Al Nye The Lawyer Guy

Support Iran's Green Revolution

I had a conversation with someone on Twitter recently about her decision to support Iran’s demonstrators by performing a 1–click green tint change of color to her Twitter avatar.

“Do you really believe adding a color tint to your avatar is doing anything?” I asked.

What about other alternatives? I suggested writing to President Obama, her representatives in Washington, or writing an article for the local paper or on her blog.

She responded that she’s been studying the history of the issue and wasn’t ready to write about it because she wasn’t schooled enough. 

“Okay. But what makes you think that a green overlay to your avatar is accomplishing anything?” I asked. 

Her response was that all communication is doing something and that U.S. businesses spend billions on colors and slogans and that they expect and get results.

What do you think?

For me, I think that I’m more in agreement with Tom Friedman in his NYTimes column about how to support Iran’s “Green Revolution.” His point is to hit Iran where it hurts: in the wallet.

If these dictators didn’t have the oil money that we keep funneling to them, they wouldn’t be able to keep their people pressed under their thumbs. Friedman uses the Soviet Union as an example.

It’s an interesting read and I urge you to click on the link.

Of course solving our energy needs takes a whole lot more than just one person reducing his or her oil dependency. But if just one person does it, that’s a first step.

And in my mind, it’s a much bigger step than a 1–click green overlay to your Twitter avatar.

                  

Portland Foolishly Wants To Pay Green To Go Green

The City of Portland is considering the idea of hiring a full time coordinator to help make the city “greener” and improve its efforts to become more earth friendly.

Please — where do these people come up with these ideas?

Is going green important?

Sure.

Would I like the city to explore new ideas and avenues for ways to promote energy efficiency, reduce waste and improve sustainablity?

Yes, I would.

Do I think the city should hire someone full-time to be a green coordinator?

No!

Come on people — aren’t you paying attention?

The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is rising, state and local budgets are being slashed, cities and towns are promoting reduced staff and no-tax-increase budgets to cope with the economic downturn. Major business, like GM just this week, are going through bankruptcy. The housing market still hasn’t bottomed out and foreclosures are commonplace.

And the city wants to hire another full-time employee to coordinate going green?

City Councilor David Marshall says that the city could hire the green coordinator for three years using part of some money from federal stimulus funds the city hopes to receive over the next few months. The City Council could then decide “whether to keep the position at the city's expense after three years.”

No way. Hire a person for three years and it’ll be next to impossible to let that person go. I say don’t do it.

Apparently students from the Muskie School of Public Service recently compared Portland’s environmental efforts to some other U.S. cities and found that Portland could do more.

Well, duh!

Of course there are other cities in the country that do more environmentally than we do.

But guess what? I bet if you did a study on crime, homelessness, poverty, road maintenance, access to public transportation, or any other topic you want to choose, there will be cities in the U.S. that do a better job than we do in Portland.

So what?

The Muskie School of Public Service found that a coordinator “could help make a long list of changes, from expanding community gardens to keeping dog waste and other pollutants out of Back Cove and Casco Bay.”

Here’s a thought.

Instead of hiring a coordinator to make that long list of changes, what if we asked City Councilors to consider those changes themselves each time they’re faced with making decisions that impact the environment?

I mean seriously — are our City Councilors so overworked that they can’t consider green options on their own without hiring someone to do that for them?

The Press Herald article talks about the many excellent envoromental things being done right now in Portland. It appears that we’re making great progress.

Before hiring someone to improve on something we’re already doing quite well, let’s consider putting our efforts to work in areas in the city that need substantial improvement.

 

 

Social Media for Lawyers – What Are You Waiting For?

You've heard the hype. Print media is dead. The Yellow Pages are passé. You have to be on-line to survive.

 

Websites aren't enough. After all, everyone has a website – big deal. The only thing a website provides is an on-line brochure of your firm. The typical website provides little or no ability to interact with current or potential clients.

 

You need something more. So what should it be – a blog perhaps? Or what about all those popular social networking sites you've heard about, like:  Facebook, My Space, LinkedIn, and Twitter?

 

Do lawyers really need to do that stuff?

 

They do if they want to survive. I've read estimates that over 80% of people begin their search for a lawyer by using one of the popular search engines like Google or Yahoo. If someone searched for a lawyer on-line under your specialty, would your name come up at the top of the listings?

 

Even if you have a great website, the likelihood is that you need to do more to attract new clients and consistently be at the top of the search engines.

