Further evidence that the legal profession  is in a recovery economy arrives in a new report that layoffs at law firms are nearing zero.

As the national unemployment rate remained steady in February, the number of legal industry jobs lost dropped to one-tenth of what it had been in January, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs report.

The legal profession shed only 100 jobs in February — substantially fewer than the 1,100 jobs that it lost in January — according to the report, released Friday.

Those numbers represented the second significant monthly decline for the industry. The sector lost 2,100 jobs in December and 2,900 in November — a steep difference compared to the 5,800 lost in October. The industry has shed 37,100 positions over the past year, according to BLS statistics, which tally net job losses.

For further details, see Law360.

Six additional law firms have retained Concep, a leading provider of integrated digital marketing solutions to law firms, representing 10 percent growth for Concep during Q1 2010. Among the new clients are

• Hunton & Williams
• Schulte Roth & Zabel
• Cole Schotz, a mid-sized firm.
• Downs Rachlin Martin, another mid-sized firm.
• Two other AMLaw100 firms.

The company works with professional organizations in the financial, professional and business services sectors, as well as membership organizations and marketing agencies to help them build, manage and deliver digital communication programs. Concep recently partnered with the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA), complementing their existing partnerships with LMA Metro New York, Bay Area and Toronto.

I use Concep myself for digital marketing, and they are superb.

"Concep’s strong start to the year is evidence of the growing demand for email and digital marketing," said Anthony Green, president of Concep. "We have capitalized on the growth better than most companies because we work hard to win and keep new business with unparalleled service, innovative products and a pricing model that drives significant ROI.” 
 
The Concep U.S. office launched three years ago at 11 Harrison Street in New York.  During that time more than 50 law firms and other businesses have retained Concep to handle their B2B marketing.  Concep also has offices in Sydney and London, which recently won two B2B Marketing awards in the categories of ‘best lead nurturing initiative’ and ‘best limited-budget campaign’.

Concep continues to make enhancements to its SaaS email marketing platforms and broaden their offerings as a full service digital marketing firm. For additional information, please visit www.concepglobal.com
 

Join the video lawyer expert, New York Attorney Gerry Oginski together with me on Wednesday, March 17, St. Patrick’s Day at Noon for an important look at how video marketing can differentiate you and prompt new clients to call you. Research has shown that you're 53 times more likely to get on the first page of Google's search results if you have video on your website.

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Click here to sign up for this event

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WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Lawyers in firms large and small who want to use modern web technology to give prospective clients what they're looking for: a video of the lawyer they're going to retain.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Putting video on your law firm website can result in dramatic traffic increases and conversions of website viewers to callers.
• How and why video is so important to attorneys in today’s legal climate.
• Gerry’s 10 Commandments for using attorney video.
• Why video is the best way to communicate with your online visitors.
• Why video is the best return on investment you can make with your marketing dollars
• Learn how video develops trust with a non-trusting public.
• Learn why video is the best way to communicate with your online visitors.
• For more info visit http://www.pbdi.org/pages/events.asp?Action=View&EventID=237

In this one-hour webinar we guarantee you will learn how video makes you the logical choice for a viewer to call. Your goal is to make the phone ring and get more clients. Learn how using video.

Learn the 5 critical things you need to know when searching for a video production company. Also, learn why video is the best return on investment you can make with your marketing dollars.

"In this one-hour webinar I guarantee you will learn things you didn’t know about why creating video is so helpful to your potential clients and importantly, makes the phone ring." -- Gerry Oginski.

Register Now for the incredible low price of only $30.  You can't afford to miss this program!

I can tell the economy for the legal industry is getting better when research shows that law firms are merging with each other without any slowdown.  Hildebrandt Baker Robbins reports that there were 57 completed law firm mergers in 2009.

The newest one is the merger of Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aronoff LLP, with headquarters in Cleveland (plus offices in Columbus, Philadelphia, White Plains, Wilmington and Shanghai) with Dann Pecar Newman & Kleiman of Indianapolis, IN, effective March 1, 2010.  Because Benesch has 145 lawyers and Dann Pecar has 26, it's really an acquisition.

