Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 4: Trust!

Can a virtual paralegal benefit a solo or small office litigation practice? Absolutely! The purpose of this series is to discuss those benefits, and answer some of the questions litigators have about working with a virtual or remote working paralegal.

In recent posts I discussed a way to think about the title "virtual paralegal," the readily available technologies virtual paralegals use, and issues related to security and confidentiality.

Today we discuss another area to investigate when contemplating working with a virtual paralegal:

Trust. In all work relationships, trust takes time to build and develop. When attorneys hire permanent staff, they do their best to assure the new employee will be an asset to the team, and then take the time to get to know the employee's work first hand.

Of course, when a full time or contract paralegal works in house, the attorney can obverve his or her work ethic and output. But how does an attorney monitor a remote working paralegal?

First of all, every attorney contemplating hiring a paralegal, whether full time, contractor or remote working, inquires into the paralegal’s training, background, work history and references. In my home state of California, an attorney will also want to verify that the paralegal has met the training and continuing education standards required by Bus. & Prof. Code §6450.

As we discussed last time, all paralegals are bound by the same rules of professional conduct regarding client confidentiality that attorneys are. A qualified virtual paralegal selling services to attorneys knows this, and wants to protect the confidentiality of an attorney’s clients. Moreover, the virtual paralegal’s Contractor Agreement will no doubt address this issue.

In addition, a competent virtual paralegal will have enough work experience to provide a reasonably accurate estimate of the amount of time a given project will take. She or he will provide regular progress updates, and immediately advise an attorney client of the reasons for any delays or revisions to that estimate. A remote working paralegal’s business will suffer if she proves herself unable to perform the requested work in the allotted time frame.

Attorneys and firms will want to vet any virtual paralegal they are considering hiring. Perhaps they will even want to spend time developing a professional relationship prior to hire, or assign small jobs to see how the paralegal performs before entrusting her with major projects.

As with all other aspects of the working relationship, clear and frequent communication is the key to developing trust when working with a virtual paralegal. When each party communicates clearly about his or her expectations, the project instructions, and the progress being made, everyone wins.

And finally we come to the last question to consider in hiring remote working paralegals: Delegating suitable tasks. Tune back in next time in for Part 5.

Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 3: Confidentially Speaking

Can a virtual paralegal benefit a solo or small office litigation practice? Absolutely! The purpose of this series is to discuss those benefits, and answer some of the questions litigators have about working with a virtual or remote working paralegal.

In recent posts I discussed a way to think about the title "virtual paralegal," and the common, readily available technologies used in working with a virtual paralegal.

Today we discuss another area to investigate when contemplating working with a virtual paralegal:

Security and confidentiality. All attorneys have a legal and ethical responsibility to ensure the security of all their clients’ confidential documents, as well as their own work product. They have a duty to strictly maintain the privileged nature of all their communications with their clients. Naturally, they are reasonably concerned that their staff – whether employees or contractors – treat all documents and communications with the same diligent care.

These concerns lead attorneys to be careful about how and with whom files and documents are shared. While attorneys, and perhaps even staff, work from home, they do so with these security and confidentiality needs in mind. Although documents are routinely exchanged with clients, experts, witnesses and co-counsel via hard copy, email, fax and other means, lawyers assure themselves that this information will be handled with appropriate confidentiality. These same concerns apply to exchange of documents and information with a virtual paralegal too.

It is incumbent upon the virtual paralegal to provide reliable evidence that she or he can maintain strict security of all paper and digital files. Any lawyer contemplating hiring a remote working paralegal will want to inquire into her business practices.

• How does the paralegal secure and store paper and electronic files? 
• How long are paper or digital copies retained, if at all? 
• What computer back-up systems are used to ensure that files are not deleted or otherwise lost? 
• What security measures are taken with computer files, on-line storage, and back-up files to prevent disclosure? 
• Does the paralegal's system have a firewall and secured WiFi? 
• Are the cloud or internet based software the paralegal uses encrypted?

Paralegals, whether employee or contractor, share with attorneys an ethical duty of confidentiality. The ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, state rules modeled thereon, and guidelines for paralegals adopted by state bar associations, state courts and paralegal professional organizations, all require paralegals to guard the confidentiality of all client information. This duty of confidentiality applies as firmly to paralegals working remotely as it does to a law firm's own staff.

Moreover, these issues should be addressed in the contractor agreement executed between the attorney and paralegal before any work is performed. The agreement should at a minimum state that the paralegal will not disclose, by any means, information regarding the attorney’s business processes, clients, or client information.  The agreement should also discuss the virtual paralegal’s business practices regarding document retention and security.

So you see, with a firm understanding of a virtual paralegal's business practices, and a contract in place, a litigator can have confidence in using the services of a virtual paralegal.

However, this leads to the another question to consider in hiring a remote working paralegal: Trust. Tune in next time for Part 4.

Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 2: You Do Have the Technology!

As noted in Part 1, many virtual paralegals encounter resistance among litigation attorneys to utilizing our services. Even though their offices might be perfectly suited to using a virtual paralegal, many litigators are most comfortable with a contractor whom they can see and hear, no matter how small their office might be.

In my last post, I discussed ways in which confusion about the title Virtual Paralegal can give rise to resistance about hiring us. Today I discuss the next roadblock:

Technology. Some attorneys believe they do not have the requisite technology for utilizing a paralegal working from a remote location. However, this is not the case. Tools employed by every office – telephone, mail, email, fax, scanning and internet access – can be used to share documents, information and projects back and forth with a remote working paralegal. In fact, these are the tools routinely used for sharing documents and data within the office, and outside it to clients, experts and the courts.

In addition, virtual paralegals are already set up to work remotely. They typically have additional tools at their disposal to work effectively and efficiently with a law firm client in any location.

There are a number of software programs available for securely sharing files back and forth between remote locations. The oldest tool is an FTP client (File Transfer Protocol), which enables both lawyer and paralegal to upload and download large files over the internet.

Other software programs provide secure on-line repositories for documents. While designed for safe on-line computer back-up, they also provide a secure means of file sharing. Using one of these programs, a remote working paralegal can create a series of folders and sub-folders for storing case documents. These files are accessible via link or password to both the lawyer and the paralegal from any computer or location. In this way, both lawyer and paralegal can store, access or revise any case related materials whenever they need to. Dropbox and SugarSync are two examples. (Note: Dropbox gets a lot of great reviews in the legal community, and for good reason - it's an excellent product. I prefer SugarSync myself. I’ll tell you why in a future post.)

Finally, there are software programs that actually create a secure collaborative project management system of sorts on line. They enable the lawyer and paralegal not only store case files and edit documents, but also to design a project, assign tasks to different team members, and track everyone's progress. Box.net and Basecamp are a couple of examples.

So you see, every lawyer has all the technology he or she really needs to work effectively with a remote working paralegal. It's much easier than you think!

