Time seems to be one of the most-common reasons why attorneys who do not use social networks do not start. In the world of hourly billing, all time has a value, and many attorneys seem to believe that (1) networking online will take a lot of time and (2) may not be worthwhile in the end.

The second belief may or may not be true, just like having lunch with a potential client or colleague may not result in a new client or referral to the firm. The first belief is a misconception, at least partially.

Networking takes time, whether that networking takes the form of a bar association event, a happy hour with colleagues, or online social networking. Just like “regular,” offline networking, time spent networking online is up to the person doing the networking online. Networking online is “real” marketing. It should be a necessary part of your job, not just frivolous web surfing. But you do not need to spend more than 15-20 minutes a day to benefit from networking online.

So let’s take a look at three major online social networking tools—LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter—and how much time you will probably have to spend to see some benefit.

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If you have already upgraded to Adobe Acrobat 9, you will have to make a quick change before you can use it for electronic case filing. Acrobat 9 introduces a number of new features, so you have to make sure your PDFs are backwards-compatible. It is an easy change to the settings, though.

Here are easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions (PDF link) from the court with screenshots.

Kudos to LexisNexis for its efforts to reduce paper waste! At a moot court orientation session at the University of Minnesota Law School this morning, the LexisNexis rep showed up and—this blew me away—did not hand out a single sheet of paper.

The Westlaw rep, meanwhile, made a huge book available. Mercifully, they did not pass out copies to everyone this year. I took one the first year I taught moot court, and it went right into the recycling bin.

“Green” is becoming as lame a word as “extreme,” but I still like to see companies reducing waste. Especially the paper garbage they churn out. Score one for LexisNexis.

Welcome to the new Lawyerist!

New look, new name.

While SoloSmallTech was a technology blog for solo and small firms, I also enjoy writing posts like this and this, that did not fit neatly within solosmall or tech.

And all tech, all the time gets a little tedious. While I love to nudge lawyers towards a paperless office, I also like to talk about productivity, marketing, and best practices. Rather than start a completely new blog, I decided to keep SoloSmallTech, but expand to talk about the practice of law, both technology, systems, best practices, management, marketing, and more.

What is a Lawyerist? Literally, one who lawyers. So Lawyerist is a lawyering manual—or survival guide, depending on how you look at it.

Let us know how you like the new look or the new focus on the comments.

If you visit often, you may notice that the site is changing a bit. I just moved everything to a new server, and I am working on making the transition to Lawyerist. Since I am doing all this myself, the transition will be a bit bumpy. I’m just an amateur.

The main blog will be Lawyerist, as soon as I finish the new look. SoloSmallTech will survive as a category within Lawyerist. If you don’t want to read about lawyering, you will be able to continue accessing SoloSmallTech at the usual address. Hopefully, I will be able to figure out how to generate two RSS feeds, as well.

So bear with us, please. This should all add up to a big improvement.

A2 Hosting has some pretty awesome hosting plans. For less than $8/month (if you pay 3 years in advance), you can get unmetered storage and bandwidth. They do not mean unlimited. No using your account for offsite backup, for example. But still, pretty good. No worries if you get hit by BoingBoing, for example.

But a word to the wise: when buying things online, if a “coupon code” line pops up, always Google for coupons. As it turns out, you can get 20% off at A2 Hosting with the following coupon code:

20percentoff

Self-explanatory, eh? Happy hosting.

Annoying, isn’t it? And yet, if you are an attorney, there are dozens, if not hundreds or thousands of people who can make your phone ring any time they want to.

This is my favorite part of my answering machine message:

I return phone calls at 10 and 4 if I am in the office. If you need to reach me more quickly, please send me an e-mail.

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Avvo has finally come to Minnesota. The controversial lawyer rating site has been sued, panned, and lauded. Whatever your feelings on it, Avvo is here, and soon your clients will be looking you up on Avvo and reviewing your performance.

On the plus side, Avvo lets lawyers claim their profile and add information like practice areas, contact information, publications, etc. Lawyers can also raise their profile by answering questions in the “Answers & Advice” section of Avvo.

Like it or not, people will soon be shopping around for attorneys. Best get to Avvo, claim your profile, and ask your favorite clients to review you.

As people are able to do more legal work themselves, the value of full-service legal representation will diminish. As a result, lawyers will have to adjust to clients’ needs in order to stay profitable (and busy).

There are three basic reasons why clients hire lawyers: expertise, efficiency, and to assume risk.

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