Category: Law Office Management

Law Firms and Bar Associations Must Plan Now for Coronavirus Outbreak

Our sources in Washington are indeed very worried about the coronavirus emerging from China. 

Many of our sources believe that containment will not work.

In the event of a major pandemic, “social distancing” will be enforced.  Schools, restaurants, movie theaters – and even law firms – will be closed, perhaps for an indefinite time, presenting unprecedented challenges.

At the very least, bar associations and law firms should begin thinking about logistics now using “peace time” wisely.

Viruses that originate in an animal and jump to a human can and often do change or mutate, presenting challenges to doctors and researchers. Especially during rapidly developing situations, reporters will likely demand simple and definitive answers, even in situations where simple and definitive answers don’t exist. As well, bloggers with political agendas may accidentally or purposely report fact as fiction and vice versa.

On the internet, anyone can be a “reporter” with the ability to publish immediately and without the safety net of editors, fact-checkers and other traditional media gatekeepers. Consider also the pressure on traditional media of balancing the need to report immediately vs. reporting accurately. Given those factors, the emerging coronavirus provides another fertile field for confusion with consequences.

The Spanish flu killed some 50 million to 100 million people worldwide over about a year in 1918-19 — one of the deadliest pandemics in human history. The 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak turned out to be less than a pandemic, but caused 774 deaths in 17 countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The 2009 swine flu (H1N1) outbreak featured high rates of human- to-human transmission, yet was thought to have been less lethal than originally feared, with a minimum of 18,449 confirmed deaths. In fact, though, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has since estimated the global death toll at 284,000 — 15 times those confirmed cases.

All of these examples should serve as cautionary tales for how we approach and talk about this latest potential pandemic.

I reached out to Peter Sandman, perhaps the United States’ pre-eminent risk communication speaker and consultant. Here’s what Sandman told me in his email reply:

The key lesson here: The word “pandemic” means an infectious disease has spread to lots of people in lots of places. To be a pandemic, an outbreak has to be widespread and intense. It doesn’t have to be severe; 1918 was, 2009 wasn’t — at least in comparison.

This coronavirus? The experts are pretty sure it’s going to go pandemic. They don’t know yet how severe it will be, though many are guessing it will be closer to 2009 than to 1918. Even a mild pandemic kills a lot of people, simply because a small percentage of a huge number is a lot of people. And a mild pandemic can certainly be disruptive: hospital overcrowding, absenteeism, supply-chain problems, etc.

If it’s mild and stays mild, it won’t be catastrophic.

Whether it’s mild or severe, though, a pandemic eventually makes containment efforts futile, and therefore a waste of effort. Patient isolation, contact tracing and monitoring, quarantines and travel restrictions are the four main containment tools. The first two are conventional. The last two are controversial, not because they’re less effective than the first two but because they have bigger downsides.

None of the four, separately or together, can stop a pandemic. They can slow it a little, which isn’t nothing: It buys time for preparedness (emotional as well as medical and logistical). But as soon as the virus is spreading widely in a place, that place has no further use for containment.

The risk communication lesson now: Stop telling people that containment will “work.” If the coronavirus goes pandemic, as noted immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and nearly every other expert expects, eventually (and probably pretty soon) it will be spreading widely in the U.S., too, and containment won’t make sense.

One feature of the 2009 flu outbreak was the changing nature of advice. At first, pregnant women were to receive priority for inoculations. Then, it was anyone with a compromised immune system, followed by those over the age of 60. As I recall, during this era before social media exploded and become a main source for news, reporters, columnists and other pundits were quick to criticize the CDC, the World Health Organization and other federal, state and local health officials for the lack of definitive advice and prognostication.

As this is being written, there is no way to tell whether the coronavirus is going to be highly infectious but not lethal or highly infectious with a high degree of lethality. It might even burn itself out — or it may seem to go into hiatus but then come roaring back in the fall (as did the Spanish flu).

Government agencies are already placing visitors from China into quarantine. This may suddenly escalate, with the closure of airports and other ports of entry. Stock markets may dramatically tumble — but then recover just days later. Or they may not. And if things really escalate, offices, schools, malls, theaters and other venues may close — and grocery shelves may empty. In the face of this uncertainty and volatility, prudent bar association and law firm leaders should be using “peace time” to prepare for the worst.

Now is the time to:

  • Examine your sick-leave policies. Family-leave policies, too, should be looked at because many employees may unilaterally decide to hunker down at home, especially if they have small children or elderly relatives to care for.

  • Encourage and utilize good hygiene practices (e.g., hand-washing, coughing into the crook of the elbow instead of the hand).

  • Consider what a travel ban might do to your business.

  • Remind your employees — and yourself — to depend on only the most reliable sources for information about coronavirus. The WHO, the CDC and state and local health boards are reliable. Facebook isn’t — and the advice given by the pundits on cable television must be taken with more than the proverbial grain of salt.

  • Remember to remind all of your stakeholders that situations like this are fluid and the information given out now may be preliminary and subject to change. Even advice from the CDC and WHO can change, depending on the facts at hand.

Employees, customers and other stakeholders will cross-check what you tell them against other sources. If you mislead them, they’ll hold it against you. Be especially careful not to sound over-reassuring or overconfident, which Sandman says are the two most common crisis risk communication mistakes other than outright dishonesty (also common, sadly).

© 2020 Hennes Communications. All rights reserved.

For more on Coronavirus risk mitigation, see the National Law Review Health Law & Managed Care section.

Attorney Wellness and Mindfulness Part 2: What does Mindfulness Practice Look Like?

In Part I of our series on wellness in the legal industry, Elena Rand, a former litigator and legal executive coach with a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work and current CMO of Wiggin and Dana identified why the legal industry needs to understand chronic stress and how it impacts the body, and how mindfulness, even at a basic level, can help improve both individual attorney’s performance and the often stressful law firm environment.

Today, Ms. Rand goes over the basics of a mindfulness practice, as well as addressing some common barriers to practicing mindfulness and how to overcome these barriers.

What are some simple practices that a novice or even a skeptic might be able to take on to start feeling some small benefit? And along those lines, do you need to devote a lot of time to mindfulness practices to begin to see a difference? What kind of commitment level do you need to show?

There is no right or wrong way to do mindfulness practice. There are no absolute time requirements or limits and there is no Olympic medal for “ great mindfulness”. There’s no level of perfection, there is nothing to “achieve” or “strive for” and that’s a key part of the practice. In fact, if we go back to what mindfulness is, it asks us to be accepting of whatever comes up and sometimes whatever comes up is “I only have five minutes to breathe and guess what? In those five minutes, I’m obsessing about that conversation that just happened down the hall,” but mindfulness is being aware of exactly that, and accepting of that.  That is the work. It’s saying, “you know what, I just spent five minutes inhaling and exhaling and trying very hard not to think about that conversation, and all I did was think about that conversation.”  If you brought your attention to that in the moment and then proceeded to pay attention to the next moment, and the next moment… well, then that is mindfulness meditating.  You were just meditating. I want to debunk the idea that mindfulness is this sort of clear-minded perfection that will alleviate all your worries, obsessions, preoccupations etc.

You can do it for five minutes, you can do it for 10 minutes, you can do it for three minutes, you can do it in any number of ways. But again, it’s intentionally bringing your attention to what’s arising and accepting it.

As to how do you actually do it—well, definitely one way that we’ve all heard of is breathing techniques. And there’s a lot that’s been written about just focusing on your breath.