However, this leads us to another roadblock to hiring virtual or remote working paralegals: Security and Confidentiality! Tune in next time for Part 3.

Virtual Paralegals in Litigation Part 1: Think of us as Telecommuters!

In the legal industry, virtual paralegals are gaining ground in a number of practice areas, such as bankruptcy, corporate matters, and estate planning. However the reality encountered by many of us working virtually is that in the area of litigation many attorneys and law firms are reluctant to contemplate hiring virtual paralegals. To be sure, there are bold exceptions. For example, I work with some solo practitioners who are delighted to get help without relinquishing precious office space.

But many attorneys in litigation cite roadblocks to working with virtual paralegals. Their practice may be perfect for it. They may be superb candidates because they have frequent work overloads which tax their existing staff, they have no budget for adding to their payroll, and their physical space and equipment resources are limited.

Yet many resist.

Thus begins my five part series looking at the reasons behind this resistance, and what we as virtual paralegals can do to allay these fears and convince litigators of the benefits of hiring us.

So what is the first roadblock?

Misunderstanding the term. First and foremost is a misunderstanding of what the term “virtual paralegal” means. True, lawyers active in social media or keeping abreast of technological trends may understand it well enough. But I have encountered many a blank stare when I’ve used the term in gatherings of legal professionals as I seek to explain to them what I do. If an attorney doesn’t understand what a virtual paralegal is, he or she won’t understand the benefits of hiring one. In fact, some in the field are abandoning the term altogether for this very reason.

In the case of a virtual paralegal, “virtual” does not mean “almost,” as in “virtually unknown.” Nor does it mean “simulated,” as in the “virtual reality” of a video game.

It simply means working remotely - virtual as in “occurring mostly online.” Think of it as telecommuting!

Telecommuting is certainly not a new concept in law practice. Both lawyers and staff work from home at many law firms. Technology permitting, they even log into a work server remotely to exchange emails and edit documents from home. Heaven knows when I worked in BigLaw, I spent many happy hours searching databases, drafting privilege logs, and all manner of other fun tasks from my own home computer.

Virtual paralegals are telecommuters! It's just that we are not full time employees, and we use our own equipment instead of the law firm’s resources - two factors which can and should be viewed as cost saving benefits!

However this leads us to the next roadblock: Technology! Tune in for Part 2 of this series coming soon!

And please share your thoughts in the comments!

Why I Hate Name Tags

With apologies to @NameTagScott, who claims he even wears a name tag to bed and whose blog I find inspiring, I hate name tags at networking events and business meetings.

Let me say that I’ve always hated name tags. However my reasons were different when I was young. Back then, I hated them because I thought they weren’t “cool.” And I had a hard enough time trying to appear cool without adding to it the indignity of a name tag. To me it communicated, “Look here. Here is my name on this tag. I'm wearing this because I'm the biggest dork on the planet, and this is so you don’t have to stoop to ask my name. Cuz I know you don’t want to do that.”

And that certainly wasn’t the message I wanted to send. I wanted someone to take one look at me and be fascinated enough to ask my name. Either that or just ignore me altogether. So I hated wearing name tags; I thought not doing so made me cooler.

BTW, here’s a fun little name tag story. Not long out of college, I worked for a while as an admin for a political lobby. One evening the entire staff attended a fundraising event, and numerous local politicians were in attendance. Well, one rather famous local politician must have agreed with me about the name tag thing, because she wasn't wearing one and . . well . . stupid me, I didn’t recognize her. And I asked her name. And there was sort of a gasp around me! So she told me who she was, and I have to admit, it was quite the faux pas; I should have known her. But ever quick on my feet, I yanked my proverbial foot out of my mouth by quipping, “Oh my goodness, the photos in the paper don’t do you justice!” But I digress.

I've matured since then, and I no longer view name tags as a cruel plot to render me the absolute least cool person in the room. I acknowledge why people find them useful, particularly at networking events – which I attend a lot of these days. I think the rationale is that it gives people a role – their name plus their business. It enables people to note other attendees, and their businesses, even if they don’t have time to talk to them all. And I wear them when I must.

However, I still don’t like them, though for a different reason. It’s no longer about being cool. It’s more about my memory – which, ahem, isn’t what it used to be.

I have discovered that if you are wearing a name tag, I probably won’t remember your name!

I think the mechanism is that without a name tag, I ask your name, I repeat it a few times while we chat, I make a big effort to lodge it in my memory. But when I can "cheat" by just reading your name, I don't do those things. And 10 minutes later, I may not remember your name because I relied too much on the name tag and didn’t make the same effort to store it in my memory. And I’m guessing I’m not as memorable to others, either. 

In fact, I'm continually amazed that in a room full of folks wearing name tags, more often than not, people don’t even bother to introduce themselves! I'll approached someone, put my hand out and said, “Hi my name is Daphne,” and get an odd, quizzical look as though to say, “Well yeah, I can see that honey!” But I digress again.

Perhaps I have this advantage over some when it comes to name tags. I’m not shy, haven’t been in years. I have no difficulty mingling around a room, walking up to a stranger, introducing myself and starting a conversation. Perhaps my shyer follow networkers find that name tags ease the way toward meeting people, and I’m sympathetic to that.

But personally, I’d rather not wear them, and it's not about being cool. It's simply so that I have a better chance of remembering who the heck you are the next time we meet!

5 Reasons Law Firms Hire Virtual Paralegals

I read an article today on Software (tweeted by @donnaseyle) called Business | 5 Reasons Law Firms Hire Virtual Legal Receptionists, by Ben Anton, which was a dead-on description of why virtual receptionists are so beneficial. It prompted these thoughts of my own.

Here is my assessment of why law firms – and solo practitioners – benefit from hiring virtual paralegals.

Time is at a premium in any business, but this seems particularly true in the small or solo law office. While there may be the same amount of work as in a larger office, there are fewer hands to do it. Moreover, particularly in this economy very small offices are not in a position to add to their payroll by hiring a full time paralegal to help them bear the load.

So using Anton’s article as a springboard, here are five benefits lawyers and small firms can receive from hiring a virtual paralegal:

1. “Increased happiness and job satisfaction.” Successful law practice involves a wide spectrum of tasks – from very substantive legal research and analysis, to drafting legal documents, to managing and organizing client and production materials and communicating with clients. Hiring a paralegal to assist with document management and simple drafting tasks, for example, can free a busy attorney up to perform the substantive research, briefing, and client communications most suited to his or her training and expertise. This makes everyone happier.

2. “Increased efficiency.” Virtual paralegal services can make a lawyer more efficient. The ability to delegate tasks to his or her paralegal, be it suitable procedural research, drafting of simple pleadings, or assisting with discovery or trial preparation, enables a lawyer to handle a larger client case load and still assure competent representation of each client.

3. “Lower labor costs.” Hiring a virtual paralegal can be much more cost efficient than hiring a full-time, in-house paralegal. A virtual paralegal is only paid for time actually worked. No more paying for down time or overtime. In addition, the small office saves the benefit costs associated with employees. And finally, there are no costs for work space, supplies or equipment.

