LegalMatch Marketing for Attorneys

Cloud Computing Is the New Era for Law Firms

Cloud computing is becoming more popular everyday due to its low cost, flexibility, and mobility. The only issue with cloud data storage is the distrust in its security measures.

For solos and small firms, the price of running a server system may be extremely expensive. You have to make sure your files are backed up properly and you must fix any technical issue that may arise. With cloud computing, a minimal monthly fee is charged to store your data in a remote area. You are not responsible for the servers and will not need to pay maintenance fees if the server fails.

One of the major benefits of cloud computing is the ease of accessing and transferring data files. The files can be accessed wherever there is Internet connection. Files are both stored on your computer hard drive as well as the cloud. Moreover, no additional computer programs are needed to sync all of your devices. 

Although cloud security seems faulty, the ABA has given approval to allow attorneys to use the cloud. As long as the attorney understands how the cloud service operates, then she is not in violation of any ethical duties. Cloud computing is rising in the legal world, and is a reliable tool to keep track of records.  

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10 Best Lawyer Websites

Businesses need great websites to stay relevant and optimize customer satisfaction. Fortunately, there are many great website building services that allow you to create a stunning website with little or no technical abilities. Weebly.com, Wix.com, and Squarespace.com are three that come to mind. At this point in history, there is virtually no excuse for these Internet eyesores.

Here is our list of the 10 Best Lawyer/Law Firm Websites:

 

1. ThomasJHenryLaw.com

What We Like: The Thomas J. Henry Injury Attorneys website features a modern design that balances a wealth of information while keeping clutter minimal. The site makes it incredibly easy for a potential client to contact the law firm. There are 3 different forms of contact available along the top of the homepage: a phone number, an email address, and a live chat button. 

Key Tip: Always make your contact information very visible on your home page. While that may make your office more vulnerable to telemarketers, you need to provide potential clients with a way to contact you on your website. People are impatient on the Internet. You should make it as easy as possible for potential clients to quickly get exactly what they’re looking for on your site.

 

2. BurkeBrown.com

What We Like: The homepage for Burke Brown provides small blurbs about what they do and what to expect from them, while expanding on these topics on separate pages. This has the benefit of providing a preview of subsequent pages, which encourages potential clients to click through to those subsequent pages, increasing the SEO rating of the homepage. Burke Brown also has a page devoted to what to expect when you hire them, which allows for potential clients to know what they are getting by hiring the law firm and to help clients keep their expectations reasonable (instead of believing that a lawyer can rewrite the entire Bill of Rights just so they can win one case).

Key Tip: Give people a reason to click through to subsequent pages on your website by providing them with a preview of what to expect on those pages on your homepage. Not only does this help people figure out where they can find the information they want on your website, but it also allows you to place more SEO-friendly content on your homepage. Having more SEO-friendly content on your website will increase its search ranking and its popularity, and who doesn’t want to be popular?

 

3. HoganLovells.com

What We Like: The best part of Hogan Lovell’s website is the fact that it can be viewed in multiple languages. All of the content has been translated into seven different languages, and any one of those translations can be viewed by simply selecting the language on the homepage. Even though the language changes, the format of the well-organized homepage and the structure of the website remains the exact same, making the transition between the different languages while navigating the website easy.

Key Tip: Many major cities in the United States have large immigrant populations where English is the second language that they learn, but they need legal representation just like everyone else. In order to make your website, and subsequently your practice, more accessible to the non-native English speakers in your area, consider making your website bi- or tri-lingual. Just don’t rely exclusively on Google Translate to translate your content into a new language, or your website’s content may be featured on a Google Translate Fail blog post somewhere.

 

4. CanadaVisa.com

What We Like: First, the web address makes it very clear what kind of law Cambell Cohen practices. It has the added feature of consisting of only essential SEO terms, which is important in the race to be located front and center on Google search results. Second, the front page has clearly-identified links to different sections of the website that are based on what services a person might be looking for, whether it’s a student visa or family sponsorship. Easy navigability is critical to make sure that potential clients do not end up more lost than Gilligan on a three-hour tour.

Key Tip: Think about how potential clients will be looking for services and organize your information in a way that will make sense to them. By separating information and pages into groups that match what a potential client is looking for, you are directing potential clients to all the information that they need and nothing that leaves them feeling more confused than when they first landed on your website.

 

5. BakerMcKenzie.com

What We Like: The Baker McKenzie website demonstrates that a clean and simple homepage is much more eye-catching than a homepage that is so full of links and information that it resembles the online equivalent of a hoarder’s closet. Instead, there are only a handful of essential links, a few bright colors and poignant images, and some blurbs about the latest news impacting Baker McKenzie on the homepage.

