• Senate Reintroduces, May Attempt to Advance, Paycheck Fairness Act – Washington, DC lawyer Ilyse Schuman of Littler on the firm’s blog, Washington, DC Employment Law Update
  
• Following Kappos v. Hyatt, Supreme Court Denies Certiorari in Streck v. R&D Systems – Newark lawyer John Cahill of Gibbons on the firm’s IP Law Alert
  
• Maryland Investor Defriends Facebook IPO, Likes FINRA Investigation – Philadelphia lawyer James Saksa of Fox Rothschild on the firm’s blog, the Securities Compliance Sentinel
• Industry Report Criticizes EPA Fracking Study for Poor Design, Insufficient Data – Newark attorney Paul Hauge of Gibbons on the firm’s blog, Real Property & Environmental Law Alert 
• Hogan Lovells White Paper on Governmental Access to Data in the Cloud Debunks Faulty Assumption That US Access is Unique – The blogging lawyers and attorneys of Hogan Lovells on the firm’s blog, Chronicle of Data Protection
• POM Wonderful? Not so much. The Better Business Bureau Inadvertently Fuels Class Action Lawsuits – Kenneth R. Costa and Brian Gross of Cooley Manion Jones on the firm’s Defense Litigation Insider
• FTC v. Myspace Part II — The Takeaways – Boston attorney Cynthia LaRose of Mintz Levin on the firm’s blog, Privacy & Security Matters
• How Much Will A Divorce Cost? – Spartanburg attorney J. Benjamin Stevens of The Stevens Firm on their South Carolina Family Law Blog
• Facebook IPO Fizzle Draws Securities Suits – Ohio attorney Kevin LaCroix of OakBridge Insurance Services in his blog, The D & O Diary
• The Impact of Facebook’s IPO on Estate Planning – New Jersey lawyer James McDonough Jr. of Scarinci Hollenbeck on the firm’s blog, Tax, Trust and Estate News

This is what I take from a recent study from IBM that predicts the percentage of the world’s CEOs participating in social media is going to grow from 16% to 57% within 5 years.

I don’t see why law firm leadership would be exempt from the logic and findings of the IBM study on corporate leadership and social media.

The following summary on the IBM report from Mark Fidelman (@MarkFidelman), General Manager at harmon.ie, in his Forbes column yesterday ‘IBM Study: If You Don’t Have a Social CEO, You’re Going to be Less Competitive.’

• While social media is the least utilized of all customer interaction methods today, it stands to become the number two organizational engagement method within the next five years, a close second to face-to-face interactions.
• More than half of CEOs (53 percent) are planning to use technology to facilitate greater partnering and collaboration with outside organizations.
• Companies that outperform their peers are 30 percent more likely to identify openness – often characterized by a greater use of social media as a key enabler of collaboration and innovation.
• CEOs are recognizing that using email and the phone to get the message out isn’t sufficient anymore.
• Using social technologies to engage with customers, suppliers and employees will enable the organization to be more adaptive and agile.
• As CEOs foster collaborative environments employees are encouraged to speak up, exercise personal initiative, connect with fellow collaborators, and innovate.
• CEOs and their executives set the cultural tone for an organization. Through participation, they implicitly promote the use of social technologies.
• CEOs are changing the nature of work by adding a powerful dose of openness, transparency and employee empowerment to the command-and-control ethos that has characterized the modern corporations.

CEOs are not delegating social to marketing, HR, or PR professionals. The study finds business executives are interested in leading by example.

• CEOs regard interpersonal skills of collaboration (75 percent), communication (67 percent), creativity (61 percent) and flexibility (61 percent) as key drivers of employee success to operate in a more complex, interconnected environment.
• CEOs are focused on gaining insights into their customers, something they can glean through social.

Law firms know they need to innovate and evolve to compete. Smart managing partners and law firm executives view running a law firm much like leading companies their firms represent.

As Fidelman says,

Partners, suppliers, employees and customers want CEOs to communicate with them on a personal level to build trust and to help align them to the organization’s strategy. There is a lot at stake here. And if CEOs continue to hide in their Ivory Towers under the guise of some old command and control mentality, the next chapter in their career might be written somewhere else.

Who I am I to say that law firm managing partners and executives are hiding in ivory towers. I’ve never held their position. I can tell you that I do not see many law fim leaders and executives using social media yet. (opportunity for the smart and innovative?)

Given the right ear, I do get law firm leadership to listen. Some even have a paradigm shift as to what social media is all about – not marketing, but communication to foster relationships and innovation.

It’s easy to cast blame at law firm leadership that they don’t get it. That they need to start listening to social media and marketing experts. That they can’t continue with the status quo.