4. “A better office environment.” When lawyers, and any staff they do have, are freed to perform those tasks they are best at, while a virtual paralegal takes care of all suitable paralegal tasks, the work load is eased for everyone. Moreover, we all know that deadlines loom at times and create mountains of work that must be gotten through, regardless of the limited number of hands on deck or hours in the day. A virtual paralegal can help shoulder the extra work load during those crunch times.

5. With a virtual paralegal, lawyers have an added tool at their disposal for assuring that each task in each of their cases is being handled, and nothing is falling through the cracks. This enables lawyers to assure that each of their clients receives the attention and excellent legal services he or she deserves. It enables lawyers to be as responsive as possible to all their clients, which provides a competitive advantage in today’s competitive market.

Many benefits are to be gained by solo practitioners and small law firms by employing a virtual paralegal to assist with the work load, including improving case management, creating more efficiency, and of course, saving costs. This does indeed make for happier lawyers and ultimately, happier clients!

The Great Twitter Controversy

Ever read something that you can't quit thinking about, writing as it were your own thoughts on the subject in your head? Well, this happened for me yesterday when one of my Twitter friends forwarded a link and in particular, pointed out the fascinating conversation going on in the comments. I was drawn in; I couldn't stop reading the really voluminous comments, and then I couldn't stop thinking about it . . So . . here are my thoughts on the subject.

The original springboard for this controversy was Mitch Joel's 10/24 blog post which he entitled, Being a Twitter Snob is a Good Thing. I read this post last week and honestly didn't think a lot about it except to perhaps feel affirmed in my decision not to automatically follow everyone following me on Twitter. (I read the post in my RSS feed, and thus didn't read the comments until today, but they are interesting as well.) However, the post my friend tweeted was Mark Schaefer's Bringing down the Twitter snobs, in which he took issue with Mitch's analysis. A passionate discussion ensued in the comments! Check it out!

Mitch Joel advocated limiting the number of people he follows on Twitter and not automatically following back everyone who follows him, acknowledging the possible hypocrisy (he doesn't use this word in his post) of appearing to be generous by following everyone when in reality you're filtering people out. 

I don't agree with all of Mitch's reasons for limiting follows - I rarely use who someone follows as a criterion for following them myself, and I'm not interested in gaining credibility as a result of whom I choose to follow (be careful not to misunderstand Mitch here; I believe he's talking about being helpful to potential followers, not about judging followees). However, he says that being selective in following actually indicates an interest in true connection; it's a much better signal than following more people than you could ever hope to connect with, and I agree with this wholeheartedly. 

Mark Schaefer seems to be advocating following back everyone (barring obvious spammers and porn sites) who follows him. Everyone is amazing, and everyone is worth a follow. He also seems to misinterpret (in my view) Mitch's rationale for not following. He selected a person whom he assumed Mitch would never follow because this person wouldn't be deemed an "A-Lister" - note that Mitch never used this term; Mark interjected this term on his own - and then proceeded to build a hypothetical argument for why Mitch would be wrong not to follow such a fine man, and is in fact missing the point of social media by not following everyone.

(Note: I don't know who it was that coined the term "A-Listers" in connection with Important Bloggers or Important Tweeters or whatever, whom one assumes are better than the rest of us, but I would like to punch that person in the nose!)

So what is my view?

One of the early social media concepts I learned from Mitch Joel (Six Pixels of Separation, pp. 50-51) is to think about why I'm on Twitter at all. Strategy must dictate tactics. My first goal on Twitter is to learn from others, to educate myself. My second goal is to build relationships with people in my network. My third goal is to establish credibility in my field. So it seems obvious to me that these strategies should dictate who I follow on Twitter, which is why I find myself for the most part in Mitch's camp rather than Mark's. There is a limit to how many people I can learn from or build relationships with on line - not because there are a limited number of interesting people out there - far from it - but because there are limits to my available time and attention span.

So for what it's worth, this is what I do on Twitter. 

When I first started, I searched for people to follow, people in the legal industry, people in marketing whose expertise seemed relevant for my small business situation, other bloggers. And I started following them. I don't actively search any more; I follow a few more people each week, but I generally find them through the re-tweets or #FollowFriday recommendations of people already in my Twitter stream.

And I really don't care that much how many followers I have - I suppose my feelings would be hurt if I only had 2 (I have more), but it isn't a goal of mine to reach the 16,700 or the 21,800 followers (at this writing) that Mark and Mitch have, respectively. I do gain followers every week, and I'm pleased about that, but I don't try to strategize about how to gain more.

As for following, I follow somewhere around 350 people now I think. And already I can't possibly read or process more than a small sampling of tweets from all of those people - god help me if I followed 14,600 as Mark does! 

I have lists - mine are public rather than the private lists discussed in the comments to Mitch's post - I don't have anything against private lists, but I don't have any. (People follow several of my lists, too. And I'm on several lists made by others.) My lists enable me (in my beloved TweetDeck) to focus on particular topics, depending on what I'm doing or am interested in at a given moment. Some of my lists relate to my legal work. Others relate to marketing and business. Still others relate to wine, or are location-based. It is sometimes fun to look at my entire Twitter stream as it flows by, but for the most part, if I follow you but you're not in one of my lists, chances are small that I'll see your Tweets.

In light of the difficulty I have paying attention to only 350 people, I can't possibly get my undies in a bunch if I follow you and you don't follow back! (Some of the commenters to both blog posts seemed genuinely insulted about this!) There's only so much information a person can absorb, and we each have to determine what our priorities are, and if I'm not your priority, that is A-OK with me. In fact, I may not even know whether you're following me back or not. I do not check. If I get a notification that you've followed me and I see I'm following you too, I think "Oh that's nice!" but beyond that I don't give it a lot of thought.

And I don't automatically follow back everyone who follows me. How do I decide? It's admittedly a very quick, very subjective snap decision. When I get notice someone is following me, I glance at any followees-followers we might have in common, mainly for clues about how she found me. I'll look at her profile, see what she does, read a sampling of tweets. If she's a legal professional of some kind, I'll probably follow. If she's not, but there's a variety of stuff in her tweets (RTs, links, @replies), I'll probably follow. If all I see are what appear to be sales tweets, I probably won't. If there is no bio, or there are no tweets, I probably won't. If all the tweets are in - say - Portuguese, I probably won't follow either . . . I'm sure she's interesting, but if I can't read it, I don't see the point. 

At this point I follow people in a variety of professions and locations. Of course I follow a lot of legal professionals, but also people who specialize in marketing, sales, business, copywriting, web design; it's an increasingly eclectic list. If we've interacted in a chat arising from a webinar or some other common interest, I'll definitely follow. If when I look at a profile and a sample of tweets, I have an "I like this person!" reaction, I'll definitely follow. Maybe I wouldn't even make the same decision on two different days - as I said, it's pretty subjective. 