Inhale, exhale, inhaling and exhaling for any number of minutes is a start.  And during that time what will invariably happen is what’s been called monkey mind, which is a flurry of thoughts.  Everything from your clients, a brief for the meeting you have a four o’clock as well as an argument you had with your spouse and your conversation with a firm partner.  All of that’s going to be going through your mind while you’re just trying to inhale and exhale. And that’s the practice. And the idea is to gently bring your attention back to the singularity of your breath over and over and over and over again. So that’s one modality, but some people I’ve worked with really aren’t into the breathing thing, and they ask for another way.

Another way is intentional activity.   Select something that you know you do every day. Eat lunch, go for a walk, drive home and bring your attention to that action. What does it feel like? What does it feel to actually taste my food? What is it? How many times do I chew? What does it feel like to actually swallow that food? Am I hungry still? Am I not? This is a mindfulness practice that focuses on taking an action.

A third of mindfulness practice is what I call sort of a body scan.  This is just sitting, not focusing necessarily on your breath, but focusing on your body, which we don’t always do.  I mean, some people joke that our bodies are there to help us carry our heads from meeting to meeting.  The reality is that many of us are not in touch with our bodies. The body scan is another opportunity to kind of pause, and bring explicit attention to your body. Start with your feet. What do your feet feel like? Are they grounded? Can you feel your feet? Can you feel your ankle? And then sort of work your way through your body and what the sensation is.  You’re really looking for that sensory attention. So there are three examples of ways that you can introduce mindfulness in a practical way, you don’t need to go to an Ashram experience.

Let’s talk about identifying barriers.  With wellness there’s a lot of mindfulness, there’s a lot of talk about self-compassion, patience, relaxing and will practicing all of this mindfulness take away from your competitive edge?  Will mindfulness make it harder to win for my clients and my firm? It’s a tough world and I need to be strong and win. Is mindfulness going to weaken my competitive and adversarial instincts?

For anyone who really believes that genuinely I would recommend they read The Art of War by Sun Tzu.  In that book, there’s a lot of wisdom about the power of self-compassion and compassion for your opponent that strengthens your ability to have real strategic clarity about what needs to get done next. So that’s from a philosophical perspective.

From a purely personal perspective, at the end of the day anyone who is going to be fiercely competitive and adversarial also needs clarity and strategy. That takes us back to what the purpose of mindfulness is, to improve your executive functioning by addressing your body and strengthening your ability so that you can endure. I think that that if you put it in that framework, you can actually sell it a little bit more to people who want to be more competitive and more adversarial.

This is the quiet backstage work that competitive attorneys have to be doing on themselves in order to go into battle and be as effective a warrior as they can be. I don’t see it as at odds. I see this as adding to their repertoire of, strategic skill-building so that they can be as effective and as competitive as they want. It’s working on a muscle that has kind of atrophied, which is self-care, and their wellness and strengthening that so that they can choose to do with that whatever they would like.

The law offices like many business environments, seem to be in a constant state of emergency which can make it difficult to be consistent with a mindfulness practice. How do you maintain a mindful practice in a high-pressure environment?  Are there any tips, tricks, life hacks, anything like that to make it more likely to be successful?

What I personally do, which is very simple, is I have a separate space, a different chair.  It doesn’t look like a meditation chair. I get to sit in that chair and I have a cup of tea, in-between meetings or right before the end of the day.  This chair is away from my desk, and I will intentionally make a cup of tea in my office and I sit in that chair and take some time for myself, measuring time with an app on my FitBit.  Then, I know that at least I have incorporated some level of breathing or grounding or intentional action into my day, and that’s separate from my other practices. Some firms have taken to having a mindfulness group that meets together monthly.

I think when you introduce it that way to people it becomes achievable, but obstacles still exist.  It takes about a month for an action to turn into a habit. One way to reach that point is to enlist a friend, someone who is like-minded and values achieving mindfulness as much as you do to help keep you on track.

I think one of the biggest obstacles is time and perception. The timepiece is personal.  At the end of the day, if it’s important to you, you will find the time to take care of you, which goes back to wellness.

Again, I think a lot of people have a perception of, “Oh, that touchy-feely guru wellness stuff that’s all really kind of hip and important now in law firms.”  I really worry and want to make sure that the concern for wellness is not a passing fashion. I want sustained change, and I think that even the perception of those types of wellness activities at law firms is changing as we have more and more millennials who are asking for it or expecting it, who are embarking upon it, who are creating, healthy boundaries around their work and their life and their wellness. The barriers of time, and how it is perceived, are changing, but it’s slow.

My big hope right now is that this doesn’t become a flash in the pan kind of interest, but rather a pivotal moment and a paradigm shift, like what happened 10 years ago with the law firm’s focusing on business development and maternity leave where the industry realized the need for change and there was a shift in industry norms.

I am a big proponent of embarking upon wellness as a lifestyle change and not a quick fix. There was no quick fix to changing maternity policies and flex-time at law firms.  There was no quick fix to introduce in the ideas of business development and leadership skills, and there’s going to be no quick fix for really shifting the law firm culture into a wellness culture so that attorneys can be doing all the things that are expected of them. We need to embark on the change mindfully and with intention so that we bring about meaningful culture change to the legal community.

Many thanks to Ms. Rand for her time and expertise on this important topic. Elena Rand and Eilene Spear of the National Law Review will be hosting a panel on this topic at the Momentum Events Employee Wellness Event for Legal and Professional Services Providers at the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale on February 27- 28.

Copyright ©2020 National Law Forum, LLC

For more on the topic, please see the National Law Review Law Office Management page.

Attorney Wellness and Mindfulness Part 1: Why is Mindfulness a Benefit to Attorneys and others in the Legal Industry?

Attorney wellness and a focus on all aspects of employee well-being, including mental health, has become an important issue in today’s workplace environment.  Law firms, and the legal industry in general, with its competitive reputation, expectation of heavy workloads and high stakes environment is beginning to embrace wellness practices as an anecdote to the chronic stress often faced by attorneys and other individuals who work in law firms.

The problem is so widespread that in 2017, the ABA House of Delegates approved Resolution 106  amended the ABA Model Rule for Minimum Continuing Legal Education (CLE) to include a requirement for lawyers to receive at least one hour of mental health, substance abuse credit every three years.  And mental and physical health issues as well as substance abuse CLE courses are mandatory in several states, such as Illinois and Florida or count towards professional responsibility credits in numerous other states.

Elena Rand JD, MSW and Chief Marketing Officer of Wiggin and Dana has been working on this issue for years, putting her experience as a litigator and a legal executive coach along with her Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work to help those in the legal industry understand chronic stress, how it impacts the body, and how mindfulness, even at a basic level, can help improve performance and well-being.

Elena Rand and Eilene Spear of the National Law Review will be hosting a panel at the Momentum Events Employee Wellness Event for Legal and Professional Services Providers at the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale on February 27- 28, and in preparation for that presentation they sat down and discussed some aspects of mindfulness, identified some barriers to its practice and outlined the need in the legal industry.

I know you have formal training in Clinical Social Work and have dedicated much of your professional life to workplace health and wellness issues, can you take a minute or two and address your background and why wellness at the workplace, specifically in the legal industry is an issue that you care about?

Attorney wellness and wellness and the legal community in general is something that has been sort of a mission and a passion of mine probably for the last 15, maybe even 20 years. It really came to the forefront of my attention when I was working as a legal executive coach.  I was doing coaching for a large law firm, really focused on working with attorneys to improve their leadership and business development and networking skills and taking high-performers to the next level. What I invariably discovered is that there is an underbelly of crisis and struggling for many of these enormously successful, high achieving, high performing go-getting attorneys. I found that attorneys were struggling both in terms of managing their baseline day to day life to extreme mental health issues and addiction. That kind of came to full bloom and grabbed my attention.

