Tag: Law Offce Management

9th Annual General Counsel Institute – November 7-8, 2013

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming 9th Annual General Counsel Institute.

GCI%209%20Ad%20Nov%202013

When

November 7-8, 2013

Where

New York, NY

In today’s rapidly evolving business environment, change is a way of life – in your company, your legal department and your own legal career.

The combined forces of a fluctuating economy, exponential growth in technology, and the constant evolution of both law and corporate culture require a resilient and agile legal workforce. As in-house counsel, your ability to offer practical and deliverable solutions to the complex challenges facing your company will maximize your legal department’s value and solidify your position as a valued business partner.

At GCI, you will be inspired by powerful personal stories of resiliency. You will explore current legal issues and develop best practices to anticipate and respond quickly to your clients’ needs. Through substantive legal workshops and the open exchange of ideas with senior lawyers facing similar challenges, you will improve your skills to address issues head on, drive positive changes in your own legal department, and marshal the strength not just to survive, but to thrive in a world of constant change.

Resilience is the power to understand the challenge and to recognize the opportunities. You will leave GCI with a personal plan to incorporate today’s critical skill of resilience into your role as in-house counsel.

Prior GCI participants have come from throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe and included counsel from large Fortune 100 to small private companies to non-profit organizations.

• Attend plenary sessions with leading general counsel and distinguished
speakers.
• Participate in CLE-eligible workshops led by subject matter experts.
• Enjoy opportunities for informal networking throughout both days.
• Interact with general counsel and other senior corporate counsel in
informal settings and optional evening activities.

5 Ways to Boost Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Right Now

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On October 21, I posted an interview that originally appeared on LawMarketing.com about the latest Google Penguin update andwhat it may or may not have done to affect legal websites.

John Jantsch over at the Duct Tape Marketing blog had a good post last week about the 5 ways you can boost your SEO right away, taking into consideration the latest Google search engine update:

1. Boost your social share. Google is giving a lot more juice to social share signals, so add the Google +1 and Facebook Like or Share buttons at the top of each page of your website or blog.

2. Use larger embedded images. This can help your blog posts you put on Facebook get shared more, and sharing is the name of the game right now. Facebook recently redesigned their posts to make images a lot more prominent; the new standard for images is 600 x 1200 pixels.

3. Zero in on long tail keywords. In a competitive category like law, going after the long tail keywords that people use to search for your services will help your SEO. Jantsch recommends using Long Tail Pro, a keyword research tool that is easy to use and inexpensive.

4. Use micro data with rich snippets. If you use WordPress for your blog or website, be sure to add the micro data plugin. Micro data is HTML code used by search engines to identify categories of text and Google uses it to understand website pages better. You can learn more about this on Google’s Webmaster blog.

5. Build relationships with authorities for your category. Just like it is important to build a good referral network offline, it has become increasingly important for you to do it online – it’s just known as building authority relationships. Find authors in your practice area that rank high in search and find ways to connect with them to foster a value-added relationship.

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ARMA LIVE! 2013 58th Annual Conference and Expo – October 28 – 30

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming ARMA LIVE! 2013 Conference.

ARMA

When

Monday, October 28 – Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Where

Las Vegas, NV

The Premier Event in Information Governance brought to you Bigger, Better, and More Colorful! When ARMA International comes to Las Vegas, you should expect the most comprehensive educational and networking experience in information governance. And, you should expect it to happen on the Las Vegas strip.

In a word…VIVA!

ARMA Live! Conference 2013 (ARMA 2013) offers inspiring speakers to motivate, the best in the business to educate, and cutting-edge best practices and technology tools to stimulate your quest for career growth. The knowledge and skills you will take away from ARMA 2013 will push you over the top as an even more valuable asset to your organization.

9th Annual General Counsel Institute – November 7-8, 2013

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming 9th Annual General Counsel Institute.

GCI%209%20Ad%20Nov%202013

When

November 7-8, 2013

Where

New York, NY

In today’s rapidly evolving business environment, change is a way of life – in your company, your legal department and your own legal career.

The combined forces of a fluctuating economy, exponential growth in technology, and the constant evolution of both law and corporate culture require a resilient and agile legal workforce. As in-house counsel, your ability to offer practical and deliverable solutions to the complex challenges facing your company will maximize your legal department’s value and solidify your position as a valued business partner.

At GCI, you will be inspired by powerful personal stories of resiliency. You will explore current legal issues and develop best practices to anticipate and respond quickly to your clients’ needs. Through substantive legal workshops and the open exchange of ideas with senior lawyers facing similar challenges, you will improve your skills to address issues head on, drive positive changes in your own legal department, and marshal the strength not just to survive, but to thrive in a world of constant change.

