Good Idea:  Using Snooki and The Situation to increase the value of your real estate. 

Bad Idea:  Hoping Jon and Kate will do the same.

By Brian Malcom 

Social media is becoming a crime-fighting weapon, and criminal defense attorneys are catching on.  For some reason, most people believe that there is anonymity on the Internet.  This is an especially absurd belief when people go through great pains to make themselves as visible as possible in social media.

A Nashville, Tennessee criminal defense attorney named David Raybin immediately advises his clients to shut down their Facebook account.  I suspect that he is not the only criminal defense attorney giving this advice to his clients.  Lately, there has been an increased use of social media by police investigations.

The ABA Journal writes, "USA Today notes several cases throughout the country in which police investigations were bolstered by taking time to explore YouTube, Flickr and other online message boards:" 

• Police in Suffolk, Va., were able to identify suspects involved in a Dec. 14 street fight when cellphone videos were posted on YouTube.
• Police in Chattanooga, Tenn., discovered an online forum where residents were planning illegal drag races, staked out the area and ticketed participants.
• Police in Los Angeles used YouTube and Flickr to identify people suspected of being involved in riots following the June 2009 NBA Championship. 

What can a young lawyer learn from this?  Well if you are interested in going into criminal defense, you may want to advise your client to immediately delete their social media account.  If you are not interested in criminal defense, maybe you should just take this as a yet another example that social media can be dangerous.

I would place good money on the fact that all bar organizations are already trolling social media outlets for information about bar applicants, committee applicants, and practicing attorneys under investigation for ethical misconduct.  This may be a good time to take down the picture of you doing a keg stand at last month's young lawyers get together.

Reminder about my rule of thumb: never post anything on the Internet you don't want your employer to see.  Thanks to cache technology, anything posted to the Internet will exist forever in cyberspace.

By James Bowden

Do you need an attorney, and are more familiar and comfortable with online dating sites than the common law firm website?  Are you a practicing attorney who wishes for a way to use your charismatic personality and your rakish good looks to woo clients?  Have no fear, LegalTube is here!

LegalTube is apparently the natural evolution of legal advertising in the information age.  According to the ABA’s Business Law Today:

The site is intended to mimic that initial conversation for a prospective client—learning about the lawyer's personal style, experience, areas of expertise, and answers to general queries. As opposed to a standard directory where only certain text information is available, lawyers participating in LegalTube can not only give virtual tours of their offices, but also give viewers insight into their firm, their personality, and their background.

I don’t know about all of that, but the website does feature the three worst-delivered lawyer jokes in history.  Also included is an honestly entertaining “webisode reality series” called “Law After Dark,” which is really just a series of hilarious/sad clips from the Jefferson County Alabama (Birmingham) Circuit Court.  Fun game: juxtaposing the instructions concerning appropriate courtroom attire in the “Shorts?” clip with the treatment given to the defendant wearing the Hooters t-shirt in the “Nice hair” clip, planning wardrobe for upcoming hearing in Jefferson County appropriately.

Overall, I don’t know how well the site functions as a business development tool, and I somehow doubt that its existence will improve a client’s ability to select their ideal attorney – but the limited content available certainly is entertaining.  It should keep you chortling for at least a .2.

By Brian Malcom 

It's not that I don't like microcassette dictation devices, it's just that I hate them.  You never have one when you really want it.  Worse yet, you never have one when you actually need it.

Dictation is becoming a lost art.  Young attorneys are more capable typists, due to exposure to computers from an early age and, believe it or not, chatting with friends. (And your mom said that you were wasting your time chatting with your friends).  Most young attorneys would rather type a memo or letter themselves, rather than dictating them out and giving it to their assistant to type up and then proofread for errors.  Who can blame them?!  Most young attorneys could type up a memo faster than they can dictate and proofread.

But, is it really more efficient in the long run?  Learning to dictate early in your career could allow you to be more productive later in your career.  Dictation also helps you keep a more conversational tone in your writing.

Those who are new to dictation may find it awkward and frustrating at first.  If, however, they stick with it, they will find that they are mastering the art in no time at all.

Digital dictation is beginning to take hold in the legal industry.  There are numerous software programs available to assist an attorney.  IBM and Dragon NaturallySpeaking Solutions are the leaders in the industry.