In an announcement, the firms say the merger would strengthen several of Benesch's core practice areas, particularly real estate, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, and their transportation/logistics and construction industry groups. Dann Pecar has promoted itself as a local leader in real estate, litigation, employment law, business and bankruptcy law.

The firm will do business as Benesch/Dann Pecar in the Indianapolis market as part of a national expansion plan by Benesch.

Interestingly, the consultant at Altman Weil who worked on the merger quoted statistics from AW's year-end MergerLine report, that the number of law firm mergers dropped by a significant 24 percent in 2009.  This is the opposite of what their arch-competitor Hildebrandt is saying in it's latest client advisory (see below):

The applause was enthusiastic when lawyer Mary Ann Dunham of Pittsburgh, PA, was named the 2009 Greater Pittsburgh Athena Award recipient.  An energetic community leader, she was acclaimed for creativity in the profession, serving the community and assisting other women to reach their leadership potential.

She is also a wife, mother of two and chair of the firm's Women's Business Development Committee at 450-lawyer Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC – and the Originate! Woman Rainmaker of 2010. (see http://www.pbdi.org/Originate)

“The techniques I use in business development are really just finding opportunities to get to know business owners and to do it in an informal setting where I can get to know them as individuals while learning about their business,” Dunham said. 

Hear Mary Ann Dunhan live in the March 23, 2010 webinar, “The Woman Rainmaker of the Year Offers Business Development Advice.” Lawyer Mary Ann Dunham of Pittsburgh, PA, is an active community leader, which has generated so much business for her firm that she was just named the 2010 Woman Rainmaker of the Year. She also heads up Buchanan Ingersoll's Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group plus the Women's Business Development Committee. Interviewed by business development experts Larry Bodine, Esq. and Michael G. Cummings, she will describe in the live webinar how she keeps them supplied with new files and clients. Click here for more information.

“Sometimes that can be done by joining boards of organizations and getting involved in something that they do in the community.  I’ve been involved in nonprofit events, such as golf outings, charitable sponsorships and fundraisers. It's a win-win to make a difference in the community while building relationships with clients and business contacts.”

A shareholder, she is chair of the firm’s Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group and advises clients in the advanced manufacturing, technology and service industries on a variety of transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, financings and joint ventures. She also focuses on advising foreign clients on their U.S. investments.

Being a mentor

The Athena award — named after the Greek goddess of strength and wisdom — is unique among other regional honors for women in business because of its focus on mentorship.  It is Dunham’s willingness to be helpful to others that plays a key role in her business development efforts.  In addition to the Athena award, she has been:

• Selected to the Pennsylvania Super Lawyers® list in 2007.
• Selected as a 2005 Fast Tracker by the Pittsburgh Business Times. The program recognizes 50 talented individuals under the age of 45 who are having a significant impact on the business and social climate of the region.
• Named a Pennsylvania Rising Star by Philadelphia Magazine, based on the recognition of her peers, in 2005.
• Named one of the 40 Under 40 by Pittsburgh Magazine and PUMP, the Pittsburgh Urban Magnet Project, in 2004. The "40 Under 40" are young leaders honored for their ceaseless work to make Western Pennsylvania a better place.

Amazing stats like Facebook passing  the 400 million user mark, Twitter hitting 50 million tweets per day, and YouTube viewers watching 1 billion videos per day are impressive on their own, but what if we looked at Internet-related stats collectively?

Jesse Thomas looked at Internet-related stats collectively in his video State of the Internet (see below).

The video highlights some remarkable figures and visually depicts the Internet as we know it today. It’s a must-watch video for anyone trying to wrap their minds around just how immersed web technologies have become in our everyday lives, according to Mashable.com.  For example:

- There are 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide as of September 2009.

- There are 1.4 billion e-mail users worldwide, and on average we collectively send 247 billion e-mails per day. Unfortunately 200 billion of those are spam e-mails.

- As of December 2009, there are 234 million websites.

- Facebook gets 260 billion page views per month, which equals 6 million page views per minute and 37.4 trillion page views in a year.

Although I love online social media, it turns out that nothing beats a word-of-mouth recommendation to get new business, according to a new study by ARAnet.

Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends or family remain the most influential resource on advice for those looking to purchase products and services, but overall, search engines are also becoming a trusted source.