As a legal executive coach working with high-performing attorneys, I was sort of a first responder in many ways for a lot of the wellness and mental health crises that were being buried for many, many years. Before we could even get to how to focus on getting you to the partnership level, and how do we focus on doubling your book of business, attorneys were coming to me on their own saying, “I don’t think I can take another moment of this,” or “if I add one more thing to my day, you know, I’m going to, I’m going to really lose it.”

I started to see that this was an issue that kept popping up and presenting itself, so I went back to grad school and earned a master’s in clinical social work. I wanted to have a real behavioral toolbox so that I could understand human behavior, understand the spectrum of wellness and the lack of wellness, and really be able to service the legal community in that way.

Additionally, wellness has been a lifelong personal struggle and mission, in my life.  I was one of those crazy, high-performing litigators who hit a wall at 90 miles an hour when I had my first child at the age of 27 and suffered from crippling postpartum depression. Suddenly, after years of just pushing and pushing, I one day woke up to realize that I was now severely impaired. It was very scary and humbling and you know, it became sort of my own passion and mission to really bring a level of attention and awareness to wellness in the legal community.

It’s pretty obvious that the legal industry is very competitive and that it can be full of very high-stress situations. What are some symptoms of constant stress that you might come across in the day to day operations of a typical law firm?

That question’s really important. You know, stress is basically a physiological reaction to a perceived threat to you and to your environment, right? So that’s where you get the whole fight or flight physical response. That’s what stress is. From a biological perspective, what ends up happening is your blood pressure goes up, your veins constrict, and you have basic physiological symptoms kicking you into fight or flight mode.  From purely a biological perspective, these automatic stress responses can have serious ramifications that can end up impairing an individual’s daily functioning.

Biology impacts our behavior; so chronic, ongoing stress in the body manifest and present some clearly identifiable behavioral dysfunctions. For starters, chronic stress induces a level of constant baseline agitation. Everything and anything can be irritating to the point of explosion.  Everyone is a little bit of a powder keg about to explode. Chronic stress will cause sleep deprivation. It has been linked to eating disorders. It can cause imbalances in your metabolism. It’ll cause imbalances in your serotonin level, and the other thing it does is it causes isolation. You have increased isolation with stress because you’re protecting yourself.  You’re not talking to anybody, you’re going through all of these things and everything in your body and mind is telling you to isolate.

From an executive functioning point of view, there is so much research to show that people functioning under high levels of stress for a long period of time can demonstrate impaired judgment,  impaired ability for conflict resolution, and impaired compassion. These impairments impact interpersonal relationships at work including client relationships. High stress has a whole host of impairments associated with high-level executive functioning that really is being called into play moment to moment. As an attorney, chronic stress can compromise your ability to focus and use good judgment. Your ability to analyze situations correctly and be able to step away and say, “is this a moment for confrontation?” or “is this a moment for cool off?” is now off.  Your ability to assess how best to present information appropriately to the client, to the associate, or to the partner is also off. Bottom line is that chronic high stress really impairs many of the operational skills needed to interface and practice effectively as a lawyer.  Finally, it also impairs the softer skills that are really needed as you become more of a senior partner and involved in business development.

From a business perspective, both individuals and the institutional law firms are negatively impacted by untreated chronic high stress as an individual’s capacity to handle situations and use good judgment and analysis have basically gone out the window.

How does mindfulness practices help counteract that stress in a typical law office environment?

Basically, mindfulness is bringing your attention to the present moment in an intentional, deliberate and systematic kind of way with an attitude of acceptance of whatever might show up or for whatever you’re experiencing. What mindfulness does, is it forces you to pause, which is, you know, a novel concept for many attorneys. One of the key things that happen when you are in a stress-induced situation is you stop breathing. We hold our breath. When you do that, you essentially jack up all of those sympathetic stress indicators in your body I mentioned before. I really want to make mindfulness super clear and basic, because I want to make mindfulness practice really accessible and strip away any preconceived ideas of what mindfulness is.

So, what is the power of the present moment?  If we strip it down, the present moment for any human being at any given moment is made up of  a cocktail of  their emotions, their sensations, and/or their thoughts. When you’re bringing your attention to that bundle of things that are happening, what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking and what you’re sensing in the world, suddenly you start to breathe and you start to invoke and sort of trigger your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the self-calming, self-soothing embodiment that we all automatically have in our body. What you’re inviting yourself to do is to intentionally focus on the present moment so that you can breathe, so that your body can be able to kick itself into a place of calmness.

We’re not talking about achieving nirvana, you know, we’re talking about creating a tool that is user-friendly so that in the moment you can pause, breathe and be able to ground in the present moment so that your body and your mind can kick into a better and perhaps, more optimal way of functioning.

That’s a simplified way of thinking about it because other levels can be a little off-putting or intimidating.  If you read a lot of philosophy on mindfulness and meditation, anyone who claims they’re an “expert” in mindfulness doesn’t get it, in my opinion. We’re all beginners. And the idea that we are all beginning all the time in this process with the “beginner’s mind” is what can make the difference of whether you try mindfulness or not. There is no perfection or achievement award in mindfulness; starting at the beginning and paying attention to the present moment over and over again is the practice.

Many thanks to Ms. Rand for her insights.  Monday we will have Part 2, which will address the basics of what mindfulness practice can be, as well as some barriers to practicing mindfulness and how to overcome them.

Copyright ©2020 National Law Forum, LLC

How Law Firms Can Prevent Phishing and Malware

Law firms harbor information directly linked to politics, public figures, intellectual property, and sensitive personal information. Because lawyers rely on email to manage cases and interact with clients, hackers exploit technical vulnerabilities and people via email. After cybercriminals infiltrate a law firm’s systems in a successful phishing or malware attack, they leverage breached information for financial gain.

Starting with email, law firms must control the availability, confidentiality, and integrity of data. Or they will suffer breaches that bring increased insurance premiums, loss of intellectual property, lost contract revenue, and reputational damage.

Law firms aren’t securing their cloud technology

As lawyers adapt with best practices in technology, they’re moving client data and confidential documents from on-premise to cloud-hosted databases. 58% of firms use cloud technology to manage their clients and run their firms, according to the 2019 Legal Technology Survey Report on Cybersecurity and Cloud Computing from The American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center.

Migrating data to the cloud is a good thing, despite concerns about its availability. Data is more secure when stored in a system with modern infrastructure and security protocols, instead of stored locally on an outdated system no longer supported by vendors — such as a desktop device still running Windows 7 software, rather than Windows 10.

Even though the cloud is safe, law firms inevitably fall victim to cloud-based cyberattacks like phishing and malware.

26% of lawyers reported a security breach at their firm. TECHREPORT’s other findings explain why the breach rate is so high:

  • Fewer than half (41%) of all respondents changed their security practices after migrating to the cloud.

  • Only 35% of lawyers adopt more than one standard security measure — like encryption, anti-malware, anti-phishing, and network security.

  • 14% of respondents using cloud-based technology to manage their firm do not have any preventative security measures in place.

Changes to your firm's security policies.

Source: 2019 ABA TECHREPORT

How law firms can prevent phishing and malware

Lawyers know data breaches create downtime, loss of billable hours, and reputational harm. But they’re less aware of how to prevent those outcomes.

