the world the lawyers specializing in bankruptcy and divorce (we already wrote about that) have huge amounts of work and the numbers are growing. Total Attorneys , a growing US company are giving them a possibility to make life easier by providing various back-office support.

In this case Outsourcing has nothing to do with the 2004 US scandals concerning this industry. The jobs are not going away, this company is just providing additional services for the lawyer. Total Attorneys work on a principle that attorneys should spent more time with clients than with paperwork. In general the company has two types of services – marketing and back-office solutions. The company builds its success (doubling its revenue each year since 2003) on small law firms that rush into competition while the large companies with old business models tend to collapse.

Total Attorneys have 170 employees 23,000 square feet (few month ago it was only 10,000) and a great business idea. The company offers a software-as-a-service platform; practically such things as a professional call center, customer relationship management, search engine marketing and recently added legal process outsourcing solution. This solution allows lawyers to offload document review, track the progress of client cases online, share files with groups of people at once and maintain a continuous record of messages and tasks. In some ways it is the law model of the future, when law firms can concentrate on delivering legal advice and not on search engine optimization or paperwork. As for marketing Total Attorneys offer basically a simple and effective package of services. The magic SEO (search engine optimization) practically consists of a big number of simple tasks. But the advantage of TA is that if a marketing department is focused on one topic (in this case law) it will become very effective after 6-10 month of work, imagine the effectiveness after six years of work.

Of course an important problem of outsourcing and law is the security of information.

Some latest cases show that in pursuit of justice the rights of the lawyers are often violated. A pressure from prosecutors or the police can lead to situations when information will become available, and in situations concerning the law, any information is important. So like in the all types of outsourcing people should be aware of the possible risk.

We have all seen lawyers on television promising the world at low, low fees. These and other ethical affronts hurt firms in the end. The good name lawyers have developed for themselves over the years (illustrated by thousands of lawyer jokes) makes it not only important, but also necessary to be ethical when advertising your firm.

In regards to advertising, the Canadian Bar Association states “Lawyer should make legal services available to the public in an efficient and convenient manner that will command respect and confidence, and by means that are compatible with the integrity, independence and effectiveness of the profession.” Many times, an advertisement is a client’s first impression of a law firm and being ethical from the beginning is important. The basic intentions of advertising are clear-cut but seem to get lost in the fold at times. Mainly, you want to get your name out there, inform people about your “product” (legal services), and explain how you can deliver good results. Name recognition is important but how reputable that name appears is important as well. As tempting as it may be, it is important not to overpromise results or misrepresent past victories. Using these tactics lowers the industry as a whole and breeds false expectations in clients. Although doing this may get clients in the door, it tends to eliminate the potential for long-term representation opportunities and referrals which are both key to success.

As many in business know, repeat customers and word of mouth advertising are vital to growth. Unethical advertising breeds mistrust and future disappointment. Being straight with clients and realistic about costs, expected settlements, and time in court creates a base for clients to build trust. When you say “free” mean it. “Free” consultations charged later through added fees or billing manipulation are not free and may be quite costly when it comes to reputation.

Being ethical when advertising and in practice creates a standard higher than designated by law. A lawyer benefits in the long run by staying clear of unethical practices. They eliminate the chance of lawsuits stemming from false advertising or misrepresenting themselves, which of course can cripple a firm. They increase their clientele through word of mouth and repeat business all the while maintaining a strong reputation. Most importantly, clients deserve a little honesty from their attorneys so why not give it to them.

In the old days, advertising venues for lawyers were limited and expensive. Building clientele meant creating 30-second spots on television or renting billboard space. Thankfully, times have changed. Many lawyers find that publishing articles online is an effective means to grow their business.

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The old saying “The proof is in the pudding” applies and online venues are a great way for attorneys to show off their stuff. By publishing articles online, a lawyer can “show off” by allowing prospective clients and fellow lawyers to sample their work. This is a valuable way to get your name out there and build upon your existing network. One’s expertise is another’s weakness and some find that this can lead to lucrative referrals. Eventually, through enough exposure, clients searching the web for representation may run across your work.