Young and highly educated consumers say online sources influence their buying decisions at a higher rate compared with the rest of the population, but social media resides down at the bottom of the list, according to a recent survey. Overall, consumers rely less on resources in social sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace, according to a survey from Opinion Research Co., sponsored by ARAnet.

Scott Severson, president of survey sponsor ARAnet, believes companies need to have more than one way to reach consumers online because not all will want to have contact via email or social sites. Companies will need search engine optimization (SEO) and paid-search campaign strategies, too. In other words, one campaign message will not resonate with all consumers the same way.

For more details, read "Social Media Not Preferred Recommendation Resource."

From Justin Rebello of Lawyer's Weekly:

Some lawyers are even acting contrary to the old credo that the client shouldn’t pick the lawyer; the lawyer should pick the client, and taking clients that simply walk in the door.

Facebook has increasingly become a source of marketing efforts by law firms. For instance, see Facebook Generates More Website Visitors than Google and News Reporters Now Depend on Social Media Sources 

For a list of law firms with Facebook "fan pages" I turned to Dale Tincher, CEO, Consultwebs.com, Inc., 800-872-6590, dtincher@consultwebs.com.

"In addition to Linkedin and other social media and article Websites, we recently started developing Facebook pages for our clients.  We develop them for several reasons including additional exposure and to complement their SEO and overall marketing campaigns.  As you will see, we go far past the normal programming techniques that most Facebook sites utilize.  A few of the Facebook pages we have developed are listed below:

 

·         Schwartzapfel & Associates- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Schwartzapfel-Truhowsky-Marcus-PC/125133637386?  

 

·         Ullman & Associates- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charles-R-Ullman-Associates/147781706904?

 

·         Belluck & Fox, Mesothelioma Help - http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-NY/Mesotheliomahelp/53026818989

 

·         Rush, Hannula, Harkins & Kyler - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rush-Hannula-Harkins-Kyler-LLP/112383517805

 

·         Brian Moskowitz - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boynton-Beach-FL/Law-Offices-of-Brian-Moskowitz/282800090474?

 

·         Abelson Law - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Washington-DC/The-Abelson-Law-Firm/123258383596

 

·         Terry Terry & Stapleton- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Morristown-TN/Terry-Terry-Stapleton/92188938485

 

·         Gemma Law - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gemma-Law-Associates-Inc/133645823382

 

·         Scott Gottlieb - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Scott-C-Gottlieb-Associates-LLP/132967210799

 

·         David Resnick - http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-York-NY/David-Resnick-Associates-PC/67559988517

 

·         Tafelksi Law - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bloomfield-Hills-MI/Paul-J-Tafelski-PC/86153619073

 

·         Wyly Law Firm - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wyly-Law-Firm-PC/127085836673

 

·         Ted Greve & Associates - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Charlotte-NC/Ted-A-Greve-Associates-PA/99209593157

 

·         Barry & Loewy - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Austin-TX/Barry-Loewy-LLP/118297808977

 

·         Heselmeyer Zinda - http://www.facebook.com/hzfirm

The Web seminar "Business Development for Litigators" will be broadcast at Noon Central Time tomorrow, Thursday February 25, 2010.  Today is your last chance to register at www.PBDI.org,

Join us to learn how to overcome the bane of litigators: the one-shot case. Michael G. Cummings and I will show you how to grow your litigation client base, by continuing the relationship after the case is over, focusing on dispute-rich industries, picking the "hot" practice areas for trials, and prioritizing your business development efforts.

Learn the 10 Keys to Developing Litigation Business 1. Pursue specific industries where you have clients already. 2. Get referrals from small-firm lawyers who are overwhelmed. 3. Focus on the "hot" areas of practice, as identified by market research. 4. Methods to create a good reputation that will attract files and cases. 5. Building long-lasting relationships with clients. 6. Avoiding mistakes -- where most lawyers fail at business development. 7. Penetrating organizations of potential clients. 8. Becoming the industry expert that every business client wants. 9. The two kinds of companies to look out for. 10. Ways to get in front of a prospective client.

Invest in The Skills You Need to Succeed in the Legal Profession...