Phishing explained

Phishing happens via email, when hackers impersonate trusted senders to trick recipients into divulging sensitive or confidential information. Most often, phishers trick victims to click a malicious URL and interact with spoofed login pages. Microsoft is the most spoofed brand in the world, because it is the hub for organizations to collaborate and exchange information. If a lawyer enters their Office 365 credentials onto a spoofed login page, the username and password go directly to the hacker’s server.

Most common brands in phishing attacks.

Source: TechRadar

Successful credential-harvesting phishing attacks allow hackers to access data-dense services like Office 365, online banking, and practice management software. Stolen credentials lead to account takeover scenarios that result in further exploits, including network infiltration, database infiltration, and data exfiltration.

3 common characteristics of phishing attacks

  1. Subject lines that appear highly urgent

Many subject lines in phishing emails are in all-caps to pressure the recipient. Beware of subject lines that say “URGENT” or “Are you available?” An infographic from cybersecurity firm KnowBe4 reveals the top phishing email subject lines from 2019.

Top-clicked phishing tests.

Source: KnowBe4

  1. Spelling errors, grammar errors, and awkward language

Hackers need to deceive language parsing technology like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that identifies suspicious content and blocks the message. To bypass anti-phishing algorithms, they’ll intentionally misspell words, use special characters that look like letters, and replace letters with lookalike numbers. Phishing URLs are often misspelled, or the domain name does not match the content of the page. Carefully read every URL to see if the words and letters match the content of the page.

  1. Unexpected or unusual requests for documents or money.

Phishers can spoof the sender name and domain of trusted contacts’ email addresses to lull recipients into a false sense of trust and compliance. Requests for sensitive information (bank routing numbers, trust account numbers, login credentials, document access, etc.) should be confirmed over the phone or any other communication channel besides that same email thread.

6 ways to prevent phishing at your law firm

  1. Check if email addresses associated with the firm were involved in high-profile breaches

Have I Been Pwned is a website that identifies compromised email addresses and passwords across online services that have been breached so that victims can change their password and prevent account access. Set up alerts through the website to monitor any future breaches.

Check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach.

Source: HaveIBeenPwned.com

  1. Install password managers

The best passwords don’t need to be memorized. 25% of people reuse the same password for everything, according to OpenVPN. Password manager services like 1Password (paid) and LastPass (free) use browser plug-ins and mobile applications to create, remember, and autofill complex, randomly-generated passwords. They identify weak or reused passwords across websites, and run a program to simultaneously rewrite and save new passwords on those sites.

LastPass password management software

Source: LastPass.com

  1. Make Multi-Factor authentication (MFA) mandatory at the firm

Multi-factor authentication, a secure login method using two or more pieces of confirmation, adds another step to the login process to prevent account takeover and the breach of confidential data. When username and password credentials are submitted to the login page, MFA generates and sends a unique alphanumeric code to the account holder’s email or phone for use as a secondary password. Unless this code is submitted on the follow-up login screen in a timely manner, it will expire.

Because email accounts and cell phone numbers are publicly available and can be compromised, use app-based and hardware-based MFA instead.

Solo and small/medium firms should use the Google Authenticator app, which continuously creates dynamic codes that swap out every 30 seconds and are unique to the device on which the app was installed.

Larger firms should adopt physical MFA. These “keys” plug into your laptop, tablet, or mobile device ports to authenticate access to software — and even the device itself. Because the keys are unique, hackers can’t access accounts supported by hardware MFA keys like Yubico’s YubiKey, which is used by every Google employee. If the key is lost, account access can be gained through backup codes or MFA codes delivered via email, mobile, or authentication apps.

Make Multi-Factor authentication mandatory at the law firm.

YubiKeys (Source: Wired Store)

  1. Participate in phishing awareness training programs

These software programs regularly educate and train employees on the characteristics of spam, phishing, malware, ransomware, and social engineering attack methods. Microsoft’s Attack Simulator and KnowBe4 offer free programs that train users not to interact with phishing attempts and give visibility into how well they’re trained, based on their click rate during the attack simulations. The 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report found that lawyers and other professional service workers were the third most likely group to click on phishing emails.

2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report

Source: 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report, Figure 45

  1. Only connect to secure WiFi

Connecting to public WiFi in a cafe, airport, or hotel is dangerous. Malicious worms can transfer from one device to another if they are connected on the same network. When traveling, use a virtual private network (VPN) to extend a remote private network across the public network and secure the WiFi connection.

  1. Report suspicious emails

Popular email clients like Office 365 and Google Gmail offer suspicious message reporting. Use this built-in tool to improve their anti-phishing algorithm. If applicable, contact the IT team or cybersecurity staff at the firm so they can update security configurations in the email client or third-party security tool they may use.

What is malware?

Malware is any malicious file that launches scripts to hijack a device, steal confidential data, or launch a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. Most malware is delivered via email. The 2019 Verizon Data Breach Investigation Report found that 51% of phishing attacks involve malware injections into a network. These malicious scripts are usually injected via spoofed DocuSign and Adobe attachments, or fraudulent billing and invoicing documents.

Ransomware is a subset of malware that hackers use to hold information or access hostage until a ransom is paid. Ransomware exploits frequently involve blackmailing tactics, and “sextortion” phishing emails (in which hackers purport to have footage of the victim watching pornography) are gaining popularity.

The 2019 ABA TECHREPORT noted that 36% of firms have had systems infected, and about a quarter (26%) of firms were unaware if they’ve been infected by malware. Larger firms, which tend to use on-premise software because of the up-front work associated with cloud migration, are the least likely to know if they’ve suffered a malware attack.

3 ways to prevent malware

  1. Monitor and update outdated software and hardware 

Application updates are necessary and should not be treated as optional. These software upgrades implement essential security features to ward off new strains of attacks. Not updating software and hardware provides short term savings, but will be very costly in the long run.

Be aware that:

  • Windows 7 is no longer supported since January 2020.

  • MS Office 2010 will no longer be supported as of October 2020.

  • Support for Adobe Acrobat X Reader/Standard/Pro, Adobe Acrobat XI, and Reader XI has ended. 88% of attorneys continue to use these highly-vulnerable Adobe programs, according to the 2019 ABA TECHREPORT.

  1. Monitor email for links and executables (including macro-enabled Office docs)

Executable files automatically launch actions, based on the code in the file. Apply software restrictions on your device to prevent executable files from starting up without your consent. Microsoft found that 98% of Office-targeted threats use macros. In 2016, Microsoft pushed a macro-blocking feature in Word to prevent malware infection.

Block macros and prevent malware in Microsoft Office Word.

Source: Microsoft Security Blog

  1. Hire a Managed Service Provider (MSP) for cybersecurity

MSPs offer an affordable portfolio of solutions to manage cyber risk across firm operations.

The solution: control the login process and data access in cloud-based apps

Lawyers are obligated to protect sensitive client information from phishing, malware, and ransomware. As breaches continue to make headlines, clients are selecting firms based on their data security. Law firms educated on confidentiality, security, and data control will be able to reassure security-conscious clients.

Cloud security — especially in email and document storage — relies on identity and access management. Establish a secure login process, govern user privileges in applications, and ensure that everyone at the firm can spot suspicious emails and attachments.

Choose cloud providers with a reputation for secure software and identify third-party security vendors for anti-phishing, anti-malware, and MFA.

© Copyright 2020 PracticePanther

Written by Reece Guida of PracticePanther.
For more on cybersecurity for legal and other businesses, see the National Law Review Communications, Media & Internet law section.

Legal News and Updates for January 2020: Law Firm Moves, Legal Industry Trends

Law firms and the businesses that surround them have hit the ground running in 2020, with tons of announcements, big moves by law firms and innovation across the entire field.  Read on for a small taste of some of the exciting developments in the legal industry.

