A quick note to mention our client JD Supra was featured in the New York Times this past Sunday.

The article, titled Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web Resource, also included a number of individuals from site’s growing community including Mitchell Matorin, Marc Stern, and Elena Garella. Keeping contributors front-and-centre has been a big part of the JD Supra approach, and often reflected by posts in the JD Scoop blog. … I was really happy to see that tone get carried forward in the story.

On a related note, I posted some thoughts yesterday on the benefits of work product sharing for legal consumers. Specifically, I cited:

• The ability to read these documents & become better informed;
• Increased reliability of documents where Lawyers take public ownership of them;
• Researching legal issues within a collection of vetted documents;
• Ability to identify a lawyer with rare experience (& not worth the lawyer’s effort to market);
• Ability to identify expertise by geographic region or practice area;

For the consumer, exposure to work product is valuable because it helps in making better decisions. It also offers a more complete digital picture of the lawyer in question. But the interesting part, and this is consistent with most forms of web marketing, is that this influence & judgement process takes place in the absence of the lawyer, and prior to the initial contact.

Think about this. Unlike giving a presentation, or a word-of-mouth referral, a significant portion of the sales process is taking place before the potential client engages - or even contacts - the lawyer. This is one of the fundamental differences in the way the web works. Great personalities don’t count unless the prospect picks up the phone or writes an email. And even the best web metrics software cannot tell you exactly how much consideration your services received.

The job of the legal web marketer is to see the many facets of this digital picture. To select pieces of the puzzle, evaluate the fit for the lawyer or firm, and then to frame-up an incredibly positive pre-contact image. Our job is also to increase exposure, but without a good accurate picture - we’re done.

My take: Sharing work product can be a big part of describing the multi-dimensional nature of legal practice. With other web offerings doing nothing more than commoditizing legal services ($139 incorporations?), sites like JD Supra should be embraced. Without a wide selection of digital tools to demonstrate the value of legal work… it’s a slippery slope, and a long way down. But that’s just my take. :)

Michelle Golden has a great post up on the process of gathering client testimonials. Process being the key word.

Reminds me that Stem Legal could use another round of testimonials. Now that we’re off the launch pad, the time has come to let some of our clients speak to our services. Note to self… :)

A quick plug for the upcoming April 21st edition of Leg@al IT, Canada’s Premier Legal Technology Conference. For the second year running, Dominic Jaar has put together a stunning lineup of speakers for this event.

Unfortunately, I can’t be in attendance this year; but I have promised Dominic to fly out & join the fun for Leg@l IT 2009! I’m including some background info, below, taken from the site’s About page:

“Leg@l.IT, in collaboration with the Young Bar Association of Montreal (”YBAM”), the Canadian Bar Association and the Montreal Bar, is proud to present Leg@l.IT 2008, a conference on information technologies (”IT”) and law. This year, Leg@l.IT will take place on April 21st at the Mount Royal Centre in Montreal.

Every day, businesses, enterprises, people but also lawyers work with their computer, Internet, scanners, PDAs, etc. However, most lawyers are not aware of the impacts of IT on their work and on their professional obligations. Furthermore, they often do not realise how IT can help or harm them in their practice.

Last year, more than 130 people attended Leg@l.IT2007 and we expect this number to increase to over 200 in 2008 with the addition of partners and advertisers such as the Canadian Bar Association and the Montreal Bar! More sessions (3 tracks), world-class speakers, interesting and varied topics, etc.: a clear receipt for success!

The panellists and speakers are judges from different Courts, university teachers, lawyers, and IT specialists from Canada, the United States and Europe. The conference will attract members of the canadian, Quebec and Montreal bars, government employees, CIO, CLO, CTO, CEO, teachers, law and computer science students and teachers, computer technicians, records managers, etc. In other words, you should be there!”

Visit the online registration page for more information!

Did you know I load this blog with filler? Either did I. But obviously Gerry Blackwell (no link, he doesn’t have anything online to link to) thinks so. Take a look at the snippet he wrote while including this blog in his top-10 list of law blogs in the current issue of Canadian Lawyer:

LAW FIRM WEB STRATEGY

The blog site of Stem Legal, Steve Matthews’ firm. Most of the time, it covers exactly what its name suggests: law firm marketing using the internet. Matthews blogs about once a week. When he sticks to the knitting, he provides lively reading and interesting discussion points - as with posts on guerilla marketing for law firms, use of RSS feeds, and sponsoring web sites. But he also sometimes posts filler, such as the egregious ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ parody, which he didn’t even write himself. Gong!

Wow, that’s just so nice! So let me get this straight, in order to write a blog of value, every single post must be self-scribed? And one should never relay material of value to one’s audience? And you can never go off-topic to add a personal touch, right? Wrong. More than wrong - absolute hogwash!

