Kudos and thanks to Jonathan Fitzgarrald and Cheryl Bame for gathering together some of our colleagues to produce: “Law Firm Marketing Leaders: Tips from a Collection of Experts,” (pdf). Enjoy the “5 Tips” on the following topics from some of legal marketing’s finest:

I grew up at the foot of Westwood Boulevard, and for those living under a rock, The Wizard of Westwood passed away this week (click here for the UCLA tribute to Coach Wooden or a collection of posts from Bruin Nation). What has amazed me in wake of Coach Wooden’s death are the personal stories I am hearing and viewing, whether on the news, sports blogs, Facebook walls … honorable men and cynical commentators have been brought to tears discussing their love for this man. His reach has far surpassed the boys he coached at Dayton High School in Indiana, Indiana State University, and, of course, UCLA. Coach Wooden had retired by the time I started catching the #12 bus up into Westwood to catch a movie or play games at the UCLA Mardi Gras. Just a few years later, my girlfriends and I would cruise Westwood in my Triumph Spitfire, and on a Saturday night you could find me hanging out at Postermat where my high school sweetheart worked. Is it just me, or did UCLA and Westwood begin to lose it’s glow and charm when Coach Wooden retired? John Wooden didn’t just inspire his players over his tenure. His inspiration changed these boys, who became men, who touched the lives of those about them as well. His words, his quips, his lessons, his character should resonate with all of us who chose to live a life well lived, whether personally or professionally.

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best which you are capable. – John Wooden

His Pyramid of Success is something we should all print and try to live by. Here are a few that “spoke” to me this morning:

Competitive Greatness: “Perform at your best when your best is required. Your best is required every day.” Initiative: “Make a decision! Failure to act is often the biggest failure of all.” Loyalty: “Be true to yourself. Be true to those you lead.” Cooperation: “Have the utmost concern for what’s right rather than who’s right.”

And his 12 Lessons in Leadership:

  1. Good values attract good people.
  2. Love is the most powerful four-letter word.
  3. Call yourself a teacher.
  4. Emotion is your enemy.
  5. It takes 10 hands to make a basket.
  6. Little things make big things happen.
  7. Make each day your masterpiece.
  8. The carrot is mightier than the stick.
  9. Make greatness attainable by all.
  10. Seek significant change.
  11. Don’t look at the scoreboard.
  12. Adversity is your asset.

I never met Coach Wooden. But I am inspired by the stories of those who have: From basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:

It’s very difficult for me to put in prospective what it means for me to lose Coach Wooden. He has been such a constant in my life. Just thinking of him enables me to draw upon the many life lessons that he taught me when I was a student at UCLA. Even though I was not initially aware that I was being taught certain things, they became obvious as the events of my life unfolded. It is hard to describe greatness in words but the accomplishments and lasting legacy of Coach Wooden’s life are a formidable reminder of a life well lived.

From Bill Walton (written 11 years ago, but a must read in full):

It is usually sad to say goodbye to those you love when it’s time to go. Not so with John Wooden. With him, it’s always about the next time, the next event, the next game. John Wooden still has the enthusiasm, energy, industriousness, initiative and love of life that allows him to get up every day, quite early I must add, even though his legs are failing him, with the attitude of “We get to play basketball today. Let’s go.” I thank John Wooden every day for all his selfless gifts, his lessons, his time, his vision and especially his patience. This is why we call him coach.

From LMA‘s very own Ed Poll:

Being a UCLA alum, Coach obviously had a great impact on me. My son went to two of his clinics during his coaching tenure. The only part of the clinic he allowed parents to watch was his famous teaching of how to dress…. He made all the kids take off their shoes and socks, and he taught them how to put them on …. He said basketball is played on your feet … and if you get blisters on your feet, you can’t play.

And while I am not one to shill books, I’ve already pre-ordered The Wisdom of Wooden: A Century of Family, Faith, and Friends. I have a feeling that Coach Wooden has a lot to teach this legal marketer.

I’ve blogged on a few “personal responsibility” issues of late, here and here.