Hiring and Law Firm Moves

Patent preparation and prosecution law firm, Harrity & Harrity, LLP recently announced the firm had added four new patent attorneys: Joseph Lentivech, Patrick Hansen, McCord Rayburn, and Bret Tingey; as well as two new law clerks: Sara Ko and Abigail Troy.

Joseph Lentivech is based in Mobile, Alabama, and returns to Harrity & Harrity to practice after his service as an Administrative Patent Judge at the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO).  His practice focuses on the prosecution of patent applications in electrical and computer technologies, encompassing telecommunications and computer hardware and software.  Patrick Hansen will be based in the Raleigh office, and has experience representing petitioners and patent owners in post-grant proceedings, with specialization in patent applications for electrical, computer and mechanical technologies.  McCord Rayburn has international patent experience, coordinating inbound national state patent application filings for foreign corporations, and he will work out of the law firm’s Charlotte office.  Bret Tingey focuses on patent preparation and prosecution in mechanical and electrical technology, with extensive experience writing memos and briefs in IP litigation–including some submitted to the US Supreme Court–and he will be based in Raleigh.  Law Clerks Sora Ko and Abigail Troy both have experience in patent preparation and prosecution before the USPTO and will work out of Harrity & Harrity’s DC office.

Paul Harritiy, a partner in the firm, called the group “superstars” and says, “we are excited for this group to join our team and assist the firm in continuing to provide excellent customer service to our Patent 300 clients.”

Lipson Neilson started off 2020 by announcing it has added nationally-recognized Surety & Fidelity Law attorneys Phillip G. Alber, Jeffrey M. Frank, Omar J. Harb, and Jessica L. Wynn, all four previously with Alber Frank PC law firm. Alber will head up a new Lipson Neilson office in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, and Frank, Harb and Wynn will be based in the firm’s Bloomfield Hills, Michigan office.

Jeffrey Neilson, a co-founder of the firm, says,  “They’re a tremendous and immediate asset to our firm in the area of Surety & Fidelity Law and bring significant expertise in other areas of law and litigation as well. I think their decision to move to Lipson Neilson is a good indication of our reputation, our work and our culture.”

In a move that will strengthen the firm’s healthcare and corporate practices, Manatt announced that Paul A. Carr-Rollitt has joined as a healthcare partner in the Los Angeles office. Carr-Rollitt focuses his practice on corporate healthcare concerns, and his healthcare transaction experience includes mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, reorganizations, affiliations, public offerings, and private equity transactions.  His practice includes advising non-traditional and traditional health care entities, and his advice is legal, business-oriented, and incorporates strategy as well as policy concerns.  Bill Bernstein, the leader of Manatt Health, calls Carr-Rollitt a “perfect fit” with Manatt’s growing practice.  Bernstein says, “He brings with him an excellent roster of clients and has a national healthcare practice, which encompasses both payers and providers.”

On his end, Carr-Rollitt says Manatt’s blending of strategy with legal advice is an approach he’s always appreciated.  “I am excited to be part of a firm that has a strong understanding of and commitment to the future of the healthcare industry and to work with some of the most forward-thinking professionals from coast to coast,” he says.

Last week, Katten announced that Mitchel C. Pahl has joined its Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice as a partner in the New York office. Pahl’s practice concentrates on employee benefits and executive compensation in private and public company M&A’s.  He has also been involved in high-profile corporate transactions in a variety of industries including real estate, health care, and financial services.  Additionally, he has advised clients on the operation and design of qualified retirement plans, equity incentive plans, and other compensation arrangements, as well as on negotiating executive employment agreements and separation packages.

Kate Ulrich Saracene, Katten partner and leader of the firm’s Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation practice, praises Pahl’s decades of experience across complex transactions. “Mitch also brings new capabilities to Katten with his focus on qualified retirement plans, benefit plans for non-profits and experience working with ESOPs,” says Saracene. “With the addition of Mitch, we’ve achieved our goal of building a full-service employee benefits and executive compensation practice, able to advise any type of client on any type of plan or transaction.”

Cornerstone Research started off 2020 by naming  Dr. Yesim C. Richardson as President.  In a departure for the organization, Richardson will share leadership with CEO Rahul Guha, who also took on his role on January 1, 2020.  The duo succeeds Michael E. Burton, who had served in both roles since July of 2014.

Yesim Richardson Cornerstone Research
Yesim Richardson

After a period of succession planning, the organization decided it made the most sense to divide the responsibilities of the CEO and President, and have two individuals fill those roles instead of combining them.  “At this stage in our history,” says Dr. Guha, “we believe splitting the CEO and president responsibilities ensures the most effective leadership structure for our future.” Prior to her appointment as President, Dr. Richardson served on Cornerstone Research’s board of directors, and has been active on firm governance committees.  In her new role as president, she will focus on talent strategies and service delivery, and continue to consult and support Cornerstone Research experts on litigation matters and other consulting questions.  “Cornerstone Research has always lived its values . . .we have been guided by our commitment to deliver top-quality work to our clients, provide exceptional support to our experts, and develop pathways to leadership for our outstanding staff,” says Richardson.  “We have enhanced the way we run the firm to support this commitment even more fully. I am proud and grateful to partner with Rahul as we look ahead to the continued growth and success of this extraordinary company.”

Porter Wright announced last week that Deb Boiarsky was promoted into the firm’s Chief Operating Partner position.  This development comes after the firm has grown, with two new offices and a 30-percent partner increase across the firm.  Boiarsky focuses her practice on employee benefits–specifically ERISA and IRS compliance–but in her role as the Chief Operating Partner, she will work with firm leadership to oversee day to day operations at the firm with an eye towards strategy and securing firm growth and development.   Bob Tannous, managing partner of Porter Wright and the former Chief Operating Partner, indicates that a business mentality is key to success in this role.  “Deb is known for being measured and considerate,” he points out, “and for fostering strong relationships in and outside of the firm.”

Law Firm Innovation and Developments

Kluk Farber, a female-founded law firm in New York and Los Angeles, has partnered with Vivvi Early Learning, a provider of employer-sponsored on and near-site child care, to provide children aged six weeks to five years access to near-site back-up care.  Vivvi has worked in a variety of industries with employers to provide childcare for employees, including hospitality, media, and advertising. Partnering with companies who understand childcare is a major pain point for their employees, and their solution can increase employee morale while lowering turnover and absenteeism.

Kluk Farber, already a progressive leader in the legal industry for providing flex-time and supporting work-life balance, entered into this partnership acknowledging that the way child care is traditionally set up is not ideal for working families.  “Being a female in law is not an easy feat to begin with, but having a family and achieving work-life integration? That’s nearly impossible,” she says.  “We learned of Vivvi’s transformational work through the NYC female founder community, and knew instantly that it was a resource we needed to integrate immediately.”

Norton Rose Fulbright advised on the development and implementation of the world’s first consumer-ready digital fiat currency, assisting NZIA Limited to create the currency for the Central Bank of the Bahamas.  The currency, known as “Sand Dollars” is a central bank digital currency_or CBDC–and is part of Project Sand Dollar.  Sand Dollars will be issued by the state’s central bank, and are the same as legal tender, backed by the government and used by the public.  The currency went live in digital wallets in December of 2019 and was used locally immediately after, as local businesses were onboarded through banks and other financial institutions. Now, the sand dollars are basically, legally, the same as cash.