Register today at: www.pbdi.org or call 630-572-4798

Back when Twitter became a sensation in January 2009, the data had shown that Twitter was not yet an effective as a business development tool.  I said if the facts changed, I would change my mind and it's happened: lawyers are getting business via the popular micro-messaging platform.  You can indeed get new clients by using Twitter.

There have been random reports that a lawyer connected with a potential client with a Tweet. But it took blogger and online social networking expert Adrian Dayton to find Fort Lauderdale, FL, lawyer Robert C. White who methodically works Twitter.  White tweeted about an article on mobile advertising and got calls from two different mobile companies as a result.

You can listen to the 30-minute podcast conference call between the two at "Think Twitter’s for Kids? Think Again"

The social media guy

"I’m taken it upon myself to be the social media guy within the firm," said White, aka @soflatechlawyer on Twitter. "I spoke at a recent meeting of our lawyers on social media.  I try to be a leader by example and it doesn’t take a lot of time." White is a shareholder at Gunster, Yoakley & Stewart, P.A., where he practices business, corporate and technology law. Gunster is the oldest commercial law firm in Palm Beach County, with 140 attorneys and 200 staff in eight Florida locations.

"Everyone needs to determine who their clients and referral sources are.  I’m a technology and entrepreneurial attorney, so my  clients use Twitter. For other areas of law, Twitter might not be as efficient. Very few of my clients are active Twitter users, but from a branding standpoint Twitter can be useful for referral sources. They key is to touch people so they can touch other people with you and mind," he said.

For the rest of the story, visit the LawMarketing Portal at http://bit.ly/cqk3R1

In recent times bankruptcy and litigation have been growth areas within many firms, and a new survey shows this trend is apt to continue. In the Robert Half Legal poll, nearly one in three (32 percent) lawyers cited bankruptcy/foreclosure as the area that will experience the most growth in the next three months. Another 22 percent believed litigation would exhibit the strongest growth within this time frame.  

The survey was developed by Robert Half Legal, a leading staffing service specializing in attorneys, paralegals and other highly skilled legal professionals. It was conducted by an independent research firm and includes responses from 300 attorneys from among the largest law firms and corporations in the United States and Canada. All respondents have at least three years of experience in the legal field.

Lawyers were asked, "In your opinion, which one of the following areas of law will experience the most growth in the next three months?" Their responses:

Bankruptcy/foreclosure	32%
Litigation	22%
Labor and employment	10%
Intellectual property	6%
Ethics and corporate governance	5%
Environmental law	3%
General business/commercial law	2%
Healthcare	1%
Other	6%
Don't know/no answer	13%
	100%

"Economic conditions continue to fuel demand for specialists in bankruptcy and litigation," said Charles Volkert, executive director of Robert Half Legal. "These specialties are broad in scope, since they are not restricted to specific industries or client types. Their wide reach, combined with the complex financial issues that individuals and businesses face, may result in ongoing demand in this area."

Volkert added that the need for legal professionals is especially strong within small-to-midsize firms. "The uptick in litigation for insurance defense, personal injury, labor and employment, medical malpractice, and foreclosure is driving the need for experienced professionals in these areas," he said.  

More information on hiring trends in the legal field, including an interactive Salary Calculator, can be found at www.roberthalflegal.com/SalaryCenter.

A national survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of George Washington University found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories. Among the journalists surveyed:

• 89% said they turn to blogs for story research
• 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn
• 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter
• 61% use Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia.

While the results demonstrate the fast growth of social media as a well-used source of information for mainstream journalists, the survey also made it clear that reporters and editors are acutely aware of the need to verify information they get from social media. Eighty-four percent said social media sources were “slightly less” or “much less” reliable than traditional media, with 49% saying social media suffers from “lack of fact checking, verification and reporting standards.

“Mainstream media have clearly hit a tipping point in their reliance on social media for their research and reporting,” said Heidi Sullivan, Vice President of Research for Cision “However, it’s also clear that while social media is supplementing the research done by journalists, it is not replacing editors’ and reporters’ reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism.”

Importance of Social Media to Journalists (% of Respondents)
Degree of Importance	% of Respondents
Important	15%
Somewhat Important	40%
Neither Important nor Unimportant	16%
Somewhat Unimportant	16%
Unimportant	12%
Source: Cision Social Media Study, October 2009

The groups placing the highest levels of importance on social media for reporting and producing stories were journalists who spend most of their professional time writing for Websites. Those at newspapers  and magazines  reported this less often. The differences between magazine journalists and website journalists is statistically significant.