Smart phones are opening up a whole new market for digital dictation.  Dragon Software seems to be leading the charge.  On the iPhone, Dragon offers a free application for digital dictation using the iPhone.  It is called Dragon Dictation--I know...shocking.

I'm not sure if other PDAs are offering a similar program in their applications store.  If you have found a digital dictation program that you like, feel free to speak up in the comments.

I've been using this application for about a week.  I must say I'm pretty impressed with its capabilities.  It's not perfect, but it gets the job done.  It's also nice to have the software application at my disposal and in my pocket.  In other words, I don't have to carry another device.  This is essential for helping me avoid a "man purse".

A little help in avoiding tendonitis is not too bad either.

Here are some links you might find useful if you are interested in using the Dragon Dictation software:

 - For your computer:  Nuance website
 - Nice reviews of Dragon Dictation:  TUAW, iPhone J.D. and CNET

** Some people have expressed concern about the app "collecting and using" names in your address book.  Dragon responds to those concerns.

By Josh Rosenblatt 

In this competitive job market, hungry law students are looking to distinguish themselves from their classmates.  I did this by getting a joint JD/MBA.   

It has to rank as one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.  The upside: learning to “think like a business person,” valuable insight into how to network effectively, and an expanded group of contacts, to name a few.  The downside:  it is expensive and time consuming.  Also, some classes are (completely) irrelevant for a young lawyer.

So, if you are a current law student who wants to differentiate yourself by picking up some MBA skills but don’t want to spend the time and money on the degree itself, here are my suggestions for the top three classes you should audit.

Accounting

To paraphrase an accounting professor:  “If you can’t read a balance sheet, you might as well not be able to read.”  Accounting can turn off a lot of law students, especially those who think that numbers are big scary beasts to be avoided at all times.  However, the professor’s advice is spot on.  A corporate attorney needs to feel comfortable reading, analyzing, and understanding financial statements.

Corporate Valuation

I struggle with this class.  The math is over my head and the group work takes forever.  Regardless, if you are going to be a “deal lawyer,” then it is good to know how the finances of a deal work.  Corporate Valuation will teach you that ...whether you like it or not. 

Negotiations

Finally, a “soft skills” class!  This class may overlap with a negotiations class taught at your law school, so you may want to check the syllabus first.  However, it has been my experience that classes with the same name at both schools are often completely different, and thus even more worth taking.  Business students negotiate differently than law students, or so I am told.  The difference: taking vs. creating value.  (I’ll let the reader decide who does which).  Take this class to ensure that you can do both. 

A Bonus Class: Spreadsheets

The joke told during class one day was:  Q: “What’s the difference between a lawyer and a business-person?”  A: “When making a list, business-people use Excel.  Lawyers use Word.”  (Laughter ensues, seriously).  You think you know Excel?  It turns out you do not.  You should though; it is a freakishly powerful program that can help almost anyone do almost anything.   

By Eileen Burkhalter Smith

So, I have just learned that there are rules in hockey about who can fight whom in a fight (the allowance of which is in and of itself an unwritten rule).  Apparently, these rules are not actually written, but they are enforced.  Check out the outrage that happens when someone doesn’t follow them here.

This made me think about the unwritten rules in a trial.  I think we can all agree that we have our fair share of written rules, but would you agree with me that there are unwritten ones as well?  Here are three (a hat trick?) that I think exist based on some recent experience:

1.  Embrace your case.  We all have to be advocates, right? I was surprised recently by seeing someone act almost sheepishly about her position in a case during a trial.  I think this might be effective during negotiations, counsel to counsel communications or in other situations, but in front of the judge? The jury?  I think you have to take a stance and believe it.  If you don’t, no one else will.

2.  Pick your battles.  A trial is different than a written motion where it may be appropriate to footnote or reference every facet of every argument.  In a trial, making a mountain out of a molehill can backfire.  Consider whether your strong dispute about a harmless hearsay statement will make the Judge less likely to give you time to argue your later motion to exclude testimony.

3.  Respect their time.  I think it is also important to edit arguments, witness examinations and even evidence depending on how a case is going.  Has the point been made?  Is it 4:00 p.m. on a Friday?  If the case allows for it, I think it is appropriate to realize that the trier(s) of fact may have made a decision and would appreciate an early end.

These are all case specific, of course, but perhaps we should learn a thing or two from hockey:  don’t run a foul of the unwritten rules; it may leave you short-handed.