The Bahamas was one of the first areas to develop a CBDC, and the island nation will benefit in a variety of ways; including inclusion in the financial system of unbanked and improved expenditure and tax systems. Norton Rose Fulbright Vancouver-based partner, John Kim, commented: “The innovative nature of Project Sand Dollar required us to provide equally innovative solutions to our client. Our input resulted in a system that would not only meet the requirements of current financial and regulatory regimes but actually leverage them to provide a CBDC solution that enables people to conduct more secure and instant transactions.”

Paige Justus
Paige Justus

Fortis Law Partners will now offer legal guidance on estate planning practice, assisting clients with asset-protection strategies, gift planning, and tax reduction. Paige K. Justus, a senior corporate associate with the firm, will head the practice, which will also assist clients with wealth protection strategies, wills, living trusts, powers of attorney, guardian designations for minor children and healthcare declarations. Along with individual estate planning strategies, the estate planning practice group will work with nonprofits desirous of obtaining tax-exempt status assistance.

Legal Technology and Industry Developments

Embroker, Inc, a digital insurance company, announced the Lawyers’ Professional Liability platform, ideal for both large and small law practices. This platform allows law firms across a variety of sizes to secure and enroll in legal malpractice insurance quickly, efficiently and affordably.

Embroker CEO Matt Miller says the new Embroker platform can leverage technology to improve a traditionally onerous process.   “They [attorneys] only have to spend a few minutes on each year and receive a quote from an A+ rated insurance provider,” Miller says. “By leveraging Embroker technology, our overhead is less intensive than the traditional decades-old model, and we are also able to provide lower rates that are going to be very attractive.”

Embroker will target law firms with 1-10 attorneys nationally,  as these are traditionally most impacted by the onerous process of purchasing malpractice insurance without large staffs.  The platform is currently available in 31 states, with approval pending in other states as the product is offered nationwide.

Lex Mundi recently released its Global M&A Trends Report, featuring insights from almost 70 Lex Mundi member firms from all over the world.  Each of these firms shared insights on mergers and acquisitions within their purview, focusing on key concerns facing M&A practitioners, deal activity by segment, and 2020 predictions.  The report indicated that due diligence and deal structure rank highly, with 18% and 14% of member firms respectively ranking those issues as major areas of concern.  Matters of cybersecurity and data privacy are spurring concerns in due diligence, as buyer companies are working to mitigate risk across cyber, anti-corruption, and data privacy.

Despite global disruptions such as trade wars, Brexit, and economic instability, the majority of Lex Mundi Member firms (as much as 60%) indicated they expected M&A activity to remain the same in 2020; with the top industries such as energy and power, financial services, manufacturing, technology, healthcare, and life sciences seeing heavy activity.

Last week Jennifer Schaller moderated a panel at the 27th Annual Marketing Partner Forum in Miami, Florida on Client Journey Mapping for Law Firms.  In conjunction with the discussion on Client Journey Mapping, the National Law Review is conducting a survey on elements of client journey mapping, and we will be analyzing and writing up the results.  The survey is still open, so please consider taking a few minutes to add your insights.  All responses are completely confidential.

That’s it for now.  More to come as 2020 progresses!

Copyright ©2020 National Law Forum, LLC

For more legal industry news, see the Law Office Management section of the National Law Review.

How Millennial Lawyers Are Pushing Firms to Rethink the Role of PR and Messaging

Law firm management experts and industry watchers have spilled a lot of ink in the past decade about how millennial lawyers are different from the generations of lawyers who came before. The millennial perspective has shone a light on aspects of the job that older lawyers assumed could never change — the inflexible schedule, the grueling and lonely path to advancement, the lack of diversity that seemed baked in to the law firm model — and the industry has begun to change.

And while nurturing strong client relationships and providing excellent service used to be the only marketing plan a law firm needed, the values — like equity, transparency and authenticity — of millennial lawyers are one of the major pressures now forcing firms to rethink the role of PR and messaging.

Forward-thinking firms are responding to this call for change by tacking some big questions:

What’s our firm’s story?

Prospective clients and recruits respond to a compelling narrative that communicates your firm’s identity to the market. And that story must be built on the needs of the client rather than the needs of the firm, as the typical firm’s story was (even if by default) in decades past.

Crafting that story requires developing a deep understanding of what clients care about. What keeps them up at night? What challenges will they be facing a year from now that haven’t yet occurred to them? How can the particular skills and expertise of your attorneys serve these needs? And, most importantly, how can you make that case to the client? Armed with this deep knowledge of what their clients want and need, firm leaders can then harness the power of all available channels of communication to tell the story of what makes them different, and spotlight what they have to offer.

Who is our website for?

The role of websites has changed. A decade or two ago, many established firms embraced the need to simply have a website, assigned the work of maintaining it to the marketing and IT departments, and continue to spend a fortune keeping it up to date. Unfortunately, too many firms operate on automatic pilot when it comes to thinking about who visits their website and how they use it.

Modern law firm websites are not really marketing tools. They don’t “sell” the firm because the chance that the website is the primary entry point for a new client is pretty low. Instead, firm websites are communication tools, and the audience is not clients but potential recruits and laterals, opposing counsel or co-counsel, and judges and clerks. Understanding that a website is not a selling tool but a way to share information about your firm should shift your approach to the content. Your website should showcase key aspects of your firm. In addition to well-written biographies of your attorneys that feature their backgrounds and areas of expertise, the website is also the place to highlight important aspects of your firm’s culture and focus on team members of diverse backgrounds.

Who should speak for our firm?

You think strategically about the partners best positioned to respond to client proposals, and you should give the same consideration to whose names you’d like to see in the legal media representing your firm. Good PR should raise the profile of particular lawyers for strategic reasons and leave nothing to chance. When a reporter calls to ask about your new parental leave program, who should answer those questions, and why? Who could credibly write a thought leadership piece on the importance of sponsorship and mentoring? What about a column on a new tax incentive clients should consider taking advantage of?

The story of your firm — your culture and who you aspire to be — is shaped by which attorneys are telling it. Your top billers and client wranglers are not necessarily the same folks who should be the voice of your firm in communications. Firms must define and assign these important roles.

Is our messaging consistent?

You worked hard to develop an outward-facing message that would attract and recruit new attorneys and lateral hires. But now that they’ve joined your firm, does your internal messaging match what they saw when they were on the job market? In many firms, human resources handles internal communications. While this department may be doing a fine job distributing important information to your employees, retention and integration of millennial lawyers depends on continuing to communicate your firm’s values and goals in authentic ways. Employee communication should reflect the strategic vision of the firm’s top leadership.

An internal newsletter, for example, should be about much more than just upcoming office events and changes to your benefit plans. It should celebrate staff promotions (linking the work employees do to the greater firm mission), positive results for clients and recent business development wins. It’s also the place to feature diverse members of the firm, promote mental health initiatives, showcase a male partner taking parental leave, link to professional development and nontraditional networking opportunities inside and outside the firm, and more.

Attracting and retaining millennial recruits, and understanding how to serve millennial clients, are two of the biggest challenges today’s law firms face. But this is also an exciting opportunity. When you understand what this cohort values and communicate those values via the same kind of high-production, well-packaged content that millennials expect in all areas of their media-rich lives, your firm will be well positioned to meet the challenges of this current moment.

© 2020 Page2 Communications. All rights reserved.

For more on improving law firm PR & messaging, see the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

Five Items to Add Into Your 2020 Solo and Small Law Firm Digital Marketing Strategy

The new year is here, and if you’re like most solo or small law firm owners, you have big goals for this coming year. As the field of law becomes increasingly competitive, it becomes more and more important to have a crystal-clear digital marketing plan that helps you reach new leads, reconnect with potential clients, and solidify your brand.

