A recent article on FindLaw Selling Pre-SEO’d Websites has the Legal Marketers Extraordinaire group on Facebook debating: Is this ethical? Or just disgusting.
In short, Findlaw will “sell” (rent) you a website with pre-written content, which they will then update and attribute to the attorney, in an attempt to game the SEO and boost search
A momentary pause in my vacation to bring you the latest installment of the showdown in Texas between the “haves” (a JD) and have nots (“non-lawyer” professionals). In his must-read post, Texas Scold ‘Em, RyanMcClead responds to Chrysta Castañeda‘s article from Texas Law Book entitled Get Wall Street Out of the Practice
For a profession that can literally live or die by the comma, the word “non-lawyer” is tossed about to describe anyone without (or in some cases with) a JD working in any capacity within a law firm. Yet “non-lawyer” isn’t a word.
Not only is it not a word, it is not a labor category
I was having a perfectly pleasant Friday afternoon until a member of the LME posted about the Texas Center for Legal Ethics’ Opinion 642:
CONCLUSION
Under the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, a Texas law firm may not use “officer” or “principal” in the job titles for non-lawyer employees of the firm.
The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct also prohibit a Texas law firm from paying or agreeing to pay specified bonuses to non-lawyer employees contingent upon the firm’s achieving a specified level of revenue or profit. A Texas law firm may, however, consider its revenue, expenses, and profit in determining whether to pay bonuses to non-lawyer employees and the amount of such bonuses.
What is the problem that the Texas Center for Legal Ethics is attempting to correct?
While most likely a plaintiff’s firm or SEO marketing company pissed somebody off, the following questions posed could apply to any corporate law firm:
QUESTIONS PRESENTED
1. May a Texas law firm include the terms “officer” or “principal” in the job titles of the firm’s non-lawyer employees?
2. May a Texas law firm pay or agree to pay specified bonuses to non-lawyer employees contingent upon the firm’s achieving a specified amount of revenue or profit?
In other words, let’s just prevent a law firm from, gasp, attempting to act like a business.Continue Reading Dammit. We’re a BUSINESS, Texas Center for Legal Ethics, not just a profession
Oh, those kids over at the Florida Bar Association are kicking it up again.
My friend (and guest blogger) Gail Lamarche just posted this link over on the Legal Marketing Association‘s member listserv, The Florida Bar Guidelines for Networking Sites (updated as of January 10, 2012).
Before we all start to panic, go
I sat down last night to watch the first episode of TNT’s new show Franklin and Bash which has been collecting dust in my DVR for the past few weeks.
I was looking forward to a dramedy with lawyers. Something I could chuckle at, and, yes, maybe get some inspiration for the blog.
So, here’s
A big buzz word these days is “transparency” and what it means. For me, transparency on a blog and in social media is the foundation for the trust we are attempting to build with our reader.I like how Social Wayne describes transparency in social media:
Transparency in social media especially pertaining to blogging
As legal marketers we are challenged with wanting to promote our firms and attorneys v. legal ethics established by our individual states and the American Bar Association.
Legal Marketing 101 is that we don’t print it without the client’s WRITTEN approval. This includes publishing a list of clients on our websites or in the firm