As I’ve said many times the social side of blogging is where the value is. Blogs aren’t magazine articles, and they’re not a simple diary - blogs are personal commentary with social networking baked in. Tell me what you think, and tell how you feel about it. And whenever possible, link out to other bloggers and exchange ideas. Every successful blog does this. No exceptions.

The post of mine that Mr. Blackwell questions was written 4 days before Christmas. In my world, that’s a lighter time of the year. The content of the post was a creative parody, which I thought was a great example of having fun with your clients during the holiday season. It was also written by one of my clients (whom I emphatically reserve the right to promote. It’s my business.). The original was buried in a firm newsletter, and I relayed it to my audience to share its fun nature, marketing creativity, and humour.

Filler? No way. Gong you! Mr. Blackwell.

I’m also frustrated at the cheap shot he took at Stan Rule. Stan is a long time blogger who consistently delivers well written & thoughtful commentary. Blackwell’s take? “The writing is a little too earnest and workmanlike to draw a huge readership -comments are sparse- ….“.

Again, he just doesn’t get it. The goal with lawyer blogs isn’t to acquire the biggest audience; and comments are a bad measure of value. Mr. Rule is writing to a niche audience, and his cumulative body of work drives people from all over central BC to read his thoughts on wills, probate & estate planning. I’m sure Mr. Rule also blogs to support his own professional development & personal enjoyment. Most bloggers get something positive back from the experience.

And what is this thing about comments? Comments are a terrible measure of blog readership or value. Go take a look at my Vancouver Law Librarian Blog - comments are sparse there too. Especially for a blog with 500+ daily RSS subscribers!

And finally, since it’s so easy to take cheap shots in a national publication, let’s be brutally honest about the source. Mr. Blackwell is a long time tech writer, for what? 20 years? probably more. But really, where’s the credibility for him to even put a list like this together? Has he coded a website? Does he even have a blog? Sorry. Nada. … What’s that? He has a linkedin account with 1 connection? Bingo! Guru status now in effect. ;)

Let’s get serious here. Yes, you can go off topic. Yes, you can relay the thoughts of others. And yes, you can address your topic with as many related tangents as it takes to explore your area of interest. Keeping your focus is important, but so is solidifying connections with long time subscribers. Adding a personal touch will not kill your blog.

Sorry, but if you want to ‘gong’ my blog, then start blogging yourself. Then we can have a real conversation.

I want to take the opportunity today to note some of the great work going on with Stem clients. And since this is official blog for the company, I feel completely justified in providing a little link support and highlighting some of those efforts. :)

• First up, BC Legislation service Quickscribe is two weeks post launch on their new BC Legislation Portal. A great new website that provides daily updates to the laws of British Columbia. The comments & reception this site has received have all been very positive. We’re hoping more BC lawyers sign up for Quickscribe’s online product. It really is a fantastic service!
• Checking in with Canadian law firm Clark Wilson LLP, I’m noting that Public Private Partnerships Co-Chair Brock Johnston is quoted in the latest edition of Lexpert magazine. The firm is also once again sponsoring the BCTIA IMPACT speakers series. And finally, it was good to see my friend insurance lawyer Neo Tuytel get quoted in Canadian Underwriter magazine. As usual, lots going on at CW!
• Stem client West Palm Beach Criminal Lawyer Ron Chapman has launched a number of new service pages related to his work as a federal crimes lawyer based in Florida. Specifically, those first pages included the federal crimes of: conspiracy, counterfeiting, making a false statement to a federal agency, making a false statement in a bank record, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and smuggling merchandise into the US.
• Last but not least, many of you will know I blogged the recent launch of JD Supra, but have you had a look at the new blog JD Scoop? JD Supra founder Aviva Cuyler has certainly taken to blogging, I’d say. In one of her latest posts she’s playing investigative reporter tracking down an untold story of pro bono work done by law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. The fact that she did this sleuthing with her own product certainly bodes very well for the future. Go Aviva!!

This is something that I should do more often. The clients of Stem Legal have some great projects going on, and it really is a pleasure to relay the news!

A quick post to let readers know that Stem Legal Web Enterprises is now Stem Legal Web Enterprises Inc. Please don’t get stuck in the formalities though… You can still refer to the company as Stem Legal or just Stem. :)

The other item I’m putting in place is that Stem’s mailing address is changing as of March 1st. Company correspondence can now be directed to:

Stem Legal Web Enterprises Inc.
7330 Horne Street
Mission, BC, Canada V2V 3Y6

And because there are never enough opportunities to do this… I’d like to offer a big thank-you to Stem’s clients for their continued support! I wake up energized to do this business every morning. Not only because I love what I do, but because of great client relationships & great projects. And to that I’m very grateful!