1. Develop Your Content Marketing Strategy

The phrase “content is king” is often heard in marketing circles, and the legal industry is proof that this adage is still true. Regularly producing high-quality content helps your brand grow in multiple ways. First, you can target keywords that potential clients are searching for when looking for a lawyer. Second, your trustworthy content helps you strengthen your brand and your reputation. Finally, shareable content can also play a big role in your social media marketing plans. Focus on topics that are interesting to laypeople and use conversational language in lieu of legal jargon.

2. Expand Your Social Media Presence

Regardless of the age, gender, and socioeconomic status of your target market, it’s highly likely that they’re active on multiple social media platforms. Use your time wisely by researching the platforms your audience is using and focusing your efforts, rather than trying to be active on as many platforms as possible.

3. Make Sure You’re Considering Your Mobile Users

Per CNBC, nearly three-quarters of Internet users are expected to access the Internet solely via smartphone by 2025. Law firms with outdated websites that are not optimized for mobile devices are at risk of losing potential clients to firms with fast-loading, mobile-friendly websites. Your website should make it easy for clients to find the information they’re searching for, learn more about your firm, and contact you directly.

4. Bring in Gated Content

Gated content, also known as “freemium” content, is provided free to your visitors—in exchange for signing up to your e-mail list. This is an extremely effective technique for law firms in various specialties, so if you’re not using it already, make it a priority in 2020. Many law firms offer access to a free guide in exchange for a visitor’s email address. For example, a family law attorney might write a short guide on “7 Steps to Divorcing an Adversarial Spouse” or a bankruptcy lawyer might write “5 Ways to Repair Your Credit After Bankruptcy.” This ties directly into the fifth tip on this list.

5. Tap Into E-Mail Leads

An e-mail list is still one of the most valuable things you can have as a solo attorney or small law firm. It helps you stay in touch with potential clients who may not be ready to take the plunge when they first come across your website. By building a relationship with your e-mail list through regular updates and valuable information, you can be at the forefront of their thoughts when they are ready to take that leap.

Digital marketing is key to the growth of your law firm. A solid plan for 2020 can get you on the right track.

© 2020 Denver Legal Marketing LLC

Find more marketing advice for legal professionals on the National Law Review Law Office Management page.

On-Demand Creativity: Five Ways to Foster It in Your Law Firm

Lawyers aren’t necessarily thought of as those who practice in a “creative” profession. At least not in the same way that artists, writers, musicians or marketing professionals are deemed “creatives.” However, lawyers and those who support them know that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the practice of law demands creativity in virtually all aspects – creating ingenious defense strategies, crafting brilliant opening statements, structuring unique partnerships or mergers or acquisitions, etc. Law firms also routinely launch creative marketing campaigns or inventive business development strategies. Plenty of law firms even get creative in terms of alternative billing structures. Indeed, the practice of law and the business of running a law firm require virtually nonstop creative thinking and strategy.

However, as most attorneys and firms know, generating creative inspiration can prove challenging. After all, some of the best ideas seem to materialize out of thin air, with an out-of-the-box design for working up a case coming to light during the course of other work. Since trial-winning ideas or successful marketing strategies that generate a particularly impressive ROI often seem to come to life out of the blue, it’s worth asking the question: Is there a way to generate creativity on demand? The short answer is: yes.

Drew McLellan of Agency Management Institute addressed the notion of sparking creativity on demand in a recent article, which we’ve expanded on below, including one of our own strategies. Here are five suggestions for drawing out creative ideas at your law firm when you need them.

Ban the Notion of Bad Ideas & Champion Creative Chaos

Obviously, not every idea is going to prove to be a winning strategy for your firm or your client, but by making it clear that all ideas are worth exploring, you may lay a foundation for creative chaos. Sometimes the worst ideas serve as the catalyst to make your team members think, which then spawns a great idea that otherwise wouldn’t have emerged. Too, if you set a culture where people can’t speak up, or their ideas are snuffed out, you may be silencing that one person who will come up with the dead-on idea for the brainstorming session.

Allot Time for Creative Idea Sharing at Meetings

During regular meetings, be sure to include time for idea sharing before heading back to your respective offices. Often, due to time constraints, meetings are held to strict time limits. Unfortunately, because of the volume of information shared during a meeting, there may not be time for an associate or team member to share an idea they have, which likely took shape during the meeting. By scheduling an extra 15 minutes at the end of regular meetings, you may just generate some of your best ideas yet.

If this isn’t possible, try scheduling an agenda-less meeting once a week, just to pick the brains of your colleagues.  Simply open up the meeting by asking something like: “Are there any ideas that you have that would make this firm run smoother or would make this case progress?” Then, open the floor up to input from your attorneys and team.

Champion Your Team’s Growth

Supporting the individual passions of your attorneys and staff is another great way to generate creativity. If you have an attorney who is an avid rock-climber, for example, encourage them to keep it up, and share their experiences about it. Likewise, if you have team members who are curious about pursuing a particular hobby, ask for updates on their progress and learn more about what they find fulfilling about it. The more you get to know your colleagues and who they are outside of the office, the greater the likelihood they may share ideas that come to them during off-hours.

Suggest Both Reasonable and Risky Solutions to Challenges

Creativity often emerges while pursuing solutions. When you’re brainstorming a solution to a problem, try to come up with one solution that is safe and practical, but also one that is risky, or otherwise unusual. By offering these ideas up to your peers, you’re likely to spark creative thinking on their part as well.

Embrace Creative Activity Team Building

Much like supporting the individual growth of attorneys and staff, it’s valuable to invest in team building. Consider a creative endeavor for your next team building exercise, such as a group night out at an art museum. Any activity wherein the focus isn’t just on chatting—such as attending a sports game or a happy hour— may just help to solidify friendships amongst firm members, who are then more open to idea sharing with the group.

Generating on-demand creativity in and of itself requires a bit of creativity. Consider these five suggestions or other ideas that these spark, in order to keep your firm investing in ingenuity.

© 2020 Berbay Marketing & Public Relations

For more legal team development ideas, see the National Law Review Law Office Management section.

Legal Marketing and SEO Trends for 2020 Part 2: Dwell Time, EAT and Law Firm Branding

John McDougall discussed creating Deep Content, LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) and topic clusters with us yesterday, detailing how these SEO concepts present great opportunities for law firms who are looking to position their attorneys as subject matter experts.  John explained how Google’s recent algorithm changes such as BERT, which is designed to help users find true topic experts, provide a bounty of opportunities for legal marketers who properly position their lawyers’ expertise to achieve top search results. Today John is going into more detail on the concepts of webpage dwell time, expertise, authority and trustworthiness (EAT), and law firm branding.

NLR:  In your book, you talk about the intersection of “dwell time” and the idea of the “long click” as ways Google is using AI (Artificial Intelligence) to try to figure out the relationship between the search term and the webpage that term led the user to.  Do you see any other areas AI will impact SEO on the horizon?  

JM:  Google has been modifying its search engine, to improve its ability to understand complex queries for some time.

Hummingbird in 2013 was a rebuild of their main “engine” partially in response to there being more searches via voice.

RankBrain in 2015 added more machine learning to improve Hummingbird even further (for searches they had never seen before and complex long-tail queries). They said it was the 3rd most important factor with content and links.

Now with BERT in 2019/2020, they can already understand the intent of a search much better.

Considering they keep increasing the ability to provide relevant results that match the searcher’s intent, I would assume it will change SEO, yet again…

I would expect writing tools to get much more robust. This might be based on “big data” from social profiles, and through analyzing massive volumes of the world’s information written by experts that can be given to a writer/attorney on a silver platter. That might help in one part of SEO.