I think the story of Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga and Umpire Jim Joyce‘s blown call, costing Mr. Galarraga a perfect game, is a great example of the power of “I’m sorry.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EmEiFgDf5I]

Listening to Mr. Joyce last night I was so moved by his apology. If you haven’t had a chance to LISTEN to it, please take a few moments to do so on the above link. There are no excuses. There is no blaming. There is only acceptance of responsibility, and the enormity of the mistake made and the consequences to Mr. Galarraga.

Really, it is rare for an umpire to speak to the press, let alone discuss a particular call. Mr. Joyce broke down that wall last night.

If we’re looking for the best of what our sports heroes have to offer, I think Jim Joyce will be up there. This man showed our country such honor and grace through the power of “I’m sorry.”

And what about Mr. Galarraga’s response? ‘Duk, over at Yahoo Sports, summed it up perfectly:

Galarraga was nothing but classy in both his onfield response and postgame behavior and, as Joe Posnanski writes, it’s the biggest lesson we should take from the whole episode. Our reward comes in seeing someone perform at the highest level and then having enough presence of mind to maintain a proper perspective when something goes against them.

And with the world watching and listening, Detroit Tiger’s Coach Jim Leyland maintained the decorum with his response.

And now we wait.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig is contemplating overruling the call by invoking “in the best interest of the game” rule. There are those arguing for and against, and we’ll know in a few hours which way the commissioner will act. (Update: Selig blew perfect chance to be leader for once)

However, I cannot believe that if Mr. Galarraga took to his Twitter account in complaint; if the players had rushed the umpire in a hoodlum like mob; if Mr. Leyland had screamed and screeched his way through the press conference; if Mr. Joyce had not broken the code of silence of umpires, publicly admitted his error, and personally and humbly apologized with full understanding of the consequences of his HUMAN error, that Mr. Selig would even consider overruling the call.

Mr. Joyce should have woken up to headlines of being the most hated man in baseball. Yet, his grace has won us all over. Who amongst us hasn’t made a mistake, an error that affected someone else?

I hope that “in the best interest of the game,” but really, in the best interst of a nation in dire need of positive examples from our sports stars, Mr. Selig makes the call and gives Mr. Galarraga his perfect game.

So what does this have to do with legal marketing? Only that we are all human. We all have pride. We all make mistakes. It is so common (yes I have done this myself) when we voice a complaint, and then learn we were wrong, to either walk away, ignore it, continue to hold our position, push the blame on someone else. How often have you honestly humbled yourself and apologized when wrong? It’s so hard to do, especially once the mistake reaches a public level.

However, I hope we all learn from Mssrs. Galarraga, Joyce and Leyland that while there might not be any crying in baseball, there can certainly be forgiveness, understanding, compassion and some heroes we can point to and say “that’s how you handle a situation like that.”

Yeah, I woke  up this morning to sunshine and my first thoughts were “can’t wait to hang out by the pool and enjoy some BBQ this THREE-DAY weekend.”

But I’m an American (no hyphen necessary) first, and my thoughts turned to what is important about this weekend to remember, and that is our men and women who have served so proudly, who keep us safe from evil, who have been wounded, and who have given their lives for this great country.

To those of you who have fought for this country, who have had family die for this country, I say “Thank you.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5L_23XC3uCY]

I’m reading Tim Corocan’s most recent blog post, Don’t Tell Me What You Think I Want to Hear, Tell Me What I Need to Know!, and I came to a hard stop on this:

At a recent discussion on the topic, a Chief Legal Officer explained the impact of a cost overrun in her legal department.  As a big box retailer with profit margins in the mid-single digits, there is very little excess spending in the organization from which they can divert funds to address cost overruns.  As a result, some cost overruns are distributed as a sort of “tax” on sales, or in other words, for every $50,000 overage in the legal department, the organization must sell an additional $1,000,000 of product above forecast.  And since there are incremental costs associated with additional sales, and in some cases revenue cannot be fully recognized immediately, the actual surcharge is something on the order of $2,000,000. Think about that for a moment.  Imagine the GC addressing her peers in the boardroom in late Q3 of the fiscal year.  She claims that because legal matters are so uncertain there’s no way to submit a proper forecast, and as it turns out she’ll need an additional $50,000 in her budget, maybe more, and so Sales must step up and deliver an additional $2,000,000 in revenue.  Someone’s going to be eating alone in the executive cafeteria.

