Communications

Steven Chung has a great post on communicating with your clients. Frankly it works well for communicating in general. He summarizes, saying, "You should be familiar with emailing, text messaging, and talking to the client as these are the main methods of communication today. But you will also need to adapt to your clients' needs and limitations." Two things he doesn't bring into focus are when preferences may need to be over ridden and how effectively your client communicates over each medium. If I have a key decision point or a CYA question, I might not want to talk to them on the phone, but instead have it in writing. And there are people I know who if I ask several questions in an email, I will only ever get the first one answered. They have an uncanny ability to be unable to see the other questions. And if I know there will be a lot of back and forth and I have a deadline, email is NOT the medium I would use. Read more at Above The Law: Texting, Emailing, And Talking: Which Is Best When Communicating With Clients?

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Why not?

Blogging would not be my first choice of non-legal skillsets to teach law students. Personally I think business and technology classes would be better. But Kevin O'Keefe doesn't ask about those. If the issue is just redirecting the writing work from a paper submitted to the professor and it otherwise never sees the light of day, and if Brooklyn Law School professor Jodi Balsam is right and that "students do not engage as thoroughly because the end product is not put to any purpose other than generating a grade," then that makes sense to me - killing two birds with one stone. So in that case, sure, "Why not legal blogging classes at law schools?" Read more at Real Lawyers Have Blogs: Why Not Legal Blogging Classes at Law Schools?

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Name obsession

I was reading my copy of the PinHawk Librarian News Digest last and decided I'd borrow a post from editor John DiGilio's feed that he highlighted. Dave Shumaker, the author of the post starts with two quotes, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other word would smell as sweet," by William Shakespeare and "Shakespeare was wrong," by Al Ries and Jack Trout. I'll add to that, "I do not care what clients call me, as long as my phone keeps ringing," by John DiGilio. He also writes, "I honestly cannot remember a time in my career that we, as a profession, were not at odds over what to call ourselves." I am guessing that John is maybe a decade younger than I and frankly I cannot remember a time either when this issue was not being fretted over. Now - I am not a librarian. I have never played one on TV. My education is in computer science and mathematics. But I was the first, or one of the first, CIOs to have the law library report to me. From an outsider's perspective, the endless obsession is a pointless one. It doesn't matter. It burns energy that could otherwise be directed at more important issues. I can tell you honestly that in my current role, I'd kill for a good "librarian." And you can quote me on that. Read more at Information Today, Inc.: Librarians and Professional Labeling: What's in a Name?

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Jeffrey Brandt, Editor

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ILTA Strategic Partner Liaisons - NetDocuments
Judge, Litera Changing Lawyer Awards 2021 (deadline to submit nominations is 12 pm CDT on Monday, October 25th)





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