What if you took all of the lawyer blogs within a given region, say Florida, and mixed them into a single location online? Well, ta-da! :) Let me introduce you to my latest RSS feed mixing effort - the Florida Lawyers Blog Watch.

I’ve wanted to create a website like this for a while. Something that tracks the latest lawyer blog commentary, but on a regional basis. Want to know what’s on the minds of Florida lawyers? This site will show you about three days worth of current topics, and more importantly, offers a quick 2-minute scan of the day’s headlines.

For me, publishing & mixing are the untold value of RSS. As I mentioned in a recent post, RSS needs to expand its boundries from the personal feed reader and create new context by placing sources together. I’m also a big believer in Author credit, so you’ll notice the blogroll on the right side of the website offers direct links to each of the Florida lawyer blogs the site tracks.

I want to thank Stem client and Florida lawyer Ron Chapman. Ron will serve as my regional lookout for any new lawyer blogs coming online, and also as a co-contact point for those wanting to be added to the site.

And finally, I’d like to point out that the full-text RSS feed for those blogs combined is available here. If you need to listen to what’s happening in Florida law and have an RSS reader, it’s an easy subscription choice. If you really wanted to get fancy, try monitoring specific topics or keywords by filtering the feed with a product like Feedrinse. Wonderful tool, IMO.

Hope everyone enjoys this website. A mobile version is in the works!

You may have noticed all the new websites recently - LegalPubs.ca, Lawblogs.ca, the Clawbies. While mostly associated with the Canadian legal market, there’s also larger long-term goal in play here: to develop quality legal web content. This network will not remain entirely Canadian, and the number of websites will not stop at five. My goal for Stem is to expand this group of sites to 12 by the end of the first year of operations, in August/08.

So to that end, I offer a new page that defines Stem’s legal web publishing network.

It’s no secret that I have an open view to web publishing and advertising. I don’t care much for conceptual barriers when it comes to developing content online. Whether a concept evolves from me directly, working with a client, partnering, advertising, or integrated with SEO, the end purpose is the same. You must do something of substance to get noticed online (ie. the attention economy), and how that occurs really doesn’t matter.

These additions reflect my wider vision for Stem, and also how I believe web marketing will be done in the future. Word of mouth advertising can have a huge impact; and while I am contractually protected from having to endorse clients and their projects, it’s often very easy for me to do. Mostly because I am advising or developing with the client, rather than being an outside third party. When you’ve been working for months on a site, or developing a strategy for someone, supporting the end product with an endorsement isn’t unreasonable. It’s very natural.

I would also direct your attention to the Vancouver Law Librarian Blog which is now sporting Stem’s first featured client, BC Legislation service Quickscribe.

Is this advertising? Well, yes and no. While I am promoting Quickscribe’s services, my endorsement is based on months of talking strategy with Mike Pasta, Quickscribe’s President. And back in October when I blogged about Mike’s Legislative RSS product, I did so because I believe it’s world class!

Advertising? Endorsements? Marketing with quality content? Yes friends, the lines are blurring. It needs to be done with the audience’s interests in mind. But then again, good quality advertising is always in that realm, without offending anyone.

And again, it must always be backed with substance.

Taking a break from web strategy content here, I’d like to highlight a couple of new Stem Legal websites:

• First up and just launched yesterday, my Canadian Law Blogs List which started life in September 2005 as a VLLB blog post has now been moved to its own website at LawBlogs.ca. The list will remain open (& free) to any Canadian blogging lawyer, law librarian, legal marketer, legal tech specialist, or paralegal.
• The second site, launched on November 1st, is LegalPubs.ca. The purpose of LegalPubs (as you might guess from the name) is to produce a one-stop-shop for newly released Canadian legal publications. The site uses RSS technology to automatically aggregate new book titles from Canada Law Book, Thomson-Carswell, Irwin Law, CCH Canadian, and LexisNexis Canada. Canada is one of the first countries in the world to have our major legal publishers on-side with RSS technology, and this site really showcases how RSS can extend the reach of existing web content.

For me, these websites reflect my larger vision for Stem, and that the concept of ‘profile building’ is more than just being a consultant or an industry-based SEO service. I want Stem to evolve into a service that helps with the big picture, making sure all the factors are working together - audience profiling, web advertising, SEO, web publishing, cohesive branding, etc. … And the way you do that, from my perspective, is to get involved in what you’re preaching. How can you possibly advise on website marketing if you haven’t executed yourself? How can you advise on law blogging if you aren’t a blogger yourself? Experience is critical, and while I think I could rely on personal history, executing in the present (and the future) is just as important.