Resilience is the power to understand the challenge and to recognize the opportunities. You will leave GCI with a personal plan to incorporate today’s critical skill of resilience into your role as in-house counsel.

Prior GCI participants have come from throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe and included counsel from large Fortune 100 to small private companies to non-profit organizations.

• Attend plenary sessions with leading general counsel and distinguished
speakers.
• Participate in CLE-eligible workshops led by subject matter experts.
• Enjoy opportunities for informal networking throughout both days.
• Interact with general counsel and other senior corporate counsel in
informal settings and optional evening activities.

Women In-House Counsel Practice Resiliency

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The National Association of Women Lawyers (“NAWL”) is a national voluntary legal professional organization devoted to promoting the interests and progress of women lawyers and women’s legal rights.  Founded in 1899, long before most local and national bar associations admitted women, NAWL serves as an educational forum and an active voice for the concerns of women in the legal profession. NAWL is about solutions, both for workplace issues facing women lawyers and for societal problems confronting women in our nation and worldwide.  NAWL continues to support and advance the interests of women in and under the law, and in so doing, supports and advances the social, political, and professional empowerment of women. Through its programs and networks, NAWL provides the tools for women in the profession to advance, prosper and enrich the profession.

In 2006, NAWL challenged corporations and law firms to double the number of women general counsel and equity partners from 15% to 30% by 2015.  Recent statistics indicate that the number of women general counsels in the Fortune 500 hovers around 21% whereas women equity partners at the AmLaw 200 has remained stagnant at barely 15%.  We should be heartened by the success of women in corporate legal departments and wonder why women in the AmLaw 200 have not moved the needle at all, and in fact, have given up some ground.  The progress we have made has been buoyed by the women who came before who have mentored, sponsored and brought along those behind them.  It is also due to the fact that women are resilient.  It is that resiliency that NAWL will celebrate with its 9th Annual General Counsel Institute (“GCI”) that brings together senior in-house women lawyers to learn from each other, inspire each other and take away information that will help them achieve their professional, as well as personal, goals.

This year’s GCI, “Resilience:  Thriving as In-House Counsel in Changing Legal and Business Landscapes,” will be held at the Intercontinental Times Square hotel in New York City on November 7 and 8, 2013.  Highlights of the event include the plenary sessions:

  • Resilience – an interactive opening session acknowledging resilience in the present day, and beginning the process of harnessing that resilience for future success;
  • Thriving in the Face of Challenge – presented by a panel of successful general counsels;
  • The Fundamental and Fragile Bond:  Trust and the Modern Workplace – a panel discussion of the effect that trust, or a lack thereof, has on the advancement of women in the workplace based on research conducted by Catalyst; and
  • In-House Counsel in the Crosshairs, the story of Lauren Stevens, former Associate General Counsel of GlaxoSmithKline who was indicted on – and eventually exonerated of – claims of making false statements and obstruction of justice.

In addition to the plenary sessions, there will be three tracks of breakout sessions on topics critical to the success of in-house counsel:  Hot Topics; Training for New Terrain as In-House Counsel; and Being Brave in the New Legal and Regulatory World.  Participants will also be inspired by the powerful personal stories of resilience by luncheon keynote speakers Michelle Banks, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Compliance Officer of Gap Inc., and Liz Murray, author of Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey From Homeless to Harvard.

With its substantive legal workshops, the open exchange of ideas with senior lawyers facing similar challenges and the inspiration of the keynote speakers, participants will improve their skills, drive positive changes to their legal departments and not only survive, but thrive in a world that is constantly changing.  For more information on GCI9, visit www.nawl.org.

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Cyber Security Summit – October 22-23, 2013

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming Cyber Security Summit.

cyber security

When:

Where:

Need Ideas for Your Legal Blog? Here's a Bunch

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If there is one thing I hear over and over again from attorneys when it comes to blogging, it’s this:   “What do I blog about?”

The reason to have a blog is to establish your authority as an expert in your field of practice. You must keep your target market in mind at all times when writing a blog – it needs to be about topics your clients and prospects are interested in, providing good in-depth information on each topic (now more important than ever for SEO) that they can’t find anywhere else.

Still, the creative juices do run dry at times. Which is why it’s so great that the LexisNexis Law Marketing blog has started highlighting monthly events, anniversaries, holidays and observances that have a legal connection.