Have you thought about that? Have you thought what your clients must do to earn the ability to hire you? I know a lot of conversations in law firms deal with how to increase billable hours. But, while you are thinking about increasing billable hours, think about the impact on your clients’ department, and their social and political role within their companies. What VALUE are you bringing with every dollar they spend? I relate to the legal counsel’s predicament. They are viewed as a cost center, not a revenue generator, for a company.  They have a budget that can be cut by the bean counters, because the bean counters don’t really appreciate that spending money on outside legal services might be the cheapest route the company can take. Maybe that’s why we legal marketers have turned more towards business development when discussing our successes. It’s a lot easier to find someone to eat lunch with when you’ve helped them land a $2 million client, rather than asking for $75,000 to fund a new project that cannot measure its ROI in cash.

I have a favorite band, The Airborne Toxic Event. They’ve achieved fame and a lot of airplay for their song, Sometime Around Midnight. They’ve performed on Letteman and Jimmy Kimmel Live. They have more than 38,000 fans on Facebook (yes, I’m still calling them “fans”).

Organ at Disney Concert Hall
The Sports Dude and I saw them perform a few months back at the Disney Concert Hall, where lead-singer Mikel Jollett kicked the night off on the BIG organ. There was a marching band from a local high school, along with Mariachis and dancers. We watched in admiration at the band’s awe looking around, absorbing where they were. How did they go from local band in Echo Park, to performing to a sold-out crowd at the Disney Concert Hall? Better yet, as the band prepares to release their second album, they have in no way lost sight of their roots and who they, as individuals and a band, are. Last night the Sports Dude and I attended a fundraiser for THEIR Neda Project. Neda Agha Soltan, you might remember, was the young woman whose murder on the streets of Tehran was captured on YouTube last year.
I am Neda: Eric Geller, Mikel Jollett and Heather Morse-Milligan
The venue for the night’s fundraiser wasn’t the Disney Concert Hall, or The Nokia Theatre. It was held at The Echo, the club where the band played their first gig. A little joint, with no marquee, on West Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. It’s the kind of neighborhood where the local parking is $2.50 a DAY, not $2.00 an hour for the meters. This night was about their cause, their passion, that THEY brought to Amnesty International, the granddaddy of human rights organizations. The band saw the video of Neda’s death, and, like so many of us, were moved. They, however, put their movement into action. Before the show, Mikel was mingling amongst us in the audience, talking to fans, snapping pictures, discussing his passion, encouraging us to get more involved. From the stage he was humbled and moved. He was impassioned and grateful. I have to say, this has been my experience EVERY time I have seen the band play. They are humbled and grateful. How refreshing. So, what does this have to do with legal marketing? It reminds me of the story in Outliers about the founding of Skadden Arps:

In the beginning, it was just Marshall Skadden, Leslie Arps – both of whom had just been turned down for partner at a major Wall Street law firm – and John Slate, who had worked for Pan Am airlines. Flom [who did not receive any offers during hiring season] was their associate …. “What kind of law did we do?” Flom says, laughing. “Whatever came in the door!” Outliers, p. 118

I summed up my “experience” with the Skadden chapter:

So, what’s the point of the story? I think there are many, but you’ll have to read the book to find the ones that resonate with you.