Key Tip: Make sure that your homepage is not a visual representation of verbal vomit. If you are uncomfortable with flashy graphics and hyperlinks to hide the clutter, then go with a simple homepage, and hide the rest of the information that you want to share on subsequent pages that are accessible from the homepage or other pages.

 

6. MalaiseLawFirm.com

What We Like: The best thing about this website is the accessibility to free information. People love obtaining free information on the internet, which is why Wikipedia gets over 21 billion hits each month. The Malaise Law Firm’s website not only provides free information, but it does so in a way that directs potential clients to very specific answers in two different formats. The “Video Center” provides potential clients with a plethora of videos featuring Mr. Malaise talking about various legal topics stemming from bankruptcy law, while the list of questions and legal topics on the left side directs potential clients to both videos and articles related to specific legal inquiries.

Key Tip: Do not hesitate to put some free legal information and advice out there on the web. Although it may feel like you are talking yourself out of a paying client, providing some basic free information proves that you are knowledgeable about the area that you practice in and answers some of the preliminary questions that would otherwise waste your time when providing an initial consultation with a potential client. Less time wasted on a person without any case and just a ton of questions = more time to talk to a potential client with a great case or more time to practice your golf swing.

 

7. ForThePeople.com

What We Like: Morgan & Morgan’s website makes fantastic use of tabs to keep its homepage organized. At the top of the page, one can click on different tabs to look at different slides that briefly advertise what the firm has to offer. Down towards the bottom of the page, there is a box with column of tabs on the left side that lets potential clients view links to individual blog posts, read testimonials from past and present clients, watch videos about the firm, and see where the offices for Morgan & Morgan are located. These tabs allow for the homepage to contain a lot of content, while having a relatively simple and straightforward appearance.

Key Tip: If you are adverse to having several pages for your website, consider using tabs to keep a few pages looking organized and tidy while containing all the information that is normally found on a fully fleshed-out website. After all, if there’s one thing to take away from the increasingly-popular tiny house movement, it’s that you can do a lot with just a small amount of space if you use that space creatively.

 

8. Murthy.com

What We Like: The Murthy Law Firm provides a lot of online tools through its website, from a regularly-held chat with its attorneys to a message board that anyone can post immigration-related questions and answers on. With all of these online tools that regularly provide fresh content to potential clients, potential clients are more apt to return to the Murthy Law Firm’s website to take advantage of these tools each time they have a new immigration issue.

Key Tip: While Murthy Law Firm may seem to go overboard with all of the online tools it offers (is the average consumer really going to delete Angry Birds from their smartphone to make room for the MurthyApp?), having a regularly updated blog or message board is a low-effort way of giving potential clients a reason to poke around on your website longer and to keep coming back for new information. The new content will also keep your website from seeming abandoned or outdated.

 

9. HiltonSomer.com

What We Like: The website for Hilton and Somer, LLC is visually appealing by sticking with black and white as its main colors and red as an attention-grabbing accent color, dispelling the notion that a hyper-colorful page is more appealing than a website featuring only 2 or 3 colors (although some preschoolers may disagree). However, the best part of Hilton and Somer, LLC’s website is the case evaluation input box, which is on every page in the same location. Instead of having to write out a full email to the firm, a potential client can simply fill out the form and click the “submit” button. Unlike other law firm websites with similar online forms, Hilton and Somer, LLC are smart enough to require potential clients to agree to a disclaimer that submitting the form does not constitute a client-attorney relationship.

Key Tip: The easier it is for a potential client to contact you, the more likely it is that they will contact you. An online form on your homepage makes contacting your firm incredibly easy. Just make sure to include a disclaimer with the form to protect your firm from any risk of a crazy person thinking that just because they sent you their sob story through the form, you’ve agreed to take on any of their past, present, and future legal woes on a pro bono basis.

 

10. Mofo.com

What We Like: Morrison & Foerster, “affectionately” known as MoFo, ensures that potential clients can easily navigate its website. First, the header for each page stays at the top of the screen as one scrolls down, so that the main hyperlinks to other parts of the website are constantly visible, regardless of whether one is looking at the top of a page or has scrolled halfway down the page. Second, at the bottom of each page is a fully displayed site map. Instead of having to click through a number of pages to finally land on the one they wanted, a potential client can locate the page that they want in the sitemap and go directly to that page from any other page on the website.

Key Tip: If you have more than two or three pages for your website, consider putting a sitemap somewhere on your homepage where it would be visible to potential clients. By providing clear shortcuts to where they may want to go, you prevent any potential frustration that a potential client may feel by having to click through several unnecessary pages to get to the page that they want to look at.