Here is their list for October/November, categorized by practice area:

Civil Rights Law:

  • October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month
  • October is Gay and Lesbian History Month
  • Oct. 14: Native American Day
  • Oct. 17: United Nations’ International Day for the Eradication of Poverty
  • Oct. 20-26: Freedom from Bullies Week
  • Oct. 21-27: Freedom of Speech Week
  • November is National American Indian Heritage Month

Corporate Law:

  • October is National Crime Prevention Month
  • October is National Cyber Security Month
  • October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month
  • Oct. 16: National Boss’s Day
  • Oct. 16: Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day
  • Nov. 3-9: International Fraud Awareness Week

Education Law:

  • October is National Bullying Prevention Month
  • Oct. 20-26: Freedom from Bullies Week
  • Oct. 21-25: National School Bus Safety Week

Elder Law:

  • October is Health Literacy Month
  • October is Long-Term Care Planning Month
  • October is National Organize Your Medical Information Month
  • Oct. 15: Medicare open enrollment begins
  • Oct. 20-26: National Save for Retirement Week
  • November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month
  • November is National Family Caregivers Month
  • November is National Home Care and Hospice Month
  • November is National Long-Term Care Awareness Month
  • Nov. 1-7: National Patient Accessibility Week

Environmental Law:

  • Oct. 18: Forty-first anniversary of the passing of the Water Pollution Control Act

Estate Planning:

  • October is Long-Term Care Planning Month
  • Oct. 20-26: National Save for Retirement Week
  • November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month

Family Law:

  • October is Antidepressant Death Awareness Month
  • October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
  • October is Gay and Lesbian History Month
  • October is National Bullying Prevention Month
  • October is National Organize Your Medical Information Month
  • Oct. 17: Get Smart About Credit Day
  • November is Military Family Appreciation Month
  • November is National Adoption Month
  • November is National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month
  • November is National Family Caregivers Month
  • Nov. 1: National Family Literacy Day

Health Care Law:

  • October is Antidepressant Death Awareness Month
  • October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month
  • October is Health Literacy Month
  • October is Long-Term Care Planning Month
  • October is National Organize Your Medical Information Month
  • Oct. 15: Medicare open enrollment begins
  • Oct. 17-24: Food and Drug Interaction Education and Awareness Week
  • Oct. 24-31: Prescription Errors Education and Awareness Week
  • November is National Home Care and Hospice Month
  • November is National Long-Term Care Awareness Month
  • Nov. 1-7: National Patient Accessibility Week

Insurance Law:

  • October is National Crime Prevention Month

Intellectual Property Law:

  • Oct. 29: 44th anniversary of the creation of the Internet

Labor Law:

  • October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month
  • Oct. 16: National Boss’s Day

Personal Injury Law:

  • October is Antidepressant Death Awareness Month
  • Oct. 21-25: National School Bus Safety Week
  • Oct. 24-31: Prescription Errors Education and Awareness Week

Real Estate Law:

  • October is National Crime Prevention Month

Who’s Afraid of Website Data Migration?

Great Jakes-logo

Does the phrase “data migration” send chills up your spine? Would the fear of moving content from your old website to a new one hold you back from pulling the trigger on a website project?

If you nodded “yes” to either of those questions, you’re not alone.

The topic of data migration can be scary for marketers. Simply put, trained communicators are not database jockeys, and the prospect of ones and zeros flying back and forth can cause discomfort. But comfort level aside, should the fear of data migration warrant the keeping of a crummy website?

What can go wrong?

Everything, right?! There’s a chance that data could get lost, or content could end up in the wrong places, causing countless hours of aggravation for the marketing department…

Or not.

Professionals who do this all the time are well practiced in the art of handling the various challenges associated with data migration. But how can marketers be assured that their migration won’t go awry

How to do data migration

Data migration is not rocket science – or magic. At its simplest, it can be summed up as matching database fields from the old website, with the new. The actual act of migrating data (also called “data mapping”) can vary in its level of difficulty, depending on the condition, structure and size of the firm’s current website database. But irrespective of how old your website is or how it was built, the basic steps involved are the same.

Here’s a simplified version of the process that we use at Great Jakes:

  1. Analysis: The first step involves requesting a “data dump” of all the text content of the website and of the headers for each data table. We analyze the data to determine how much of the migration can be automated.

    We also investigate whether it would be more practical and/or cost efficient to not automate the migration and instead configure a “data-entry” website to have the data manually moved from the old website into the new. It’s not as hard as it sounds, and it’s not unusual that we end up recommending a combination of automated data-migration and “data-entry” website methods. It all depends on how the old website’s data are formatted.