However, I definitely don't feel an obligation to follow everyone back. I think that's a numbers game, and I don't take it that personally, and if you do - well, my apologies.

Periodically, I'll go through my followers and look once again at who's following me that I'm not following, and reevaluate it. I'll also periodically cull down who I follow a bit. 

My final observation: I really enjoy Twitter! I try to be helpful and friendly and pass along things that interest me, and I do experience a gratifying connection with many of the folks in my network. All of which reveals how very far I've come since I wrote my Confessions of a Lurker post!

So there you have it. Follow me on Twitter if you like! :P And tell me what you think in the comments!

After all, it's just an experiment!

People are going to peg me as a Peter Bregman groupie.  Oh well, there are worse things, I suppose.

Bregman wrote another post last month that has stuck with me ever since, called Live Life as an Experiment.  In it, he tells a story of an experiment in which he returned an item to a store and tried to get out of paying the 20% restocking fee.  His experiment succeeded; he appealed to the store manager’s generosity and avoided paying the fee, and learned that many people really do want to be generous, given the chance.  But he drew a much bigger lesson from this, which appeals to me a great deal.  And that was,

Live life as an experiment!

“Because when we live life as an experiment, we are far more willing to take risks, to acknowledge failure, to learn and develop. That's what experiments are all about: discovery and growth. There is no real failure in an experiment because it's all data. If something doesn't work, that's simply data that leads to changing behavior to see if something else does work.”

Bregman's argument suggests to me that I might be willing to do something I would normally find embarrassing, if it’s an experiment.  Take, for example, business cold calling!  Something I’m horrified at the thought of doing, for a number of reasons which are probably pretty sound.  But what if I made an experiment of it?  What if the point was to see whether a cold call resulted in a meeting, or in a hang-up?  If the goal of the experiment is simply data, then either result is OK, right?

What other business related icky projects could I turn into an experiment?  How would this mindset improve my willingness to take a risk?  What could I learn from it?

Who knows, it might even result in increased business!  Now, wouldn’t that be grand?

25 Things

This is admittedly a rather odd, random post for this blog, but it was inspired by a wonderful, fairly recent post by one of my favorite bloggers-writers-inspiring people, Barbara Winter, called Things I Haven't Told You, and perhaps it was a bit of an odd random post for her as well.  But I had fun coming up with it!  So I'm going to go ahead and "pooblish" it (as Havi would say)!  Here goes, 25 random things even friends and family may not know (or remember) about me, in pretty much the order they popped into my head:

1. I once cooked a complete Indian (as in the country, predominately N. Indian, if memory serves) meal for a chef of a well known Seattle restaurant.  Quite scary!
2. Game of darts anyone?  As a kid, I was the unfortunate recipient of a dart to the face, a result of standing in the wrong spot at the wrong moment.  No lasting scars, happy to say.
3. I do not own a DVR or Tivo and have no plans to buy them – in fact, I plan to discontinue Cable altogether in the near future - just have never wanted to give TV quite that much importance.
4. I hate sit-coms and reality shows with equal vigor.
5. When I was a mere youth of 23 (or 24), I managed around 20 people for a month or two in a massive database and mailing project.
6. I have lived in the greater LA area on two separate occasions in my life, approximately 20 years apart.
7. I have been interested in wine tasting and (modest) collecting for almost 25 years.
8. I used to be very unhappy about being sent to bed just when the Flinstones was coming on TV (this was prime time, not re-runs my friends - boy am I dating myself).
9. When I was very little, my parents nicknamed me DeeDee in hopes of avoid the Daffy-Duck teasing.  It didn’t work, and the DeeDee nickname never stuck.  And, I eventually developed some affection for those references and bore the nicknames of Daphe, Duck and Duckling rather happily.  (DON'T call me that now, unless you are my brother.)
10. I have never enjoyed going to bed early or getting up early, and I probably never will.
11. When I was young, Music Man was my favorite movie musical, and I used to know all the lyrics to all the songs.
12. I took ballet lessons until I was about 7 (I had no talent to speak of) and later regretted that I quit.
13. I studied piano for about 15 years.  I didn’t play half badly.  (Now I haven’t played for a very long time, but hope to pick it up again someday.)
14. Apart from babysitting, my very first job was as a helper at a neighborhood pre-school.  Adorable kids, but I’ve hated the smell of Lysol ever since.
15. I’ve never worked as a waitress or in any other capacity in a restaurant, and given my love of cooking, I think it would have been helpful.
16. The above doesn’t include fast food however; I did spend a summer working at a Taco Bell.
17. Once I had a dream about a rather involved sort of team game not unlike hide and seek (the rules of which I’ve long since forgotten), and proceeded to organize 7 friends to play the game one weekend.  I don’t remember much about the game, but I recall we all had a good time.
18. I came to my love of opera via Wagner, which is unusual – most people start with Puccini or Mozart, I think.  (I love those composers too, of course.)
19. I travelled through Europe for 8 weeks with a college girlfriend when I was 22; it was a wonderful and in many ways a formative experience.
20. I loved to read as a child and would become so engrossed in my book that my mother would have to call me multiple times (from 10 feet away) before I heard her.
21. My 3rd grade teacher was the first to complement my writing skills when she assigned a little short story assignment.
22. However, I have always been so intimidated by writing fiction that I dropped out of my college creative writing class – couldn’t handle the stress of it.
23. I camped and hiked my way through the Four Corners area alone for a month when I was 38.  One of the incredible highlights of my life!
24. When I was in college, I wanted to be a student forever.  Philosophy-Lit major – yeah baby, loved it! 
25. I dabbled in at least three graduate areas of study (or four, depending on how I count) and ultimately didn’t complete any of them.  And I’m OK with that.

Got your own list of things most people don't know about you?  Share some in the comments!

What Matters To You?

I was recently left a bit breathless by a very arresting blog post by Peter Bregman called “Don’t Regret Working Too Hard.”  The springboard was an article suggesting that as people near the end of their lives, their two most common regrets are not having lived a life true to themselves, and having worked too hard.  From this, Bregman suggests that one might address – or perhaps prevent - these regrets by figuring out what really matters to us, and trying to spend time working on those things, rather than on things that are not meaningful to us.
 

As a CEO, Bregman took his post in a different direction than I can as a small business owner with no employees, but his chief point still brought me up short.

So the question is, what matters to you?

That is a critically important question to explore.

After all, I don’t want to spend any time – now or later – regretting that I worked too hard, or regretting that I missed out somehow on being my best self, doing what I most wanted to do.  And for me, it isn’t so much about working too many hours, but rather, working on projects I don’t value.

On one level, this idea is reaffirming to me, because I’m aware that I started down this path of owning my own business for precisely this reason.  I became aware that what really matters to me is having a work life that isn’t so alienated from my “non-work” life.  Having more autonomy, more control over the texture and quality of my days.  Being my own boss, reaping all the fruits of my own labor rather than primarily enriching others. 