A better approach may be to focus on how law firm leadership can lead their firm through turbulent water by using technology to engage their firm’s lawyers, clients, and the business community as a whole. The carrot being greater revenue and remaining competitive.

To download a free copy of the IBM report go to Insights from the Global IBM CEO Study and register.

• New Jersey Enforcement of Pay-to-Play – A Cautionary Tale for Vendors and Legislators Everywhere  – Washington, DC attorney Stefan Passantino of McKenna Long & Aldridge on the firm’s Pay to Play Law Blog 
• “F-Word” Is Not Illegal – Colorado lawyer Jayme Moss of LaszloLaw on the firm’s blog, the Boulder Criminal Law Advisor
• Is Attendance An Essential Job Function? Not Always! – San Francisco lawyer Morin Jacob of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore on the firm’s blog, California Public Agency Labor and Employment Blog
• Judge Denies Class Certification as California Courts Continue to Weather the Wake of Brinker – Cleveland attorney Jeffrey Vlasek of Baker Hostetler on the firm’s Employment Class Action Blog
• Hot environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest: Coal exports, Pebble Mine, derelict vessels – Seattle lawyer Doug Steding of Steelhad Law on the firm’s blog, Science, Law & The Environment
• Texting While Driving: Could the sender of the text be held liable too? – Marlton, NJ lawyer Stephen Di Stefano of Stark & Stark on the firm’s Personal Injury Law Journal
• “Liking” A Facebook Page Is Not Protected By The First Amendment – New Jersey lawyer Jason Gavejian of Jackson Lewis on the firm’s blog, Workplace Privacy, Data Management & Security Report 
• Study Finds Both Sides See Employment Litigation as Unfair – Texas lawyer Tom Crane on his San Antonio Employment Law Blog
• Day One: Lessons From Amazon.com’s Workplace Culture – Hartford lawyer Daniel Schwartz of Pullman & Comley in his Connecticut Employment Law Blog
• I Saved A Client’s Life, So I Don’t Care If You Hate Me For Being An Asbestos Lawyer – Mesothelioma lawyer Justinian Lane on his blog, the Asbestos Legal Journal 

Kevin McKeown, President of LexBlog, will presenting and moderating a panel discussion billed by PSMA as follows:

Are your firms and professionals hesitant to join the social media movement? Are you interested in learning how to use the Internet as a viable business development tool? If so, you don’t want to miss this session (and don’t let your professionals miss out, either).

Hear from a dynamic roster of practicing lawyers who author active and successful blogs—they’ll share their experiences and offer recommendations for how to get started, how to keep content current and what role their firm’s marketing professionals play in the mix. Notably, these professionals have mastered the art of the close by transitioning their online success to offline success by bringing in significant work on sophisticated matters through business development accelerated by their use of the Internet as a tool.

You’ll learn that the number of visitors to a blog are not the most relevant metric… neither are one’s number of connections/followers/friends on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. Rather, gaining traction for business development initiatives is how professionals should measure the benefits of social media participation. Are your online business development efforts helping to…

• Enhance your word of mouth reputation as a reliable and trusted expert?
• Grow your network of relationships in your industry?
• Get you quoted as subject matter expert by trade and mass media?
• Secure not only new clients, but high quality clients?

Panelists:

• Mike Cassidy, Shareholder, Tucker Arensberg, who blogs at the Med Law Blog
• Bill Maruca, Partner, Fox Rothschild, who blogs at HIPAA, HITECH & HIT
• Lori Wisniewski Azzara, Associate, Cohen Seglias Pallas Greenhall & Furman, who blogs at the Construction Law Signal

Event Details:

• Meeting Time: 8:00 AM
• Event: Using Blogs and Other Social Media Members: Free
• Where: The Rivers Club Non Members: $25.00
• Address: 301 Grant Street, Suite 411 Meeting Place: At Event Location
• Location Website: Link Meeting Address: Same as Event Location

• What’s Not to Like? – San Francisco attorney Debbie Rosenbaum of Morrison Foerster on the firm’s blog Socially Aware
  