It is exciting to watch as long as you can stay nimble, follow the “algorithm weather channel” and adjust quickly when new updates are released.

NLR:  Another core theme of your book is the role of brands, and the idea of EAT, or expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. How do these ideas enter into a keyword strategy for law firms?

JM:  As an expert in a particular field of law, you should be associated with certain keywords which show you are a thought leader in that topical area. With SEO being MUCH more competitive and complex than ever, you may need to be more realistic and pick keywords that better match what you can write about comprehensively.

This can also affect the design of law firm websites and brand positioning. If you have fifty practice areas on your home page, you might consider featuring ones where you will be doing extensive writing and SEO work.

NLR:  Can you explain the idea behind the Eric Schmidt quote: “Brands are how you sort out the cesspool,” which you discuss in your book?

JM:  There are “black hat” SEO people that are the cesspool. They do sketchy things to try and trick Google into “liking” websites. Those tactics used to work on small law firm’s websites that did not deserve rankings. Thankfully, using brand signals like how many times people search for your brand and mention/link to your brand, Google is better able to rank sites that have a real-world value beyond SEO tactics.  The book, Content Marketing and SEO for Law Firms, offers several examples of brand signals and how they apply in a law firm context.

NLR:  What audience did you write your book for and who do you think will be the best audience for your January 15th webinar? 

JM:  Anyone trying to improve their law firm website and marketing will benefit greatly from Content Marketing and SEO for Law Firms, but firms that take action on it will get the most out of it. These content and SEO actions can be small to start but the key is to be consistent.

The content marketing and SEO guide is primarily written for law firm marketers, but it’s also for attorneys because they need to have an idea of how marketing strategy can directly affect the growth of their firm. The sections the attorneys should consider as “must-reads” are marked with a gavel icon.

This webinar will have enough insight on strategy that both law firm marketers and attorneys/department heads should attend.

 

Thanks, John for your time and insight.  For those who haven’t had the opportunity to hear John speak at various legal marketing events or read his previous publications to gain insight from his 20+ years of experience, the following webinar and his new book are great opportunities to get actionable advice on how to build an SEO roadmap for legal marketers in 2020:

Register for the January 15th complimentary webinar:  How to Develop an Effective Law Firm Content Marketing and SEO Action Plan for 2020.

Receive a sample chapter of John’s new book: Content Marketing and SEO for Law Firms.

 

Copyright ©2020 National Law Forum, LLC

ARTICLE BY Jennifer Schaller of The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC.
Read more about marketing for law firms in the Law Office Management section of the National Law Review.

SEO for Law Firms in 2020 with John McDougall, Part 1: How to Hit a Moving Target with Bounce Rate, LSI Keywords, and Deep Content

SEO is a moving topic–especially for law firms who also deal with frequently changing legal developments.  To help legal marketers stay on top of the moving targets of SEO, litigation, and regulatory changes, we spoke with John McDougall of McDougall Interactive. Mr. McDougall has recently authored Content Marketing and SEO for Law Firms and will be holding a free webinar on January 15th to discuss the most vital SEO changes legal marketers should keep in mind for 2020.

The following is the first installment of a two-part series on law firm SEO trends and best practices for 2020:

NLR:  What SEO changes do you think provide the most opportunities for savvy legal marketers?

JM:  Google is looking for experts and experts naturally use language that Google’s latest algorithms can pick up on. With the recent BERT update, Google improved its understanding of natural language, and they describe BERT as their “biggest leap forward in the past five years.”

NLR:  Yes, and law firms are always trying to position their attorneys as experts, as the go-to leaders and experts in their particular area of legal expertise.  Can you discuss some strategies for legal marketing professionals who work with attorneys, and how they can help attorneys write with SEO in mind, or translate their content so it is more SEO friendly?

JM:  It helps if attorneys and ghostwriters who write for law firms use keyword tools like Ubersuggest and SEMrush, but they are just a starting point. They also need to write conversationally and with the user in mind, rather than overly fixating on the search engines.

Writing longer in-depth content that is not too stiff and has been corrected for grammar and spelling issues will outrank a very long page that has been robotically stuffed with keywords. Using a tool like Grammarly can help with the basics.

NLR:  In your book, you discuss the need to add related keywords, or LSI and topic clusters.  Can you explain and provide examples of how related keywords, topical clusters or LSI apply to legal marketing?

JM: LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) Keywords are conceptually related terms that search engines use to deeply understand the content on a webpage.

Example: If you want to rank for “how to file a trademark”, you can use Google auto suggest to find related terms. As you type into your browser bar, you see something like this:

image1

Google and other search engines used to figure out a page’s topic based 100% on the keywords they found on the page.   In 2020, Google is more focused on figuring out a page’s overall topic. SEMrush has a great tool (see below) that builds a mind map when you give it what topic you want to write about.

NLR:  You highlighted bounce rate as a critical metric; however, how do law firm websites balance design and lowering the bounce rate while simultaneously  providing readers with the specific information they’re looking for (like a change in the minimum wage rate or a relatively straightforward answer to a legal question, like when a law goes into effect, etc.) How do you make law firm website pages stickier?

JM:  It is ok if some pages, like a minimum wage rate change page, have a high bounce rate. Google is smart enough to know the goal of the page. With that said, law firm marketers would be wise to monitor the bounce rate of at least their most visited pages.

image2
Using related keywords and related sub topics is essential for covering a topic deeply.
Image from the SEMRush mindmap tool.

Any webpage can be improved by making it load faster, have a clearer value proposition, a better headline, better writing in general, higher quality images and links to other related pages. Usersthink.com, Usertesting.com, and Hotjar.com are a few of the tools I will discuss on the webinar for increasing stickiness and conversions.

NLR:  You discuss creating deep content—what does that mean?  How long should an article or blog post be – should pages be 500 words, for example?  

JM:  If you search for how to file a trademark, many of the top ten results are well over 1,000 words. Gerben Law has a nice page on trademarks that is about 1,500 words. Not all your content has to be that long but if the top 5 results for your topic are 1,000 plus words, you may need to test increasing your webpages’ depth.

NLR:  Many lawyers view law firm websites as a sales tool, but you discuss how to “use the opportunity to focus on your user’s needs, as opposed to your own sales pitch.” What does that look like in execution? Can you give us an example?  Aren’t all effective webpages supposed to have some sort of ‘call to action’?

JM: The Gerben trademark page gives information away fairly freely and deeply (using related keywords and subtopics) but it also has a subtle call to action at the end: If you are unsure about how to file a trademark, our trademark attorneys are happy to talk with you about the services we offer.

Create marketing that people will love and engage with and you are on the right track.

 

Thanks, John and we look forward to part two of the series on law firm SEO trends and best practices for 2020 tomorrow: Legal Marketing and SEO Trends for 2020 Part 2: Dwell Time, EAT and Law Firm Branding.  Additionally, how law firm branding plays a key role in connecting Google’s algorithm changes with an effective strategy of positioning a law firm’s attorneys as the go-to experts in their field.

Register for the January 15th complimentary webinar:  How to Develop an Effective Law Firm Content Marketing and SEO Action Plan for 2020.

Receive a sample chapter of John’s new book Content Marketing and SEO for Law Firms.

 

Copyright ©2020 National Law Forum, LLC

ARTICLE BY Jennifer Schaller of  The National Law Review / The National Law Forum LLC.
More on marketing for law firms in the Law Office Management section of the National Law Review.