So in that respect, I am indeed spending my time working on what matters to me, and that is a gratifying thing to realize.
 

My challenge going forward is to never stop asking myself what matters most to me, and to continue to find ways to spend my time doing just that.

What matters most to you?

Newsletter Launch! Or, Where Have I Been?

It is true that I haven’t posted here for a while.  A bit of a noticeable absence.  A long pause.  So what’s up with that?  What have I been doing?
 

Lately I have been preoccupied with planning a new resource that I’m actually quite excited about!  It is the launch of my Drescher ProParalegal Newsletter for paralegals, legal secretaries and other legal support staff!  (Attorneys welcome too, of course!)
 

A newsletter is something I’ve been thinking about for some time.  The more I've thought about it, the more I like the idea.  I believe I have useful and practical knowledge to share, and a perspective on law firm life that comes from my varied employment background, all of which I enjoy writing about.  This blog has never felt like the perfect medium for that kind of writing. 
 

Even more important, what I’ve missed the most about my law firm employment has been the many wonderful opportunities I had to train, to exchange knowledge with peers, and to mentor junior staff.  I’m hoping my newsletter will provide an avenue for doing so once more.
 

My newsletter will be a culmination of the reading, research and on-line participation I've been doing since I started my freelance business.  It will include practice tips and resources for my fellow legal staffers.  It will include lots of links to articles that interest me - articles that are thought provoking, or inspiring, or just plain laugh-out-loud-funny.  It will report on what I'm up to, where my various business, educational or networking events are taking me, and what I'm learning from them.  I also plan to to share fun tidbits about my other passions for cooking, entertaining, wine and food.  I believe it will be both relevant and entertaining for my colleagues in the legal profession.  What a blast!

 

But isn’t the competition steep?  After all, there are a lot of fine newsletters already out there – I know, because I subscribe to a number of them, and will continue to do so!  Well, I don’t think it’s about competition.  I believe all the many legal newsletter writers out there have their own niche to fill.  I believe there is plenty of room for us all!  In fact, readers will probably see links to some of these writers’ articles included in my own newsletter!
 

In short, this newsletter is something I’m quite excited about, and am having a lot of fun doing.  And it is my sincere hope that it will be valuable for my readers too! 
 

Perhaps it will even be valuable for you!  The first edition will be available next week!  Why don’t you sign up to receive it?  Just click the link here, and follow the usual instructions, OR use the sign-up form to the right in my blog sidebar!  And then go on and share it with your friends!  Email me with your comments and ideas! 
 

And if you don’t see me posting quite as much here on the blog in the weeks ahead, you can be sure you will see my tips, resources and insights in the newsletter in weeks to come.  Cheers!
 

Here are the usual, but very true, disclaimers:  All newsletter content will be public (i.e., nothing confidential, nothing related to any specific law firm or client), and included for information or entertainment purposes only.  I am not an attorney, and no newsletter content will constitute (or probably even remotely resemble!) legal advice or recommendations on any legal matters.  And probably most important of all, your email address will never be shared, rented or sold, and you can unsubscribe at any time.  (But of course, I hope you don’t! :P)

Those Pesky Little Rules!

When I began my career, very few (if any) states regulated the paralegal profession, and I remember the topic being somewhat controversial.  Now, over 20 years later, a growing number of states, including California, have some form of regulation for paralegals, and many view regulation as a beneficial thing for the profession.  (For a very useful overview, see Getting legal with paralegals: A look at state regulations (Durgin, Catherine R. 2007. Business Law Today 16 (3)).  In addition, last week’s The Paralegal Voice informative podcast addressed the issue of regulation, among other topics.) 
 

When I worked in Big Law, I didn’t have to think much about the state legal requirements for paralegals, because my employers did it for me.  My qualifications as regards education and experience were easy to verify. And the firms I worked for provided ample in-house MCLE seminars (mandatory continuing legal education, for those of you not in the industry), and encouraged us all to attend them.  Some firms kept track of my MCLE credits for me so that I didn’t even have to do the arithmetic - how sweet is that!  As a result, I rarely gave it a thought.
 

Now that I am self-employed as a contract paralegal for multiple attorneys and law firms, the weight of this responsibility falls on me a bit more heavily.  There is no one overseeing this for me; I’ve got to stay on top of it myself! 
 

Why is it so important?  I mean after all, nobody is really checking!  Well, my failure to keep my requirements up to date could have a very negative impact on my clients. 
 

This subject was highlighted in a recent MCLE I attended, co-sponsored by the Sonoma County Bar Association and the Redwood Empire Association of Paralegals, called “Paralegals 101.”  Among many other helpful reminders was a discussion of several recent California cases in which paralegal fees were either reduced or stricken altogether from fee recovery awards because the moving party failed to show that the paralegals whose fees were being sought were qualified under the relevant statute.  Obviously this means that if any client of mine hopes to recovery my fees some day, it is incumbent on me to make sure I have the required proof that I meet the education and law-related experience requirements, and that my MCLE credits are up to date.
 

In my experience, most attorneys don’t give much thought to whether their paralegals – be they employee or contractor – meet the requirements of Bus. & Prof. Code §6450.  But if one of my clients got her motion to recovery my fees denied because I was lacking in some respect, you had better believe that client would care then!

 

California Business & Professions Code §6450 et seq. defines the qualifications and requirements for anyone holding the title of paralegal or legal assistant, including education and/or experience qualifications, and mandatory continuing legal education requirements.  It prohibits a paralegal from providing legal advice, representing clients in court, or contracting with or being employed by anyone other than an attorney while performing legal services.

Sunday Six Word Memoir

I’ve had an unsettling week.  Unsettling in a good way, that is.  It all started a little while back when I scored a copy of Dave Navaro’s ebook, 7 Steps To Playing A Much Bigger Game.  Which is not hard to do, since he’s giving it away on his website, how cool is that.  Although I think I got it from somewhere else. 

In any event, reading and working through it has been challenged my thinking quite a bit, as I’m struggling to build my little great big freelance and virtual paralegal business in a difficult economy.  It’s challenged me to ask myself if I’m really "all in" on this project, and if I really am, then what else am I prepared to do to succeed.  Beyond that, how much further can I take my ideas; what additional services or products can I provide that might benefit my clients even more, while yielding greater income for me?  What am I willing to invest, of my time and effort and resources, in order to insure my success?

As a result I’m in the midst of adding to my marketing arsenal, and planning new approaches for reaching new clients.  I’m far from finished working these ideas out, but in the interim, here is the next in my series of Six Word Memoirs – a memoir to encapsulate my week:
 

Be all in; go all out!

Got your own Six Word Memoir?  Feel free to share it in the Comments!

Face Time, or, Working That Room!

Networking events were not part of my life when I was employed in Big Law – or at least I didn’t perceive what I was doing to be “networking.”  I rubbed shoulders with other paralegals and legal support professionals at MCLEs and other seminars, and of course met people in other industries at MeetUps and other gatherings.  I made friends where I could, noted interesting information I came across, but didn’t consider such events essential for my livelihood.
 

Now that I’m a business owner, events where I can meet fellow entrepreneurs and other legal professionals have become hugely important.  I seek out such gatherings wherever I can, and I make it a priority to show up.  Of course my direct mail, email and internet marketing are all worthwhile, but there’s something irreplaceable about meeting someone face to face.  I remember the people I meet, and what I’ve learned about what they do and what they need.  And I hope they remember me!
 

I attend county Bar Association events, paralegal association meetings, e-discovery seminars, as well as local business networking events whenever I can.  I still try to make friends.  I still note interesting information I come across.  If I meet someone who could benefit from my contract paralegal services someday, of course I make a special effort to learn about her firm and practice.  However, I find that people in other industries are great connections to make as well.  I never know when I might have a need for the expertise of someone I meet outside the legal profession, or whether I will meet someone I can refer to them.

Last week I attended an event hosted by the Napa Chamber of Commerce at the beautiful Artesa Winery.  It was a gorgeous setting and a beautiful mild summer evening.  I met interesting people in the wine industry, video and internet marketing fields, direct mail and network marketing areas, and yes, the legal industry too.  The wines and the food items from local restaurants were excellent, and it all made for a lovely and beneficial evening.
 

Yes, I still experience some initial reticence to striking up conversations with strangers, but once I get going I do love to chat with people I meet, learn about how they’re operating their businesses, and compare notes on marketing strategies and the economy, etc.  I try to focus on making friends rather than doing a hard-sell about my services, and I try to follow up with emails to everyone I meet that I want to stay in touch with.
 

Will I get business directly from such networking events?  I certainly hope so, but it isn’t solely about that.  Rather, it’s about making connections in my local community, establishing friendships with people I can help and who can perhaps help me one day.  It’s about Whuffie.
 

For another take on networking events, I highly recommend these:  Chere Estrin’s wonderful post, You Call This Networking?? – boy, can I relate to this anxiety!  Also, an inspiring post from Women Grow Business called,  Want to Grow Your Business? Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone. 
 

So what about you – do you network?  Feel free to share your stories in the comments!

Some of the Things I Need to Know I Didn’t Learn in Kindergarten

Whatever our chosen profession, we’re always learning.  I’ve tried to learn most of my paralegal skills through formal education, observing others more experienced than myself, being mentored, etc.  However, I’ve got to admit that some of my greatest lessons I learned from my mistakes!
 
Early in my career, I was a paralegal in some small law firms, where I was mentored by some very skilled attorneys, and had the chance to do some fairly substantive work.  But as I say, I was inexperienced, and mistakes were made.  By me, that is.  Now I look back on that time fondly because it was formative and my mistakes made me a much better paralegal.
 
One of my attorneys frequently tasked me with writing letters and drafting discovery requests for her, and she was irritated when I gave her drafts containing typographical errors.  It only took a few occasions of being thus taken to task before I learned to proofread everything I wrote.  Again.  And again.  And even backwards.  And I’m grateful to her, because there is really no excuse for giving a supervisor a draft containing typos.  Why shouldn’t my work be as flawless as it can be?  Why should I ever strive for anything less? 
 
There was a day when one of my attorneys phoned me from a deposition quite concerned because he had no court reporter, and it turned out this was because I had failed to schedule one.  Yikes!  I immediately phoned our favorite court reporter who, in a great stroke of luck, happened to be available.  She got to the deposition in record time and saved the day, while I learned a big lesson about keeping deposition checklists to assure everything was scheduled in advance and every detail was in order.

I worked with another attorney whose biggest peeve was people making excuses.  He could forgive any mistake (my failure to reschedule an expert's trial testimony comes to mind!) if one would only own up to it.  So when something went wrong, I learned to make a beeline to his office to talk it over with him, ready with a proposal for fixing it and ready to take my lumps and do whatever had to be done.  He may have been disappointed at the error, but he respected my frankness, and this habit of taking responsibility for my mistakes has served me well ever since.
 
There was another occasion early in my career when I was put in charge of a large filing with a lot of evidence, much of which had to be filed under seal.  I delegated the project of preparing declaration exhibits to a junior clerk.  This was the right thing to do, because she was bright and hardworking, and I couldn’t get everything done myself.  But my mistake was in blithely handling my part of the filing without adequately supervising her portion of the project.  When I checked in on her and her crew mid-afternoon and found they were far behind schedule, I realized we were in danger of missing the filing deadline.  PANIC! 

I rushed to my supervising attorney, described the problem, and we devised a Plan B and made our deadline, but I’ve never forgotten this lesson.  It is a good idea to delegate tasks, but I cannot delegate supervision.  I need to see the big picture, stay on top of all the moving parts, check in on my team, make sure everything is on schedule and if it’s not, readjust immediately.  Often this means doing less of the work myself, in order to supervise the work others are doing more effectively.  The experience made me a much better manager of staff and projects, which is an important skill for a paralegal to have.
 
Got your own stories of lessons learned?  Feel free to share them in the comments!

Apologies to lovers of Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, with a note to say many things I did learn in kindergarten still serve me quite well too.

How to Succeed in Business . . . by Really, Really Trying

Occasionally I read an article or blog post I find so thought provoking, I cannot shake it off. 

Such as last month, when I read Sonia Simone’s CopyBlogger piece, The Three Surprisingly Simple Keys to Success.  What was provocative about this piece for me was the discussion of things that I typically view as outside my control which may actually be very much within my control.

What are the three keys, and are they within my grasp after all?  The article starts with the well-known premise that in order to succeed – in whatever you’re trying to succeed in – you need any two of the three following things: talent, luck, or persistence.  Now, the last one, persistence, may be challenging, but at least it's up to me and me alone to persist or not.  But what if I’m neither talented enough nor lucky enough?

Talent

I’ve been accustomed to thinking talent is innate.  Something I was born to be good at.  Some “gift” that always came naturally to me.  (Phrased that way, how many of these do I actually have?!?  Hmm . . .)  For example, I had a bit of an ear for music when I was young, and thought of it as a “talent” I had been born with - possibly discounting too much the 1-2 hours per day I practiced (which is of course nothing by musicians’ standards - but still).  But Simone suggests that what we think of as talent is more often something we love so much that we do it a lot, in which case does the success stem from innate ability, or from “nonstop, almost obsessive practice”? 

Thought provoking question!  If some activity I need to make my business succeed - such as successful marketing, thoughtful use of social media, writing useful articles - doesn’t come naturally to me, do I give up on talent and turn to the other two Keys to Success?  Nope.  I keep marketing.  I keep working at communicating.  I write, and write, and write some more. 

As Simone writes, “The more you work, the more talented you get.”  Which is actually a huge relief!

Luck

Luck is obviously completely outside my realm of influence - or so I thought.  But what if luck isn’t really “luck”?  If a brand new client phones me because my marketing piece lands on her desk the very day she needs help, is that luck?  Maybe, but if I strew my marketing pieces wider and farther and more strategically and more often, can I improve the odds of such a thing happening?

If I bump into three potential clients at a social event and spark their interest in my business primarily because I’m likable and I express confidence that I can benefit them, is that lucky?  Perhaps a bit, but if I get out more often and meet more people, and if I’m putting my most likable self forward at all times, do I improve my odds? 

What if I’m always striving to be kind, be helpful, be generous, improve my karma, and increase my whuffie?  What if these things, over time, bring me more business and happier clients?  Is that luck?

As Simone says, “The more you work, the luckier you get.”  Good news!

Persistence

I’m not suggesting this one is easy; however it is a lot easier for me to realize that this particular key to success is within my control.  I need to keep at it and not give up.  Keep working hard and well for my clients.  Keep dreaming up new avenues for finding and attracting clients.  Keep marketing.  Keep writing.  Keep interacting.  Keep striving to be generous.  Keep doing my best work.  Relentlessly.  Every day.  No matter what.  Without fail.

So when I’m tempted to feel discouraged that things aren’t going my way, not falling into place, not progressing quickly enough, this article is an excellent reminder to me that if I just persist, keep working hard at all the tasks before me, perhaps I can increase my talent, create my own luck, and my business will become a success.

Building My Business or Spinning My Wheels?

When I first started my own business, I floundered trying to figure out how to be productive.  After all, I had spent much of my work life having my activities dictated by supervisors.  Obviously, one of the appeals of entrepreneurship is that I do in fact now set my own schedule and determine my own work activities!  But instead of being happy about that, I was frustrated at all the distractions hurtling my way that I wasn’t managing well, and anxious that I wasn’t getting enough done, or wasn’t getting the right things done.

After all, there are many things I need to fit into my schedule in order to keep my business running, and part of my learning curve as a new entrepreneur has been figuring out what those things are.  I devised ever longer lists of activities I hoped would grow my business.  Yet, even with to do lists, I still wasn’t content with my progress, and felt that important tasks were slipping through the cracks due to distractions, or poor time management, or perhaps just through poor prioritization.  Or perhaps because I just didn’t know what the heck I was doing!

Mostly I felt I was spinning my wheels.
 

Finally the messages of the business books and blogs I was reading sunk in, and I stepped back and thought about strategy.  I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating.  Mitch Joel talks about tactics - in my case my to-do list - being useless without a strategy.  I needed to ask myself why I would do any of the tasks on my to-do list, and which piece of my overall strategy each item supported.  So I sat down and thought about my business strategy, and prioritized broad business goals.  Then I listed categories of tasks under each goal, and I made sure that every task I dreamed up to do fit somewhere into that strategy and supported at least one of those goals.
 

Even that wasn’t enough.  It doesn’t do to merely write up a strategy; I must implement it.  So I have devised a daily schedule for myself.  I have even set up reminders.  And I am trying to stick to my schedule.  I may make daily decisions about flexing parts of the schedule here or there depending on my client commitments or appointments, but I am finding it tremendously useful to have thought through a plan for my day which is based upon my business strategy, rather than the whim du jour.  Here’s how it works.
 

Obviously work for my clients takes priority, and having lots of client work is the point of the whole exercise.  So when I have client work to do, I devote large chunks of time to it, and fit other tasks in as I may.  That said, these are the tasks I make sure I work into my schedule.

Social Media

 

I set aside some time each day for LinkedIn, Twitter and my RSS feed.  I check in on LinkedIn, see if there are any group discussions I want to contribute to.  I skim through my various Twitter feeds, click on interesting links, and retweet things I find useful.  I skim through the blogs in my RSS feed, and comment on or tweet blogs posts, as seems appropriate.  The business strategy here is three-fold.  First, it’s educational for me; it helps me keep abreast of the trends in my industry.  Next, I am building on-line relationships with people in my field from whom I can learn and whom I can perhaps assist.  And finally, I am developing my “brand” as a skilled paralegal who is an expert in her field.  However, I could spend all day on these things, so I set a time limit to it – I try to keep it to an hour (90 non-consecutive minutes max).
 

Writing

 

I set aside time for writing projects.  I am always working on articles related to the legal industry and/or paralegal work.  I make them available for download on my website, and I plan to pursue publication avenues for some of them in the future.  The business strategy behind this is twofold:  I want to continue to learn and keep my skills sharp, and the research required by writing articles accomplishes this.  And second, writing articles helps me in that above-mentioned “brand development.”

Marketing

 

Do you remember that line from the movie Glengarry Glen Ross, “Always Be Closing”?  The business strategy here is “Always Be Marketing.”  I can’t afford to take a break from this.  I need to find ways to reach new markets, and to stay on the radar of potential clients.  I always have a few marketing projects going, whether it’s tweaking my website, developing new marketing materials, executing a direct mail campaign, building my marketing database, in person networking with former colleagues or potential clients, or studying marketing books.  I need to be relentless in my marketing efforts in order to keep business coming in the door.

The Rest of It

 

Recently I have begun scheduling regular time for writing posts for my two blogs, because I’ve realized that was the only way I would fit it in.  It is my hope that this will help me post a bit more consistently in the future.  I also set aside time most days for a little work-out, and this happens whether I have client work or not.  No one is going to keep me healthy but me!
 

Add in errands, meal preparation, and reading my various business books and magazines, plus some cooking magazines and the occasional novel (this usually happens in the evenings when my brain is too weary to “work” any more), and my days are very full!  That’s a good thing!
 

But the best thing of all is that when I regularly review my strategy for growing my business and the activities needed to support that strategy, and then stick to a schedule for chipping away at these activities, I accomplish more, and I hope the things I accomplish are actually pushing my business strategy forward! 

 

What are your time management strategies?  Feel free to share them in the comments.

Honesty Is The Best Policy (Or, Ben Franklin Had It Goin' On . . .)

I believe that ethics, and in particular what’s referred to as a “work ethic,” is a combination of personal values and smart business best practices.  A happy marriage of altruism and healthy self-interest, if you will.  The values part is comprised of stuff instilled in most of us as children by parents, teachers, community leaders, etc.  Values such as telling the truth.  Having integrity.  Refusing to cheat, or even to give the appearance of cheating.   Keeping confidences (particularly important in the context of the legal industry!).  Keeping promises.  Doing our best work.  Being careful, being thorough. 

Now that I’m a business owner, I find that the best practices part, interestingly, is comprised of much of the same stuff.  It’s good business to be honest, because it’s imperative that my clients trust me, and honesty builds trust.  It’s good business not to cheat on things like billing and time records because this too builds trust.  It’s good business to do the very best and most thorough work I’m capable of, because this builds my reputation as an exemplary service provider.  It’s good business to be efficient, to work thoroughly yet quickly.  To always meet deadlines, always perform what I promise I will perform.  To have my clients’ best interests at heart.  All of these things engender trust, and enhance my reputation as a business owner.