• Facebook Co-Founder Eduardo Saverin Criticized for Renouncing U.S. Citizenship Presumably Generated by Tax Savings – Philadelphia lawyer Jerald David August of Fox Rothschild on the firm’s Federal Taxation Developments Blog
• VI Supreme Court Rules Wives Are Not “Property” – St Thomas attorney Laura Nagi of BoltNagi on the firm’s Virgin Islands Law Blog
• No Expectation of Privacy in Emails Sent Over Employer’s Email Account, Massachusetts Court Decides – Boston lawyer Martha Zackin of Mintz Levin on the firm’s Employment Matters blog
• How Much Does a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case Cost? – LA attorney Christine Wilton on her blog, Los Angeles Bankruptcy Law Monitor 
• MLB says they’re Taking their Ball and Going Home: Firing of Arbitrator Das Not Unlike the Politics of Judicial Selection – New Jersey lawyer Joe Bahgat on his blog, The Sports & Entertainment Law Playbook
• Using Daily Reports to Prove Construction Claims – Construction lawyer Matt DeVries of the Best Practices Construction Law Blog
• Did A Legal Malpractice Case Kill Dewey & LeBoeuf? – Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on the New York Attorney Malpractice Blog
• Children Of China’s Elite Attending Top Western Schools: Hypocrisy Or Good Fortune? – China lawyer Malcolm Ridell of RiddellTseng on ChinaDebate
• Rendering unto the Immigration Caesars – Los Angeles attorney Angelo Paparelli of Seyfarth Shaw on his blog, Nation of Immigrators

source: Graphpaper.com

“Democratizing publishing never gets old.”

This from Scott Berkun (@berkun), author and former project lead at Automattic, a WordPress development company, speaking at WordCamp Seattle 2012.

What a thought for American lawyers? “Democratizing publishing.”

Benjamin Franklin started out in publishing in Boston, working for his brother at age 12. Seeing greater opportunity, Franklin moved to Philadelphia to open his own printing and publishing company.

From Mary Bellis, a journalist with the NY Times About.com.

Benjamin Franklin’s publications reflected his democratic spirit and so were popular in format and content. Poor Richard’s Almanac consisted of stories about a fictional “Poor Richard” whose trials and tribulations provided an ideal context in which Franklin could advise readers on politics, philosophy, and how to get ahead in the world.

Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette provided information about politics to the people. Ben Franklin used political cartoons to illustrate news stories and to heighten reader appeal. The May 9, 1754 issue included Join, or Die, which is widely considered the first American political cartoon. Devised by Franklin, the cartoon reflected concern about increasing French pressure along the western frontier of the colonies.

Imagine what Franklin would think today with WordPress at his disposal. In Franklin’s day publishing was an incredibly laborious process. Setting led letters onto flat iron presses. Cleaning the led and presses, with urine, I am told.

Democratizing publishing. Very cool. Very empowering concept for lawyers.

Kudos to the American lawyers and lawyers from around the world who have harnessed the power of blogging.

• To advance the law by offering their insight and commentary in an open source collaborative fashion.
• To help others, whether in-housel, executives, consumers, or small business people, by freely sharing legal information and insight.
• To improve their own station in life and that of their families by becoming a better lawyer through analytical reading and writing which blogging requires. Better lawyers do get better work from better clients.

It’s disappointing that some lawyers have latched onto blogging as a marketing and SEO gimmick. Some going so far as to even have marketing companies write blog content on the lawyer’s behalf.

What would have America been like if Franklin hired out his thinking and writing to folks looking to make a buck?

Sure, there’s always an easier way.

But being part of ‘democratizing publishing’ as means of becoming a better lawyer and as a means of growing ones reputation as a lawyer is a concept good lawyers ought to be able to rally around.

15 years ago this week (5/16/1997), a New York Times headline read: ‘Amazon.com Stock Sale Raises $54 Million.’

SEATTLE, May 14— Amazon.com Inc. sold shares today at $18 each in a $54 million public offering, according to Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, which is managing the sale.

The Seattle-based Internet bookseller sold three million shares for more than the expected range of $14 to $16 a share. It will have about 23.9 million shares outstanding after the offering.

On Tuesday the company increased the size and the price range for the offering from 2.5 million shares at a range of $12 to $14, a sign of healthy demand. The offering has attracted considerable interest because Amazon.com is one of the first companies to exploit the Internet as a medium for commerce.

The public offering values the whole company, which will trade on the Nasdaq, at about $429 million.

The next day, a NYT headline read, “AMAZON.COM STOCK RISES 30% AFTER PUBLIC OFFERING.”

Amazon.com Inc.’s newly public stock began trading yesterday nearly $12 higher than its offering price as investors chased after one of the hottest offerings this year. Amazon.com stock was priced Wednesday night at $18 a share and it opened yesterday at $29.15 on the Nasdaq stock market. After climbing as high as $30 a share, it retreated and finished at $23.50, up 30.5 percent. Amazon.com, an Internet bookseller, has said that it sold $16 million worth of books in 1996 to 180,000 customers in 100 countries. Average daily visits to the company’s Web site rose to 50,000 in December 1996 from 2,200 in December 1995.