I, for one, forget sometimes that so many of our firms have been built on the humble backs of hard working men and women. Go through the framed degrees on the walls of your founding partners and you will find amongst the Harvard and Yale degrees, Brooklyn Law School, Seton Hall University, Pepperdine University, University of San Diego, and Southwestern University School of Law.
While it is admirable to aspire to the reputation of Skadden Arps, it is just as admirable to aspire to the tenaciousness of Marshall Skadden, Leslie Arps, John Slate and Joe Flom.
As we advance in our careers, and our law firms grow in prestige, we cannot lose sight of where we come from … our roots. I’m not sure why we so often turn our backs on what made us successful in the first place. Instead of turning our backs on our roots, would it not be better to embrace it, and pay it forward? For fun, let me add a few stories from the personal side of my life to bring this discussion closer to me as an individual:
In 1905 my grandfather arrived at Ellis Island when he was just six months old. By the time I was born, 60 years later, my grandfather was an established and respected businessman in Los Angeles’ garment district. My grandparents lived in a penthouse on Doheny, just south of Sunset Boulevard, where his neighbor was Art Linkletter. I’m a “California-Mart– Morse” which actually used to mean something here in L.A.
When I was around 11-years old, my dad gave me a pint of heavy cream and a hand blender. I sat on the floor of our living room in the Hollywood Hills attempting to make whipped cream. After what seemed like hours, and a very tired arm, I achieved success. My dad then explained: His father made his way through college at CUNY working at a country club where he, as a Jew, could not be a member. One of his jobs was to make the whipped cream. After college, due to religious discrimination, he could not find work in his chosen profession (his degree was as an engineer), so he changed his name, moved to California, and achieved great personal and financial success in the schmata business. And while my grandfather never ate whipped cream again, I did learn that from hard work anything is possible.
The lessons continued into the next generation. When my dad was ready to move on from being a ’57 T-Bird driving, surfing major at Santa Barbara College, my grandfather handed him a broom and told him to start sweeping the floors of the factory. My grandfather insisted that my dad learn from the bottom up. My father too achieved financial and personal success. For the most part, I had a very comfortable upbringing, where my dad made certain to throw in more life’s lessons than this young girl ever wanted to learn.
In the HOT summer of ’77, when I was 12, my dad put me to work in that same factory. I tagged and bagged, and worked from bell to bell, punching in and out, along side everyone else. My only perk was that my dad bought my lunch. Just like his father did for him, my dad insisted that I too learn from the ground up. I might be the boss’ daughter, and the founder’s granddaughter, but I was no different and no better than anyone else.
And while the garment industry in Los Angeles has pretty much died off, and our factories are long gone, the lessons I was taught by my father, and my roots are not.
As I have achieved personal and professional success, I must admit that there have been times where I have lost sight of my roots. I have thought of myself as entitled to something that I didn’t really deserve or personally earn. I was ungrateful for my sweat and tears … why couldn’t it just be handed to me? It seemed so easy for everyone else!! However, my personal journey, especially over these past four years, has lead me to reconnect to what drove me to become successful: Hard work. Family. Personal responsibility. And an attitude of gratitude. Every day I have the opportunity to look out from my window on the 47th Floor where I can see the factory on Los Angeles Street where I spent my summers. I see the Mart that my grandfather helped build with his brothers-in-law, and which is now lost. I am so humbled and moved by my family’s successes, and their failures. While our family business is no longer intact, my aunt ensured that my grandparents’ legacy would live on through the Claire and Theodore Morse Foundation, and the good deeds the foundation supports.
I never want to forget where I come from. That’s one of the reason’s that I have “reclaimed” my family name … Heather MORSE-Milligan. The Morse is what defines me as an individual. It is where I learned the value of my existence. And while my children will never have the experience of working in the garment factory over the summers, I have a feeling they’ll learn how to whip up a bowl of cream by hand.

Corporate counsel read blogs? They get their news from Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin? Wikipedia is a trusted resource?? Who knew?? Well, besides all of us??

A new survey reveals that sophisticated purchasers of legal services in major corporations increasingly are influenced by attorney-authored blogs in forming opinions that influence law firm hiring decisions. Additionally, nearly 70 percent of respondents aged 30 to 39 expect their consumption of business and legal industry news through social media platforms to increase within the next six months.