Article archivers are springing up more and more. With a large network of lawyers, JDSupra may be the place to start. Their comprehensive site allows anyone to search documents for free. Registering takes no time at all and then you are ready to start uploading documents. For this, JDSupra has an intricate form, which makes the brief more searchable. Creating a detailed profile is a good idea as well. By sitting down for a couple hours and creating a strong profile.  Likewise Lawyerahead.com and Lawyerahead.ca provides lawyers with some of the best online Marketing tools available today for free.  A couple of other article archiving websites, Scribd and Docstoc are not directed at lawyers and clients, but are definitely worth considering to increase your firm’s exposure and searchability online.

Tagging is an important part of uploading your documents. These tags allow search engines to “see” what your article is about. Use as many tags as possible! The main idea of the document is not the only tag that is important. Remember, the more applicable tags you create, the more terms someone can type in to reach your work.

Starting a blog is another important step. Once you have uploaded articles and documents to an archiver, pasting them into a blog is made easy with the code auto-generated by the archiving site. Once you have a compilation of your work, you have a network that connects to a larger network and makes it easier for clients to find you with search engines.

The big issue is exposure. A thousand people may see a billboard and ten thousand people may view a firm’s television commercial, but millions are online. Opening up to the internet is a guaranteed way to get a firm’s name out there. With proper marketing through articles, blogs and tags, one can increase the traffic volume to their site and grow their business- for free.

A report in the New York law journal states that small law firms have seen a rise in business although they cannot isolate its cause. This is good news for lawyers considering private practice and an affirmation to those worried about the recession.

Some of this is due to “rainy day” thinking by Wall Street brokers. During the current bleak market conditions, many have decided it is time to start their own businesses and since there is a need for counsel and contracts, lawyers have benefited.

Small businesses tend to be much nimbler than large corporations, allowing them to anticipate and adapt better to harsh market conditions. As good as this sounds, this does not necessarily shield them from recession. Vast majorities of small businesses falter like their bigger counterparts during economic downturns and with less capital, it makes it harder to recover. Law firms are one of a handful of exceptions that maintain or benefit from hard times. The New York Law journal mentions a small firm based in New York City whose “commercial and civil rights litigation as well as white-collar criminal defense — grew by 50 percent more billable hours in the past year.” Not too bad eh?

With the housing sector as it is and foreclosure rates continuing to rise, it’s a lucrative time to be practicing bankruptcy law. There was a 29% increase in the amount of bankruptcies filed between 2007 and 2008, a 41% increase in business filings and a 5% decrease in terminations, perhaps indicating that courts are backed up. Only time will tell how many more bankruptcies will be filed due to a mortgage foreclosure or for other reasons.

Another factor playing into the current trend is smaller clients bailing from their large law firms. Large firms charge a higher premium, sometimes 40 to 50 percent more than smaller firms, and when money is tight, clients logically go with the cheaper of the two. This makes the most sense when cases are not labor-intensive, requiring copious amounts of man-hours and unlike their bigger siblings, small firms offer service that is more personal and have the ability to gear themselves directly to a client’s needs.

Not everything lasts forever but many experts believe the current recession is not going away anytime soon. Utilizing these times to increase business may be just the catalyst for a small firm to grow drastically. Law students might reconsider working for small law firms or going into business for themselves(solo lawyer practitioners) instead of joining large firms upon graduation. As the saying goes, “Strike while the iron’s hot!”

These days with development in information technology and subsequent advancements in the communication, transportation and in fact every sphere that one can think of, the interaction between people has increased manifold. People are now able to travel much more quickly and frequently than they used to in the earlier days. This increase in interaction and communication is bound to have positive as well as negative ramifications. The way the life of an average human being has changed and metamorphosed into something of a struggle and accomplishment, it is quite natural that there would be conflicts of different natures that would afflict the human society. In the society that is ripe with fights and conflicts, naturally there would be a requirement of a proper and an honest system of justice. The need of a justice system would definitely lead to the need of qualified and competent lawyers. But there is no need to worry.

The advent of internet has made the job of getting a good lawyer to fight your case a lot easier. There are many legal companies that advertise about the lawyers that are available with them on the net. Anybody who is involved in some kind of a struggle or a legal battle can easily find a lawyer to fight their cases. One just needs to log on to the net and browse through all the legal companies’ websites that are available on the net. The lawyers that these legal companies have are quite competent and know the nature of their work. Be it an accident or an injuries lawyer or a personal lawyer, or a divorce lawyer. Lawyers specializing in all the areas of law can be easily located on the net.