Amazon.com Inc.’s newly public stock began trading yesterday nearly $12 higher than its offering price as investors chased after one of the hottest offerings this year. Amazon.com stock was priced Wednesday night at $18 a share and it opened yesterday at $29.15 on the Nasdaq stock market. After climbing as high as $30 a share, it retreated and finished at $23.50, up 30.5 percent. Amazon.com, an Internet bookseller, has said that it sold $16 million worth of books in 1996 to 180,000 customers in 100 countries. Average daily visits to the company’s Web site rose to 50,000 in December 1996 from 2,200 in December 1995

15 years, almost to the day, later, a New York Times’ headline reads this morning, ‘After Buildup, a Modest Start for Facebook.’

While disappointing new investors betting on double-digit gains, Facebook had a wide winner’s circle. At a closing price of $38.23, Facebook’s market value is nearly $105 billion, creating huge paper gains for scores of early insiders, hundreds of employees and some stragglers who bought stakes recently.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 28-year-old founder known for his signature hoodie, owns a fifth of the company, worth $19.3 billion. Facebook’s first venture capital investor, Accel Partners, which wrote a $12.7 million check seven years ago, cashed out $1.9 billion in the stock offering and now holds a stake worth $5.8 billion.

“If you’re Facebook, it is hard to be disappointed when you’re one of the 25 biggest companies in the country,” said Peter Falvey, the founder of Falvey Partners, an advisory firm.

Amazing how achieving a valuation of over $100 Billion is disappointing.

Best I can compute that’s 200 times the size of Amazon’s valuation on its opening. Facebook is the 23rd largest company in the United States ranking by the S&P 500. Facebook may have created more jobs world wide in the last two years, including those working for Facebook and for companies feeding of Facebook growth, API, and Open Graph, than any other company in the world.

Maybe May, as for rituals like the Derby and 500, is the month for seminal IP0′s. Seems to me though that Mark Zuckerberg is following a path laid out by Jeff Bezos, including going public May 15 (missed by a couple days).

• Do something never done before. For Bezos, commerce on the Internet with a peer reviewed system to make shopping easier and more expansive for everyone. For Zuckerberg, a virtual social network reaching to every person in the world so as to allow us to get more done in less time.
• Realize an unheard of valuation for anything like it. Facebook is valued higher than McDonalds this morning and is generating discussion that it could be the first trillion dollar company.
• Personally become forces of nature leading their troops, followers, media, and the investment community to ultimately believe in what the leader was preaching when many had doubts for a long time.
• Today, Facebook’s stock only flatlined, it’s only virtual, they have no products, and advertisers will desert them in time. Remember Amazon.toast? Bezos was going down said the investment community only 11 or 12 years ago.

Sure, it may be difficult to get your head around something you may not use nor understand. And to wonder how this company led by a kid in a hoody that produces no products or services on the face of it can become one of the largest companies in the world.

But times have changed in the last 15 years. Look no further than people being astonished by 50,000 visitors a day going to Amazon.com in 1997 while Facebook has over 800 million regular users.

800 million. And the remainder of the world’s population to go.

• Passing (Assets) Interference…10 Yard Penalty: California Recognizes New Claim in Trust and Will Law! – California lawyer Keith Davidson of Albertson & Davidson on the firm’s blog California Trust, Estate & Probate Litigation
• Staying Afloat in a Sea of Data – Maria Matasar-Padilla of Charles Griffin Intelligence on their blog, The Ethical Investigator
• Computer Fraud and Abuse Act’s Purpose is to Punish Hacking, Not Corporate Misappropriation, Rules Ninth Circuit – Seattle intellectual property lawyer Tonya Gisselberg on her blog, Seattle Copyright Watch
• New York Court to Criminal Defendant: Your Tweets May Be Used Against You – J. Alexander Lawrence and Erin Herlihy of Morrison Foerster and their blog, Socially Aware
• Facing a Dying Nation? – Boston attorney Steve Honig of Duane Morris on his blog, The Law & Other Anomalies
• JPMorgan’s $2 Billion Trading Loss: Starting a Game of Pink Slip Duck-Duck-Goose – Washington, DC attorney Steven Berk on his blog, The Corporate Observer
• Facebook and Estate Planning – New Jersey lawyer James McDonough Jr. of Scarinci Hollenbeck on the firm’s blog, Tax, Trust and Estate News
• Religious employers, the ministerial exception and single moms — again! – Winston-Salem attorney Robin Shea of Constangy on the firm’s blog, Employment & Labor Insider
• The Client is in Charge – Are You Listening? – Legal marketing expert Lindsay Griffiths of International Lawyers Network on Zen & The Art of Legal Networking
• Mortgage Fraud Schemes Take On New Look But the Song Remains the Same – Illinois lawyer Brian Zeeck of Hinshaw Culbertson on the firm’s White Collar Crime & Internal Investigations Blog

For more of the best, check out LXBN, a complete review of the top insight and commentary across the LexBlog Network.