  2. Transfer setup: The next step involves planning the “field-mapping” – writing the appropriate scripts necessary to move the data into the proper fields of the new website.
  3. Migration: A month prior to delivering a finished website, we migrate the data from the old website to the new, using data from a second data dump that contains all of the most current content (text, photos, PDFs, videos, presentations, audio files, etc.).
  4. Testing: Finally, we rigorously review the data migration results to ensure that everything moved as planned.

Better the devil you know – right?

While the steps outlined are straightforward, data migration is a time-consuming but doable process. Consequently, larger websites with more data will require more time to analyze, set up, migrate and then test.

So, the best way to ensure that everything goes smoothly is to take a peek under the hood. Have a pro examine your existing website. They might find some issues, like embedded tables or miscellaneous image files tucked in strange places. You’ll probably need to make some decisions about how to migrate these items. But most likely, they’ll probably find that the hurdles to moving the content are a lot lower than you might think.

Don’t let those two little words “data migration” keep you from advancing your firm’s business goals! There’s too much to be gained from having a properly conceived website.

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Information Governance in Legal – The Real Payoff is Litigation, E-Discovery, and Audit Readiness

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Information governance (IG) in the modern day legal landscape addresses multiple functions from cyber threats, to compliance, to interdepartmental communication to document retention to e-discovery. Affecting businesses across the legal, compliance and IT realms, the ideal IG framework will insert processes and procedures into place that will allow law firms and businesses to consistently manage and asses the flow of information. Browning Marean, co-chair of the Electronic Discovery Readiness and Response Group at DLA Piper and speaker at the ARMA International 2013 Conference and Expo, offers his expertise on law firm IG and why data can and should be controlled in the legal field.

Q: What is the impact an IG framework can have on a law firm and business?

A: The impact of IG on a business in momentous. Legislation like the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002 requires that businesses have controls in place.  Law firms must keep up with the ever-increasing number of compliance regulations for their clients. In addition, the average Fortune 500 companies have 125 lawsuits at any given point. If law firms and compliance departments have control of the information, they will know where to look and be able to preserve the information during discovery. IG can therefore also serve as an organizational tool during litigation.

Q: How would you describe the relationship among technology, the law & IG?

A: There is a complicated relationship among the three entities. I believe that the computer revolution yields two classes of people, both the foot soldiers and the victims. It is the same with the practice of law– technology can cause disruption but if attorneys take advantage of technology and use it to guide their IG, they will flourish.

Q: Can you cover the top risk associated with governance gaps in litigation and e-discovery?

A:In a lawsuit, parties must produce documents during discovery. When litigation is reasonably anticipated parties will have to put a legal hold on discovery documents in electronic form, also known as e-data. If parties are unable to do so or unable to preserve the documents, they will suffer the consequences, including losing the case outright and monetary sanctions and adverse interference instructions from the courts. In that way, IG can mitigate the problems associated with the identification, preservation, collection and production of e-data.

Q: What would be some of the solutions you would recommend for this risk?

A: The amount of data that is available will be multiplied by 50 by the year 2020. The only way to accommodate all of that information is to have proper practices and policies in place. I believe law firms and business should prepare an “IT readiness program.” Organizations must look at themselves from the top-down to see what resources are available to help at each level. There is a great checklist from the Department of Justice (DOJ) that covers may aspects of how law firms and businesses can ensure that there their discovery material will remain intact, from document management systems to disaster recovery backup. In addition, I recommend that law firms and businesses maintain a record retention policy.

Q: E-discovery is one of the hot topics in the legal world. Why do you think it has become so widely covered and debated?

A: About 95% of all data is viewed in electronic form.  This means that in order to prove your side in a lawsuit, we will have to see where the evidence is based, which is usually in some kind of electronic format. We are going from an analogue world to a digital world so we must create and preserve electronically stored information (ESI) to evaluate the evidence. The pervasiveness of e-discovery has resulted in several additions to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as well as state laws.

Q: Can you provide a background on the evolution of e-discovery?

A: In the modern era, a series of cases in the early 2000s from federal courts established the beginning of modern e-discovery litigation.  In particular, Zubulake v. UBS Warburg LLC from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York paved the way. Judge Shira Scheindlin presided over the case and made several ruling effectively establishing the duty of businesses and their counsel to preserve documents and refrain from practices that may result in the destruction of documents.. Through an effective IG framework, law firms and compliance departments will be able to keep up with ESI in litigation and e-discovery.

Cyber Security Summit – October 22-23, 2013

The National Law Review is pleased to bring you information about the upcoming Cyber Security Summit.

cyber security

When:

Where: