Michael Ferguson

Sounds crazy that lawyers beginning to use the Internet would be viewed as a legal tech trend for 2018. But that’s what Keith Lee, a Birmingam attorney and editor of Associate’s Mind shared with Clio in their survey of “ Top Law Firm Technology Trends to Watch for in 2018 .” As Lee sees it, the biggest risk for lawyers in 2018 is the demand for legal services is not growing, it’s shrinking. Combine that with the trend I said was a threat last year (non-lawyer legal services) and that means there are more people competing for a pie that isn’t growing. Below average lawyers are going to be squeezed out. Jordan Couch ( @jordanlcouch ) of Palace Law agrees. As clients demand the same services for less money, lawyers will have to find new ways to increase volume if they are to maintain the same workload and profits. Reiterating his prediction from last year, Lee sees the internet as the biggest opportunity for solos and small firms to prevent from being squeezed out. Uber didn...

Long time blogger and New York Criminal Defense Lawyer, Scott Greenfield, continues the fourth wave of law blogging discussion in his announcement that there won’t be a  J-Dog Memorial Prize , awarded the last five years to the Best Criminal Law Blawg Post. The award is named after criminal attorney,  Joel Rosenberg . There have been occasional blawg posts from the elders of the crim law blawgosphere, but only a few, and only occasionally. It’s not that these aren’t good and worthwhile posts, but you already know their work, read their brilliance, and don’t need me or this contest to spread the word. The J-Dog award need not be over. Last month, Greenfield and I had lunch back in Oyster Bay and and agreed the time was ripe for a fourth wave of blogging. Real blogging by real lawyers, as opposed to lawyers and law firms throwing up “blogs” to grab attention and web traffic. Some even written for the lawyers by “ghost bloggers” and marketing compa...

Christmas comes a few days early at LexBlog with the announcement that lawyer and leading legal journalist, Robert Ambrogi, is joining LexBlog as our publisher and editor-in-chief. Bob is one of the best known legal journalists in the country. He served as editor-in-chief of the National Law Journal and was founding editor of Lawyers USA. Bob’s blog, LawSites , is the most widely followed and respected legal technology publication in the country. More than one entrepreneur has told me it was Bob’s coverage that made for the success of their comopany. In addition to blogging, writing and speaking about the Internet, social media and legal technology for nearly 20 years, Bob is the author of multiple books. He has also co-hosted the award-winning podcast, Lawyer2Lawyer, the longest-running legal podcast ast over twelve years. This Fall, Bob received the Yankee Quill Award, presented by the Academy of New England Journalists “to honor extraordinary newspaper men and women for their ...

As we look back at 2017 and gear up for a new year, it's smart to brush up on new trends in the legal industry.  Technology has impacted our profession dramatically in recent years, and it continues to do so at an accelerating pace. If you're not on the technology bandwagon, you and your firm will have a hard time staying afloat. This fact isn't a revelation. We've known for decades

Law blogging has come a long way in the last fifteen years. Not all of it has been all good. Real lawyers engaging on real subjects in an engaging fashion, for many lawyers and law firms, has gone the way of content marketing sold as a billboard by web development companies. Rather than contributing to discussion on the law and making a sincere effort to make the law more digestible to average folks, we have lawyers buying content from marketers to slap on a website with the only goal being search engine traffic. My friend, Scott Greenfield, a New York criminal defense lawyer and long time blogger at Simple Justice, is right that blogging takes effort and desire. Most people just don’t have the chops or interest in doing it. Some suck at it. Some aren’t nearly as fascinating as they think they are. Furthermore, law blogging takes being authentic, having a face, being real. In the absence of being real and putting in the effort, lawyers “buy content from Bangalore or walk away,”...

I received an email this afternoon from Edwin Khodabakchian (@ edwk ), the founder of Feedly. He relayed that together, we’ve read 1.2 billion articles on  Feedly this past year. Feedly is a news aggregator, and by far the most popular one that I know of. By news aggregator I mean an application that runs as a mobile app or on a desktop browser that pulls in and organizes the news and information you want to see. Blogs, columns, mainstream news reports, you name it. You can subscribe by source (ie, abovethelaw.com) and get all the stories from the source or subscribe by subject (FMLA) and get all the stories from influential sources reporting on a subject ala FMLA. Using feedly is a huge plus. As Khodabakchian wrote: Some of us connected to thought leaders or found new favorite blogs, while others learned new skills or searched for deeper insights into changing industries. We are all united, however, in the belief that reading makes us smarter. I’d be lost w...

When I saw that Twitter was considering increasing its character limit from 140 characters, I saw it as a bad thing. A company struggling in the financial community’s eyes making changes for the sake of change – not vision. I also saw an increase as making for a poor user experience. People would start to use Twitter for more than it is, short quips with a link for getting more. People who don’t know how to use social media, often marketers and communication professionals, would broadcast more, believing more characters was more, not less. And with longer tweets, the ability to scroll would be harder as columns on Twitter’s home page and lists would be twice as long. I was wrong. Twitter with the 280 character is a better experience — and more valuable for those looking to learn, share, engage, nurture relationships and build a name. All the stuff smart lawyers and other professionals are after. Leading technologist and the inventor of the blog, Dave Winer ( @davewiner ) was right...

Do you buy gifts for co-workers and colleagues?  Our office holds a Christmas party each year where it's optional.   While I don't normally buy the attorneys gifts, I have a couple of paralegal friends that I don't actually work with that I buy gifts for each Christmas.  I also do the Secret Santa at work involving the paralegal staff where I need to find something for a co-worker as well.  I

With the rise of the startup culture, law grads are looking for in-house opportunities. Hands-on action and innovation, as opposed the grunt work many young lawyers are doing at law firms, is appealing to grads looking to find purpose and to see tangible results in the workplace. This from Caroline Spiezio ( @CarolineSpiezio ),  reporting for Corporate Counsel. Look at Samantha Von Hoene , who three years ago turned down a clerking position at a law firm to intern in-house at a finance firm. Von Hoene told Spiezio: Most people said, ‘Oh Sam, you’re so crazy, the rest of us are going to the law firm first, and we want to go in-house but [on] the traditional route. It seemed like they’d already resigned themselves to this route. I was viewed as someone who was taking a different path. Three years later, Von Hoene is head of legal affairs at Enjoy Technology , a startup that sends experts to deliver, install and explain how to use technology products from companies such as So...

A patent paralegal is a specialized type of legal professional who works under the direction and/or supervision of an attorney or team of attorneys within the realm of patent law. You will find patent paralegals working in law firms, patent agencies/offices and universities. The field of patent law is highly specialized and complex, so attorneys and offices that work with patent applicants