“When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school it’s a wonder I can think at all.”

That’s the first line from Paul Simon’s song Kodachrome. Although 40 years since the summer of ’73 when Kodachrome peaked at number 2 on the Billboard 100, I’ve never been able to get that tune or lyric out of my mind.

Lately I think of Kodachrome most “When I think back on all the crap lawyers learn from legal marketers, it’s a wonder lawyers can think at all.”

Some legal marketers don’t know how lawyers grow their practices. Some legal marketers intentionally keep lawyers in the dark.

Either way it’s a shame. A shame that marketers act with no dignity in serving a profession that deserves, or at least should demand, dignity. A shame that otherwise intelligent people believe the crap taught to them.

I speak, present, and do webinars. A lot.

Everywhere I go lawyers tell me they get their best work by virtue of relationships and by virtue of their word of mouth reputation.

When I’m done presenting lawyers come up and tell me I was the first one who explained to them that the Internet for business development is all about relationships and growing your word of mouth reputation. Just accelerated.

Happened in Hawaii 3 weeks ago, in Vancouver 2 weeks ago, at UW Law School on Monday, and via emails following a webinar with 140 lawyers this morning.

Wow. No one else talks about the Internet being about relationships and your word of mouth reputation?

There are others of course. I’ve heard folks like Ambrogi and Elefant talk to lawyers about the Internet and how used properly it can grow a lawyer’s reputation and relationships. But lawyers aren’t hearing the message.

We have huge companies with boatloads of sales people knocking at law firms’ doors all across the country. We’ve got the large to the small legal marketing companies putting up booths at legal conferences across the country. We’ve got legal marketers speaking to lawyers at conferences and webinars across the country.

And few, if any, teach lawyers that the Internet is all about relationships and a strong word of mouth reputation. Something lawyers understand. Something lawyers value.

What do most legal marketers teach lawyers the Internet is all about?

• Terribly expensive websites that most people don’t trust.
• SEO after the terribly expensive websites cannot be found.
• Analytics, as opposed to being recognized as a subject matter expert and obtaining quality clients.
• Blogs with canned content written by legal marketers, some with posts in lawyers’ names so as to mislead the public.
• Premium social media services where legal marketers post your blog content and articles to Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
• Premium Plus social media services where legal marketers go get followers, friends, connections and likes for you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+.

Do lawyers truly understand these things? No, but after years of crap, it’s a wonder lawyers can think at all.

Kodachrome.

• Privacy Rights of Companies: Trade Secrets and Social Media – New York attorney Michael Schmidt of Cozen O’Connor on the Social Media Employment Law Blog
• MetLife Pays $40 Million To Settle Allegations That It Failed To Properly Identify And Pay Life Insurance Beneficiaries – Los Angeles lawyer Bob McKennon of McKennon Schindler on the firm’s California Insurance Litigation Blog 
• Maker’s Mark’s “Mark” Is Protected – Colorado lawyer Jeff Klein of Laszlo & Associates on the firm’s Boulder Business Law Advisor
• The SEC v. Citigroup Appeal: SEC and Citigroup File Their Briefs Explaining Why Judge Rakoff’s Opinion Should Be Vacated – Washington, DC lawyer William McGrath of Porter Wright on the firm’s Federal Securities Law Blog
• Federal Green Building Code Creates Unnecessary Risks and Costs – LEED AP Chris Cheatham of Cheatham Consulting on his blog, Green Building Law Update
• Twitter’s Twist on Patents – Newark attorney Ralph Dengler of Gibbons on the firm’s blog, IP Law Alert
• EPA Defends the Biomass Deferral Rule — It Feels More Like Rube Goldberg Every Day – Boston lawyer Seth Jaffe of Foley Hoag on the firm’s blog, Law & The Environment
• Jackson Lawyer Partially Wins Lawsuit Over Fee in Fen-Phen Litigation – Jackson, Mississippi attorney Philip Thomas on the blog Mississippi Litigation Review and Commentary
• Big Pharma strikes oil in Texas with Barratry – West Des Moines attorney Steve Lombardi on his blog, The Iowa Edict
• Advocates Seek Human Rights Commitments from Telecommunications Companies – Washington, DC attorney Sarah Altschuller of Foley Hoag on the firm’s blog, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Law