• Journalists who spend most of their professional time writing for Websites (69%) reported this the most often, and significantly more so than those at Magazines (48%)
• 89% of journalists reported using Blogs for their online research. Only Corporate websites (96%) is used by more journalists when doing online research for a story
• Approximately two-thirds reported using Social Networking sites and just over half make use of Twitter for online research. Newspaper journalists (72%) and those writing for Websites (75%) use Social Networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook for online research significantly more often than those at Magazines (58%)

For more information visit http://us.cision.com/news_room/press_releases/2010/2010-1-20_gwu_survey.asp

According to Web measurement firm Compete Inc., Facebook has passed search-engine giant Google to become the top source for traffic to major portals like Yahoo and MSN, and is among the leaders for other types of sites.

Being a member of Facebook involves having friends and family share Web links to interesting news stories, photos, videos and Internet sites. This "friend-casting" of information has helped propel Facebook into a major force in directing traffic around the Web.This trend is shifting the way Web site operators approach online marketing, even as Google takes steps to move into the social-media world.

Some experts say social media could become the Internet's next search engine, according to SFGate.

"People are spending less time navigating the Internet on their own and are now navigating the Internet based on their friends' recommendations or their friends' activities," said Dave Yovanno, chief executive of Gigya Inc., a Palo Alto firm that offers social-media services. "That's one of the big trends we started picking up on probably four or five months ago."

For years, Web content creators had to worry whether they had the proper level of search-engine optimization to make sure search engines listed them among the top results. Now, they have to consider social-media optimization.

"Marketers must focus on social marketing in addition to traditional search, as customers have a multi-pronged way of finding information," said Jeremiah Owyang, a Web strategist for the Altimeter Group, a San Mateo consulting firm. "The clear-cut channels of yesteryear are now an intricate set of connections."

Using a snapshot of Web traffic from December, Compete's director of online media and search, Jessica Ong, found that 15 percent of traffic to major Web portals like Yahoo, MSN and AOL came from Facebook and MySpace. The lion's share of that traffic, 13 percent came from Facebook.

Google, which has profited handsomely from directing Web surfers to their destinations during the past decade, was third with 7 percent, just behind e-commerce site eBay, which had 7.61 percent. MySpace was fourth with just under 2 percent.

The numbers are eye-opening because Google used to dominate most Web-referral categories. "I was surprised to see Facebook has become No. 1," Ong said.

In other categories, Compete's data showed Mountain View's Google still on top, but Palo Alto's

 

Facebook was not far behind. For example, Google accounted for 21.3 percent of referrals to sites catering to movie fans, but Facebook was second with 12.4 percent. And in a video category, Google - which owns YouTube - was first with 22.9 percent, but Facebook was next at 12.7 percent.

 

According to the Dutch analytics company Distimo, there are now more than 150,000 apps available for the super-popular iPhone.  Of those, some 75% are paid applications while only 25% are free. This is in stark contrast to the second largest app store, Android Market, where recent data suggests that over 60% of the app there are free.

A slick law firm marketing technique is creating a free app for your own firm.  See Arnold & Porter Creates an iPhone App for Law Firm Marketing for more details. It  is the first AmLaw 100 law firm to publish an app, which takes the content from the Consumer Advertising Law Blog, and makes it more easily accessible with an iPhone.  Other law firms and legal sites like JD Supra and the ABA Journal are using the novel approach to reach clients and recruits.

I created an iPhone app for the LawMarketing Portal as well. Something else that’s very interesting is that the highest percentage of apps in the App Store are now paid book applications. In total, there are over 27,000 book apps in the store, and of those 92% are paid apps, according to Distimo’s data.

In terms of overall app numbers, games still rule, with over 28,000 of them in the store. But a much higher percentage of those are free versus the percentage of free book apps. All told, both games and books are far and away the two most popular categories in the App Store, with entertainment in third with just over 20,000 apps. And the numbers drop quickly from there. Education is the fourth most popular category, but that means only 10,000+ apps.

Now is the time for law firms to get in early, before iphone apps become commonplace.