I hope to continue the Stem network expansion in 2008! And maybe in late 2007… :-)

One of the intended effects of starting this business was to force me to focus. You see, I’ve always been this multi-discipline kind of guy — web marketer, KM practitioner, coder developer, law librarian, etc. (you can check the About page, or my profile, if you don’t know me) — lots of interests and lots of hats, but always with a web-information delivery bent, and always within the legal market.

I’ve also tried to recognize that it was those varying interests that tied me together; gave me my perspective. And while I’m appreciative of my time working in law firms, it was the opportunity to roll those skills into a single focus that drove me to the Stem concept.

Beyond worrying about the company’s financial viability [Note to concerned friends: it’s going better than expected! stop worrying…], my biggest concern coming out the gate has been the possibility of losing my connection to the things that interest me, like Knowledge Management. And so, even in the earliest stages of my business plan, I made myself this promise: Along the way, I reserve the right to work on projects that I believe in.

That doesn’t mean I want to be a KM consultant. Trust me, there’s only one Ron Friedmann. [that’s a plug btw, in case you missed it. ;-) ]

It just so happens that I love the KM literature — the puzzle of how to codify knowledge & expertise, and what that information tells us. I also believe there’s a strong link from internal KM collections to the development of online marketing product. But that’s another post…

So, Day 1 of operation, I come down to my new office. Out of the HSBC building in downtown Vancouver, and into my newly retooled office, a.k.a. my basement. :-) My voice mail is flashing, and the person on the other end is Aviva Cuyler, a lawyer in the San Francisco bay area. Cool, a great way to start!

Well, she wasn’t inquiring for her firm, but I found the call no less interesting. We talked for a good hour. About her new website - JD Supra. About lawyer work product, and what it can tell about an individual’s expertise - especially within niche areas of the law. How research and filings and court successes can qualify a lawyer’s knowledge & experience. And how in a world where everyone ’says’ they’re an expert, this new website has the chance to ‘prove’, or at least validate, that a lawyer can execute what they’ve said they can.

Now she’s got my KM interest - a qualification tool that would tie work product to professional profile. A tool that would give credit to the lawyers and firms that contribute, including logos and links back to their firm website. Perhaps a future that includes some Community 2.0 tools? collaboration? networking opportunities? My mind is now working overtime.

So there it is. I’m sold. If there’s a better fit for all those varying interests of mine, I’m not sure what it would be. Aviva Cuyler’s vision is unique, and yet well aligned to the type of product I would conceive of myself. I think JD Supra is set to become an important web 2.o offering for the legal industry. And that’s why I’m signing on.

I’ll say more soon, and sorry about the month-early tease (launch is slated for late September 2007). If you’re a legal researcher, writer, or gatekeeper for in-house precedents, there is an early bird opportunity for those willing to contribute. You can sign up on the JD Supra homepage or email Aviva directly to get involved.

Stem has been a dream of mine for a long time, but I must confess, getting beyond the business plan was no easy task. It took a lot of people’s advice to go from idea to execution - my wife, colleagues, friends, mentors - each have provided critical support along the way. Some of whom, I’d like to start this blog by thanking publicly.

First my wife Leah. Four year’s ago she decided to take a break from playing tax lawyer to be a full time mom. We uprooted our lives, moved and started living on a fraction of our combined salaries. It was tough, but we worked it out.  Life has been back in balance for a few years now, but with Stem getting ready for start-up mode, she recently made the decision to return to practice a couple days a week. You never have to guess who has my back.

Professionally, I have had a few gestures of outstanding support, including Gerry Riskin at Edge International and Kevin O’Keefe at lexblog. Each gave me hours of their precious time to talk through various issues surrounding approach and strategy.  I’d also like to single out Jordan Furlong at the CBA National and Michelle Golden at Golden Marketing for their encouragement and a laundry list of advice to help clarify my vision and early direction.

I was also thankful to receive support from many friends around the blawgosphere, including: Dominic Jaar, Dennis Kennedy, David Fraser, Rob Hyndman, Bruce MacEwen and David Canton. Plus fellow law librarian friends Scott Vine, Lo-Fi, Nick Holmes, Cindy Chick, Jim Milles, Bonnie Shucha, Steven Cohen, David Rothman and Jason Eisman.  If I’ve missed anyone, give me a heads up, you’re due!

Around the Vancouver legal community, I’ll start with everyone at Clark Wilson LLP (including those online: Neil Larry & Karen, Darren and Rob), and then add in: Johanne Blenkin at the BCCLS, Allison Wolf, Doug Jasinski and Emma Wood.

And this list isn’t even close to complete without my friends at Slaw, especially Simon Fodden and Connie Crosby who were both important early confidents.

Ok, I’ve rambled a touch, and do promise this blog will address the web as a legal business development tool. If you’re looking for more substance, be sure to check out the About this blog page - where I set out the discussion topics and some of my background.

3-2-1- Blast-off! :-)