 

The lesson is clear: lawyers who ignore social media do so at their peril. Your legal competitors are on-line and using social media and are gaining new clients that in the past might have come to you. So stop what you're doing, become a little tech-savvy, and start getting involved in things. Now. Time's a wasting.

 

Oh, I hear your response.

 

"I don't even really know what social media is – how am I going to be part of it?"

 

I'll wager you know more than you think. Remember listservs, email groups, and message boards? Ever heard of wikis – like Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia that anyone can edit?

 

Well, those are the precursors of social media. After that came blogs – which as many of you know are basically websites that can be updated anytime using simple software. Blogs also allow comments to be made by readers. There are millions of blogs on the Internet – and thousands written by lawyers on every imaginable legal topic. 

 

"I can't possibly do all those things and still have time to practice law, can I?"

 

 Yes, you can. And if you want to succeed, you'll have to.

 

Just as surely as computers have replaced typewriters, as email has taken over as a routine means of communication, and as legal research has gone from going to the law library to going on-line, social networking is here to stay. And if you don't participate, you'll be left behind – wondering why you don't have as many clients as you used to, why your bottom line keeps getting worse every year, and why your practice is slowly dwindling.

 

Social networking is not just a passing fad. It's being used by millions of people every single day – and it's being used by your current and potentially future clients too.

 

Social networking is just an extension of listservs, email groups, message boards, and blogs. But unlike those methods of communicating, it's often faster, more interactive, and provides quicker feedback between the participants.

 

LinkedIn, for example, allows lawyers to put up their resume and have it act sort of like a website where other can be invited to "connect" with you. You can send and receive recommendations, write email, join groups that interest you, ask and answer on-line questions, and in general be part of a wide-ranging professional social networking site.

 

Less professional and definitely more social, are sites like Facebook and MySpace where lawyers can post more personal information about themselves and let others – including clients that might be on the sites – get to know them better. They're often informal places where it's easy to discuss non-legal topics: interesting movies or on-line videos, local or national politics, favorite restaurants, the latest N.Y. Times bestseller … whatever.

 

The latest and (at least at this writing) most popular social media site is Twitter. On this site you post just 140 character messages about anything that interests you. Like other social networking sites, you have "followers" and interesting people you follow so that it becomes easy to follow what they're doing as you post what is happening in your life.

 

Twitter has been described as something like being at a big party with everyone talking at once. You're in the center of the room and have the opportunity to pick out a few folks at this huge party and carry on a conversation with them – while still being aware of all the hubbub going on around you.

 

Of all the social media tools, Twitter is the most immediate. It's sort of like instant messaging to as many followers as you have (which for some people is in the thousands) and seeing who responds. From there, the conversation can go anywhere. Hopefully, if you make enough connections, it'll lead to legal work.

 

Ultimately, all these social media sites are just another way for you to interact with people and promote yourself. Each site has its own rules or etiquette needed to fit in. But it's not much different that joining your local Rotary club, Chamber of Commerce or being a volunteer at the soup kitchen or any other involvement in your community. You become a part of a group to be part of a group, help your local community, make new business contacts, do something that is interesting, and hopefully meet some new friends.

 

With social media sites you do the same thing – only you do it on-line. So what are you waiting for?

N.Y. Times Says it best about Sonia Sotomayor

President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has put the Republican Party in a bind….

So begins the Times article.

With Republicans needed the Hispanic vote, it’ll be interesting to see if the GOP appeals to its conservative base, or tries to be expansive.

Since Republicans still haven’t figured out who their leader is since President Obama was elected, I expect their reaction will be all over the board.

Portland Passes Budget With No Increase in Taxes

The Portland Press Herald reports that Portland has passed a “difficult” budget because the council adopted a budget that calls for no tax increase and threatens to terminate half a dozen cops and a like number of firemen.

But the reason for possible layoffs to the police and fire employees is of their own doing.  The city manager met with all of the city's unions and each of them has accepted wage freezes in exchange for preserving jobs during the current recession. 

All of them except for the police and fire department. 

While I have great respect for the difficult work the police and firemen do each day, with all due respect, it’s time to suck it up.  We’re going through some really difficult financial times and these folks were told that unless they agreed to a wage freeze, it would mean job cuts.

They chose a pay increase.  That’s fine.  Just don’t whine when your numbers are reduced.  It was your call.