Recent Internet Scams Targeting Lawyers and Law firms

Internet scammers have recently been targeting lawyers and law firms by posing as a potential “client” from a foreign country who is need of a U.S. attorney. The situation has become frequent enough for the FBI to conduct on-going investigations. These “clients” use sophisticated tactics to scam even the most prudent attorney. Since the scams are relatively new and have yet to be highly publicized, many attorney are ill-prepared to protect themselves.

The most common scenario is that the attorney will receive an email from an off-shore individual or company requesting legal representation to collect delinquent accounts in the U.S. The majority of the “clients” are from Korea, China, Ireland and Canada. Often, they will list a referring attorney or a Bar Association as a contact. The scammers have gone so far as too post fake blogs and websites for the referring attorney, which leads attorney to assume the referral is legitimate. Once a retainer and/or fee is agreed upon, the scammer send the attorney a cashier’s check from a seemingly reputable bank, on behalf of the new “client.”

Additionally, they also send an invoice purporting to reflect monies owed to them from the debtor. The scammer then quickly requests that the attorney send back the remaining funds, minus attorney fees. If the scammer is successful, the attorney will send the funds when the bank claims that the funds are available, but before they discovers it is counterfeit (some banks will make the funds available before the check technically clears.) The off-shore account is then closed and cannot be traced to the scammer.

Another, but less common, scenario is that the scammer poses as a prospective client and requests the firm’s bank information to transfer the funds. In this case, the scammer will hack directly into the attorney’s account and remove the funds.

Although, the above situations may seem to be obvious scams in retrospect, many attorneys have fallen victim. Some precautions that you can take to avoid the same fate include:

• Independently obtain more than the contact information the “client” provides. That is, do not just rely on the information they give you.
• If the “client” appears to be internationally based, run a background check and research them extensively. If they present an attorney referral, do more than a simple internet search to confirm legitimacy.
• Be aware if the “client” claims they were referred by a Bar Association, as they very rarely give referrals to Be aware, if the client claims they were referred by a Bar Association, as they very rarely give specific referrals to attorneys.
• Deposit the check into an escrow account completely separate from your firm’s trust account.
• Do not accept any checks from off-shore clients. Instead, have them wire the money directly into your firm’s account and avoid turning over any pertinent information regarding your account. This will ensure the funds are legitimate and accessible immediately.
• Ask yourself if there is any valid reason to be paying the client at all.
• If you believe you have fallen victim to a scam, contact the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov. Keep in mind that there is no breach of lawyer’s duty of confidentiality at this time, as the Legal Ethics Committee has yet to offer an opinion on this situation. There is no “reasonable expectation of confidentiality” since the communications are being used to obtain the money under false pretenses. 

Authored by Nicole Shoener, LegalMatch Staff Legal Writer

Ethical Issues for Attorney Blogs

In order to develop a meaningful online presence, lawyers routinely include blogs on their professional websites. Most attorney blogs feature news or information concerning the legal issues addressed by the attorney’s practice. While developing content for a blog, attorneys should be aware that blog content must abide by professional conduct standards. If these standards are violated in an attorney’s blog, disciplinary actions may result.

Red Flags to Consider: What are Some Possible Violations

• Articles that discuss prior and current cases may violate confidentiality rules.
• Articles that reach out into other jurisdictions may be considered an unauthorized practice of law.
• Promotional blogs may violate strict advertising regulations.
• Delegating the writing of blog content to non-legal staff may be construed as “aiding the unauthorized practice of law.”

Attorneys should also be careful about responding to specific questions in the comments section of a blog. In some states, comments in a blog may be seen as providing specific advice, which may establish an attorney-client relationship.

Tips for Building an Ethical Blog

• Write generalized informational (non-advisory) articles.
• Note the state in which you are licensed to practice and the status of your license.
• Avoid discussing prior or current cases for self-promotion as that may violate confidentiality rules, unless facts are changed and names redacted.
• Use jurisdictional disclaimers when applicable.
• Make all disclaimers very clear, legalese-free, and conspicuous to lay readers.
• Ensure that blog commenters’ state of residence is included; this will minimize the risk of engaging in an unauthorized practice of law by giving advice on laws of state where you lack license.

Nuts and Bolts of Disclaimers: What are Some Typical Points to Include?

Blog disclaimer(s) may address jurisdictional limits of a legal practice and/or formation concerning an attorney-client relationship. Here are several examples:

1. A Jurisdictional Disclaimer may include the following:

• The state the attorney is licensed practice
• An explanation that an attorney can't practice in other states without the proper license
• A statement that the blog is not intended as solicitation or advertisement
• A note that information in the blog may not apply to every reader  

2. A Client-Attorney Relationship Disclaimer may state that:

• Communications on the blog don’t form an attorney client relationship
• Neither the blog's nor the attorney's purpose is to represent readers
• The blog's information is not intended for legal advice