The Corporate Counsel New Media Engagement Survey, conducted by Greentarget Strategic Communications, ALM Legal Intelligence and Zeughauser Group, reinforces what so many of us already know to be true: The adoption of social media and social networking is growing and here to stay. In the words of the Borg: “Resistance is futile.” There’s a lot of rich data in the report, so download and enjoy. A couple points that resonated with me:

Facebook: A Blurring of Professional and Personal Use •  37 percent of counsel aged 30-39 have used Facebook for professional reasons in the past 24 hours, and 48 percent – nearly half – have used it professionally in the past week. This is significant on two levels. First, it signals that tools law firm marketers may have deemed irrelevant up until now may, in fact, be very relevant in the near future. Second, it shows a willingness among younger counsel to allow their professional lives to merge with their personal lives. •  Facebook emerged as the third most frequently used new media platform among inhouse counsel from the largest companies ($1 to $10 billion in revenue), with 28 percent having used the tool in the past 24 hours.

Blogs Blog use, in comparison, is more consistent across age groups and company size, demonstrating broad acceptance of the channel as a viable source of news and information. Blogs are the most frequently used tool among in-house lawyers at the largest companies (revenue of $1.5 billion to $9.9 billion) with 35 percent having visited a blog in the past 24 hours, and 54 percent in the past week.

It’s also about the future buyers:

Social Media Web Sites 53 percent of in-house counsel aged 30-39 – arguably increasingly the primary purchasers of legal services over the next ten years – cited social media Web sites as among their leading sources of information.

63 percent of counsel aged 30-39 agree or somewhat agree that they envision a future in which a law firm’s prominence through a high-profile blog will play an important role in influencing clients to hire that law firm. That compares to: • 52 percent of counsel aged 40-49 • 54 percent of counsel aged 50-59 • 32 percent of counsel aged 60+ years 26 percent of counsel aged 30-39 agree or somewhat agree that a law firm’s prominence on Twitter will influence hiring decisions compared to zero percent of counsel aged 60+ years, demonstrating that the platform is in the very early stages of attorney adoption, similar to where blogs were three to five years ago. (emphasis added)

You get the idea. Rich data. Lots of evidence. All of which we know lawyers like. Basically, keep doing what you’re doing. Do more. Expand and the audience will grow to meet you … and purchase your services.

Lawyers, it’s time to cut the apron strings and do for yourselves what your marketing department has been doing for far too long. Legal marketers, it’s time to cut the apron strings and empower your attorneys to do for themselves what you have — begrudgingly — done for them for far too long. Let’s face it. Many of us are in a dysfunctional relationship at work with which Dr. Laura would have a field day. I can hear the call now:

Hi Dr. Laura. My name is __________ and I’ve been a fan for a really long time. I have a terrific job. I earn a great 6-figure salary, and I have the opportunity to work with some really  smart people. I’ve got a degree hanging on my wall, and a window overlooking, well, it doesn’t have the best view, but it’s a window office nonetheless. Anyway, Partner X walked into my office (well, he didn’t really walk into my office, I bumped into him in the hall) and he asked me to get his profile loaded on LinkedIn because one of his really important clients sent him an invitation. But that’s not what I’m calling about. Dr. Laura, I was hired here with the promise of a seat at the table. But that’s not what’s happening. Partner X wants me to bring in more business, get him a speaking engagement at this incredibly prestigious conference that he’s never attended, make reservations for him and a client at a fancy restaurant in our building, and complete an RFP that’s due in two days, but has been sitting on his desk for two weeks. Dr. Laura, how do I get Partner X to respect me as a professional?