And as for this being a difficult budget for the City Council to adopt, sure, it’s difficult — but only because you’ve never had to worry much about money before.  Budget increases were the norm, not the exception.

I honestly hope that all future budgets are this hard because city spending has been out of control for years and years.  The only good thing about this recession is that it’s forcing some fiscal responsibility on our elected leaders.  It’s about time. 

Now I can only hope that it continues even when good times come back again.

Trump Correctly Decides Miss California's Fate

You’ve probably read the headlines about Carrie Prejean, the Miss California USA titleholder, and her controversial photos and public statements. 

Apparently, because she posed in her underwear with her back to the camera when she was 17, people are upset. 

What seems to have gotten even more folks riled up was that during the Miss USA pagent, Prejean had the gall to say that she believes that marriage should be only between a man and a woman.

Oh my God!

I don’t know about the pictures and how that might be viewed by the squeeky clean Miss USA folks, but I believe that Prejean has as much right to say that marriage should be only between a man and a woman as someone else might state otherwise.

Sure, I know that some states (including most recently Maine), are now passing laws allowing same sex marriage.  I also understand that what Prejean said isn’t currently the politically correct thing to say (though 20 years ago, someone who said that same sex marriage should be allowed would have been the one to cause a stir).

But hey, don’t we have something called “free speech” in this country?  You can’t have folks publicly saying that gay marriage is appropriate without allowing people like Prejean to say that it isn’t.  While you might not agree with her opinion, I’ll vigoriously defend her right in this country to state it. 

To take away her title because she publicly says what she believes is wrong.  Donald Trump did the right thing today by saying that she can keep her crown.

Maine Governor Signs Gay Rights Bill Into Law

Governor Baldacci surprised lots of folks by signing into law the right of gays to marry in Maine.  By doing so, Maine becomes the 5^th state in the U.S. to legalize same sex marriage.

Opponents vow to have a petition to force a state-wide referendum on the issue.  They hope to overturn the Governor’s decision and the vote of the Maine House and Senate.

According to the Press Herald, if opponents get the necessary signatures (about 55,000) to hold a referendum in November, the law won’t take effect until it is upheld by the popular vote.

My prediction is that the vote will be close — very close.

 

Gay Marriage Bill In Maine Gets Nod

The Maine House enacted a bill allowing gay marriages in Maine by a vote of 89-57 today.  This follows a vote in favor of the bill last week by the Maine Senate. 

Now the bill is sent to Governor John Baldacci for his signature.  The Governor has not indicated for certain what he’ll do.  If he signs it, Maine will be the 5^th state in the country to allow gay marriages.

Governor, the ball is in  your court.

Proposed Bill Would Allow Non-citizens of U.S. to vote

The Portland Press Herald wrote a story today about a bill in Maine that would give non-citizens of the U.S. the right to vote in local elections.

The rationale is that it would allow immigrants the right to have their opinions heard on local issues and provide an incentive to become U.S. citizens.

The opponents say just the opposite: that the right to vote should only be for full U.S. citizens — and just as you have to be a citizen to vote in national politics, you should also be a U.S. citizen to vote locally.

What do you think?

Are You Too Timid To Ask Clients For Work?

Here’s a link to a post about lawyers being too timid to ask clients for work.  Could this be you?

It’s almost hard for me to believe that lawyers are too afraid to ask their clients for work.  It takes me back to the advice by Jay Foonberg in his excellent book “How To Start And Build A Law Practice” where he advises lawyers to place a picture on their desk of a loved one (spouse, children, lover, whatever) to remind them that practicing law is a business and in order to succeed, you must be paid for your work.

The post mentions three reasons some lawyers might find it difficult to ask for business:

• Don’t know how;
• Think it is “beneath them to ask”; and
• Afraid of rejection.

As to “don’t know how” — duh!  Just ask your clients straight out if there is any other legal service you can provide for them.  They’ll be happy you’re thinking of their welfare.

As to the second, just look at that picture on your desk and suck it up.  I personally believe that all jobs have dignity and nothing is beneath folks when they take pride and do a good job at whatever they’re doing.  So ask away.

As to being afraid of rejection, I have no problem with that at all.  After all, I do stand up comedy.  If you’re going to get all upset with rejection, you can’t hope to be on stage by yourself telling jokes.  You either get used to rejection or find some other way to entertain yourself.

So if business is slow, get out there and ask your clients for more!