Even if I hadn’t had these values drummed into me as a youth – and I did! – it would be in my best interest, and the best interest of my business, to adopt them.

I suppose that as a service provider, I could be tempted to hoodwink a client into hiring me by advertising skills I don’t have, or to try to hide my mistakes instead of owning up to and fixing them, or to bilk as much money as possible out of any given client or project.  I have certainly witnessed all of these behaviors during the course of my working life.  However, not only would these tactics be unethical, they would also be very short-sighted.  The goal is to build a steady client base of repeat customers, clients who are so ecstatic about my work that they not only keep hiring me, but practically trip over themselves in their haste to refer others to me.  The only way to achieve that kind of loyalty is to provide outstanding value – the very best work product in the most efficient time frame possible.

So in light of all that, here are some of business policies I follow in my contract paralegal business:

•    Discuss with my attorney client deadlines for each task, and for the project as a whole.
•    Provide my attorney client with regular written updates on the status of my assigned tasks, on hours billed to date, and a realistic estimate of hours needed to complete all projects.
•    Obtain approval from my attorney client prior to embarking on any new projects or any tasks not previously discussed, and before incurring any costs.
•    Perform all assigned tasks on schedule, and within estimate (which means I had better provide an honest, accurate time estimate!).
•    Bill my attorney client only for time actually spent working on his or her tasks  (i.e., not for lunch breaks, stretch breaks, computer problems, etc.).
•    Proofread everything I write, whether it’s a document to be filed with the court, a memorandum, an invoice, or a simple email.  After that, proofread it again!

•    Maintain a professional demeanor at all times, in all my dealings with my attorney client, his/her staff or clients, the Court, or vendors, whether in writing, in person, or on the phone.
•    Take all steps necessary to protect the confidentiality of my attorney client, and of his or her clients:  secure data stored on my computer and in my back-up system; refrain from discussing any client information with any person except my client or his/her staff.
•    Finally, when I get calls from non-attorneys (and I do!), refer them elsewhere, because I am not authorized to practice law!

Note:  This post doesn’t directly address the specific ethical obligations imposed upon paralegals by state and federal regulations or bar association standards.  There are some great blog posts on these issues out there, however.  Check out Vicki Voisin’s Ethics Tip: Think Before You Send!, or the excellent How Do I Remain Ethical? guest post by Ellen Lockwood on Practical Paralegalism, or The Empowered Paralegal’s thought provoking post discussing attorney supervision, just to list a small sampling.

Do you have ethical best practices to add?  Feel free to share them in the comments!

Blog Current: Wading Through an Endless Flow of Ideas

Why do I subscribe to blogs and news feeds?  Because subscribing is such a huge time saver, as shown in this cool little video!
 
But the prior question would be why do I read blogs at all?  Because I want to keep abreast of law practice trends.  Because I never owned a business before, and I barely know what I’m doing.  Because some days I’m scared to death!  Oh, and because it’s fun!
 
The blogs in my RSS reader fluctuate.  Being self-employed, time management is something I constantly wrestle with.  Mindful that I need to spend time on the most important things, I regularly review my subscriptions and remove blogs that I’m either – let’s face it, just not reading – or else not benefiting from any more.  But what benefits me?

Those benefits fluctuate too, as I move through different phases of my entrepreneurial pursuits, but generally, my blog subscriptions fall into three categories: law and paralegal blogs; marketing and business blogs; and what I think of as “entrepreneurial inspiration” blogs.  (There are also food/wine blogs, but that’s a topic for Sonoma Sip.)  

Here are just a few of the blogs in each category that I read regularly.
 
Legal Profession
 
LTN Law Technology News – LTN is a news feed of articles from a variety of sources focused on technology in law practice.  As technological advances have always been of great interest, but also of great importance to me as a paralegal, I find this feed extremely useful.  It also has a focus on e-discovery, which is a big interest of mine.
 
Practical Paralegalism – Lynne DeVenny is a North Carolina paralegal who writes a highly engaging blog about and for fellow paralegals.  Her posts are a mix of education, paralegal news and funny or moving anecdotes, and I always enjoy it.  Check it out!
 
Georgetown Law’s E-Discovery Law Blog - As I mentioned, I'm quite interested in e-discovery, and consequently I subscribe to a number of e-discovery blogs.  Scholarly yet very clearly written, it covers an interesting array of e-discovery related topics.
 
Marketing & Business Advice
 
Six Pixels of Separation – a marketing blog written by Mitch Joel of TwistImage.com, author of the recent book by the same name.  I enjoyed the book, and I also subscribe to Mitch’s podcast.  If there is one significant message I’ve gleaned from Six Pixels, it is to continually ask myself why.  Why should clients hire me instead of someone else, why is anyone interested in anything I have to say, why am I choosing this marketing method over another?  My strategy has to dictate my tactics; otherwise everything I do is just a distraction.(fn)   Thought-provoking stuff!
 
IttyBiz: Marketing for Businesses Without Marketing Departments – a hilariously funny yet very insightful blog written by Naomi Dunford.  I need to remember not to sip coffee or wine or any other liquid while reading Naomi’s posts lest I spew it all over my computer when I burst out laughing, and the smiles would be reason enough to read it.  But the blog is also full of marketing insights geared straight toward my very small sort of business.
 
Entrepreneurial Inspiration
 
Buon Viaggio – a blog written by Barbara Winter of JoyfullyJobless.com fame.  As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, her book was highly influential in my decision to start my own contract paralegal business.  Her blog continues to inspire, and encourages me to revel in the fact that despite all its challenges, becoming self-employed was the best thing I could have done in this season of my life.
 
Seth’s Blog -  I realize it’s quite unoriginal to adore Seth’s blog – it might just be the most popular blog on the planet – but I don’t care.  Seth’s posts are endlessly honest, insightful, and arresting, and I rarely if ever fail to be challenged by them.  Perhaps the two most transformative messages for me have been the importance of generosity in my life, in my relationships, in my business, and the importance of what Seth calls “shipping.”  Do it.  Get it on the market.  Start the business.  Execute the plan – not the perfect plan, just the plan I have right now.  Act, move, get it done.  I need this kick in the pants every day!
 
I could talk about many more noteworthy blogs – and perhaps I will in a follow-up post.  These blogs might not be your cup of tea – what benefits me right now might be – probably is! – different from what benefits you.  Regardless, I wholeheartedly recommend that you spend a slot of time a day or a week feeding your mind with insights from others that might hone your skills, challenge your thinking, give you new ideas, or simply provide encouragement that you’re on the right track!
 
So what are you reading?  Feel free to share it in the comments!



fn:  Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone, by Mitch Joel, at 50-51. New York: Business Plus, 2009.