Well, Dr. Laura isn’t here right now, so for 5 cents I’ll share with you my experience: Grow up and cut the apron strings. You know something brought his on, and it began yesterday with a conversation over on the Legal Marketing Association‘s listserv where one of our colleagues asked how to get LinkedIn to load all her attorneys’ profiles for her. It continued in the car with a Dr. Laura call about getting your kids to take personal responsibility. And finished off with a conversation last night with a girlfriend about cutting the apron strings to her son because one of her jobs, as a mother, is to help create an independent human being who contributes to society. Which got me thinking about my role in creating rainmaking lawyers. Basically, I don’t. I really can’t. Rainmakers just are. Rainmakers have their own set of personality traits. Then there are the rest of the attorneys who are expected to make their own rain as well. And THAT is where my job gets interesting. Think about it. Rainmakers are independent and aggressive. Rainmakers make it happen. They don’t turn to the marketing department to do it for them.  They don’t wait around for a new client to drop in their lap. They take care of business, and (speaking from personal experience) the legal marketer’s biggest gripe is that they always call us in at the last minute, or they are running outside the firm’s parameters and we need to reign them in “just a little.” So let’s take a step back and take a deeper look at my three points from my day yesterday:

Loading profiles to LinkedIn

This is bigger than LinkedIn. The success of any social media and social networking program is the SOCIAL aspect. While it’s okay to set up an attorney’s profile with their bio and picture, the attorney needs to OWN their profile, OWN their relationships and utilize the tools, otherwise LinkedIn is just another website. But, then again, this is also bigger than social media and social networking. It’s about delegating most of your business development to someone down the hall, which cannot be done to a successful conclusion. Tim Corcoran summed it up nicely in a private Facebook conversation (for which he gave me permission to quote):

Lawyers can delegate marketing, which is about increasing visibility and awareness in the target market. They cannot delegate all of business development, which is about making and nurturing relationships in the marketplace, and moving potential buyers to paying clients. Social networking lies in the middle because some of it is marketing … and some of it is BD. Helping to get lawyers started on LinkedIn by uploading bios is okay, but stopping there so they can check off “Get a LinkedIn profile” on their to-do list is silly.
So, go ahead and pre-load their profile on LinkedIn, but TEACH them how to utilize the tool to their advantage. PARTNER with your partner. Don’t do the minimal amount of work and HOPE they get the most out of the tool, conference, opportunity, etc. Don’t finish a TASK and think the job is now done.

Taking personal responsibility:

I admit it. I loved this call on the Dr. Laura show yesterday because they were talking about MY life: a 9-year old kid who can’t seem to take personal responsibility for ANYTHING. It’s always someone else’s fault. Or, in the case of the dysfunctional attorney/legal marketers relationship: it’s always someone else’s job and responsibility. Attorneys, it’s time to step up and take personal responsibility for your marketing and business development, and not point finger down the hall when your billable hours are down. I’m not asking you to craft brochures or create ads, but I am asking that you not delegate the development of personal relationships to someone else. It WON’T work. I cannot tell you how often over the past 12 years I’ve been in legal marketing that I have had an attorney lament: “I’m too busy to do X, Y or Z.” And then a year or two later the same attorney comes running into my office (whether I’m still working there or not) in a panic because that big case is settling and they have nothing in the pipeline; their contact at Acme-Big Client retired; the client was just bought out my another company who is happy with their current counsel, etc. Real simple: You cannot outsource the development of relationships. Period. You have to put in the time. Every day. ALWAYS. YOU need to identify, connect, and then maintain those relationships YOURSELF. That’s the “authentic” piece to this puzzle. Social networking platforms, such as LinkedIn and Facebook, are great for this. Twitter is being used successfully to identify relationships that can be enhanced and built upon. That’s what a SMART phone is great for … they all come with applications to help you keep  in touch via your social media and social networking platforms. Upgrade today! And, yeah, it takes work, and then some more work. But you can make it work for you. The marketing department can help you build your structure and train you, via the social web platforms, or in the “real” world. But in the “real” world, it takes the attorney’s participation as well. To get on that panel at that conference YOU need to be involved and engaged. You need to join the committee, put in the time. Yes, there are some conferences where you can write a check, helicopter in, give a presentation, and leave before shaking a hand, but you will achieve NO benefit from it. Identifying and developing relationships = attorney’s responsibility. Creating the environment to develop the relationships … that you can outsource to me and my team.

Here’s a little side-note/secret: speaking at the conference isn’t the goal. Building relationships is. The relationships are built at the committee level. They are built at the bar the night before the conference really kicks off. They are built during the really hideous lunch, or at the reception.They are built by hanging out at your firm’s table in the exhibit hall. They are built through CONVERSATIONS.

Cutting the Apron Strings:

As a senior marketer, it is my duty and responsibility to coach, train, prod, and develop these attorneys to be the best that they can be. If I constantly do for them what they can and should do for themselves, I am am not only participating in the dysfunctional behavior, I am actually creating it.

  • You’re an adult, if you write a marketing plan, than do it. My job is not to manage your plan. My job is to help you create it, put it into motion, achieve results.
  • I will give you an idea for a blog post, I will edit it and I will post it, but I won’t write it.
  • I will get all the details for speaking at the conference, but if someone needs to join the committee, it’s not going to be me.
  • I’ll format your PowerPoint, but you have to get me the outline.
  • I will (have my secretary) fill out the check request to join the organization, but you need to attend the meetings, fill the table of ten, SHOW UP.
  • I will prepare the proposal, but you need to write the cover letter and make the follow up call.
  • I will fill out the Chambers’ survey, but if you don’t get me a list of your recent cases/matters, well, you’re not going to get ranked very high, so don’t blame me.
  • If you say you’re going to do something, than do it. I really don’t have the time or the inclination to follow up to make sure you called and followed up on that … fill in the blank.

I think you get the picture. The great thing about social media and social networking tools is that they allow for a perfect opportunity to “deputize” each attorney to be their own legal marketing or PR enthusiast. As we deputize our attorneys to take ownership of their SOCIAL footprint, I know we can EMPOWER them to take ownership in other areas as well.

Courtesy: LA Times

Maybe it’s because I live in Los Angeles? Maybe it’s because I read too many diverse news sites? Perhaps it’s because of my background in politics? But I feel in my bones that there’s a storm a brewing, and it’s gonna get a lot messier before it all settles down.

This post is not about taking sides in the current political debate of immigration (reform, protest, whatever side you rest on). It’s about cautioning us all to maintain our dignity and relationships when commenting, discussing, and debating this highly charged issue.

I don’t know about you, but I have friends and colleagues all over the board on this issue:

Why bring this up on The Legal Watercooler? Because a lot of these debates and conversations will take place around the water cooler, in the elevator, next to a secretary station, in a conference room, while sharing a meal, drinks or a business dinner.

The conversations will spill over onto Facebook, Twitter, and into the comment sections of blogs with your name, email and possibly your website linked.

It is up to us to show restraint of pen, tongue and keyboard when participating in the political discourse about us. We are professionals and we conduct business with people of all political persuasions. We are also well educated and opinionated, and we will have the opportunity — and the DUTY — to participate in the current debate.

Over the past month, I have had some WONDERFUL conversations with friends of opposing political opinions because the discourse remained civil and on point; and I have had to bow out of conversations with friends of like political opinions because the discourse became ugly, personal and insulting.

While face-to-face you can see when you have offended someone to the point of no return, in social media you will not.

So speak freely, share your thoughts and opinions, and, as I remind my children, before you say it, ask yourself:

  1. Is it truthful?
  2. Is it kind?
  3. Is it necessary?

Thank you. It’s such a simple sentence, yet absolutely perfect and can certainly perk up someone’s day. Happened to me today. I was just doing my job. Did some due diligence on a potential client. Prepared a customized introduction. Hyperlinked the PDF. Emailed it off to my managing partner. I then left the left the office to go pay my car registration, only to find out I needed a smog test, and it was 4:40 p.m. on a FRIDAY, and the first place I called closed at 5:00 … if I could get there by 4:50 they could do it … ACK!!!! I was a little bit frustrated, and then I got the following email from my managing partner, following up on the PDF:

I just wanted to thank you both for the work you did today to pull this off.

Wow. So simple. Yet, absolutely perfect. So, did you remember to say “thank you” today??