ORANGE COUNTY
Volume 190, 2022 $6.95
Building Trust in the Practice of Law
Patryk Zamorski & Patrice Yermia
5 Best Practices for Protecting Sensitive Information
Jeffrey Wolff
How to Make It Rain: Social Media Marketing
Shari Davidson
14 Contract Management Processes That Are Shameful
AXDRAFT
Conquering Legal Workflow Automation Challenges
Mitratech
How Digital Transformation and a Contract System Future-Proofs Surges
Onit
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2022 EDITION—NO.190
TABLE OF CONTENTS 6 How Digital Transformation and a Contract System Future-Proofs Surges in Contract Activity by Onit
10 Building Trust in the Practice of Law by Patryk Zamorski & Patrice Yermia
EXECUTIVE PUBLISHER Brian Topor
14 Conquering Legal Workflow Automation Challenges with Tomorrow’s Technology
EDITOR Wendy Price CREATIVE SERVICES Penn Creative
by Mitratech LAW FIRM OF THE MONTH
CIRCULATION Angela Watson
16 Lowe Lazar Law, LLP, San Diego A Selective Resource
PHOTOGRAPHY Chris Griffiths STAFF WRITERS Dan Baldwin Jennifer Hadley CONTRIBUTING EDITORIALISTS Axdraft Shari Davidson Mitratech Onit Jeffrey Wolff Patrice Yermia Patryk Zamorski ADVERTISING INQUIRIES Info@AttorneyJournals.com SUBMIT AN ARTICLE Editorial@AttorneyJournals.com OFFICE 30211 Avenida De Las Banderas Suite 200 Rancho Santa Margarita, CA 92688 www.AttorneyJournals.com ADDRESS CHANGES Address corrections can be made via email or postal mail.
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by Dan Baldwin
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24 How to Make It Rain: Social Media Marketing for Lawyers by Shari Davidson
26 Five Best Practices for Protecting Sensitive Information During an Investigation by Jeffrey Wolff
28 Fourteen Contract Management Processes That Are Shameful by AXDRAFT
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Editorial material appears in Attorney Journals as an informational service for readers. Article contents are the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of Attorney Journals. Attorney Journals makes every effort to publish credible, responsible advertisements. Inclusion of product advertisements or announcements does not imply endorsement. Attorney Journals is a trademark of Sticky Media. Not affiliated with any other trade publication or association. Copyright 2022 by Sticky Media. All rights reserved. Contents may not be reproduced without written permission from Sticky Media. Printed in the USA
How Digital Transformation and a Contract System Future-Proofs Surges in Contract Activity by Onit
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reating a contract system that handles legal work is challenging, as the ebbs and flows of legal work can be highly unpredictable. Inevitably, you’ll face periods where you see sudden surges of contract activity, whether due to regulatory changes, significant deals, or something else. Are you prepared to handle the waves of work when they arise? Four experts gathered to discuss just this challenge recently during a World Commerce and Contracting event. They included Marcelo Peviani, Senior Director of Global Legal Services at VMware; Jean Yang, Vice President of the Onit AI Center of Excellence; and Matt DenOuden, Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Onit. Together, they discussed how companies can best prepare for sudden workload surges by planning ahead and implementing a contract system and technologies.
Starting at Base Camp for Your Digital Transformation When it comes to digital transformation and preparing for work surges, the panel likened the journey to climbing a mountain. You can think of your preparation stage as the base camp for your climb, while a full technology implementation is the summit. They advised legal professionals to start by building a technology roadmap that considers the value you want the corporate legal department to deliver to the business and where you want to be in a year or two. Regardless of whether or not you have a specific current need or if you see yourself implementing a contract lifecycle management software in the future, it’s critical to start the conversation today. Too many companies try to implement legal contract AI and other technologies as a reaction to events that happen. Unfortunately, this is rarely successful. Implementation and digital transformation takes time. You need time for experimentation and getting your champions on board before you can roll your contract system out across the enterprise. Even if you’re not looking to roll out right away, you want to start setting the posture for an easy transition to automation as soon as possible and start engaging your stakeholders now. The base camp for your digital journey is where your climb is organized. Your team members should all meet, and you should start building a culture of success. When you’re implementing digital transformation from scratch, you need to start by standardizing processes and technology across all your players. 6
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Determine your goals and the pain points you want to relieve, and then map out the roles that will be responsible for or involved in getting your company there.
Future-Proofing Surges with a Contract System In terms of addressing future contract surges, you should consider the types of contracts that are integral to your business and the contract system infrastructure, processes and resources that support and drive that kind of contractual work. Legal departments are increasingly playing a pivotal role in company governance and setting standards for the transactions the company engages in. The planning stage for your digital transformation is your opportunity to translate those standards into playbooks and actual processes that will be implemented across the organization. Once you know your goals, you can choose the contract system and technologies that will help you meet them. These solutions will play a key role in delivering contract and other legal services to the business, either via self-service or with document automation tools. It’s essential to build that into the company mindset at the outset.
Scale the Peak with Steady Progress Much like climbing a mountain, digital transformation involves steady progress. You should constantly be evaluating whether what you’re doing is working, if you should continue with your current solutions or if you should recalibrate your contract system to achieve different results. Any technology rollout should involve a process of experimentation. Your first try won’t be perfect, but it’ll set you on the road to creating a better contract system. That’s why the first implementation is always the hardest. Once you’ve created a culture that’s open to digital change, you can start finding more opportunities to drive value for the business. You’ll also be in a better position to know how to weather the storms on your way up the mountain. n This article was provided by Onit. Onit is a global leader of enterprise software and artificial intelligence platforms and products for legal, compliance, sales, IT, HR, and finance departments. Our software transforms best practices into smarter workflows, better processes, and operational efficiencies. Learn more at www.onit.com.
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Building Trust in the Practice of Law by Patryk Zamorski and Patrice Yermia
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OVID-19 has wreaked havoc on interpersonal relations, making now the ideal time to rethink exactly how we work, communicate, and interact. Trust—or more precisely, building trust and building it well—underpins the entire process of how we relate to each other. In this article, we argue that, where trust is lacking, important soft skills, such as persuading and motivating, become seriously impeded. To test the impact of trust on the quality of a final legal product, we conducted a survey and interviewed people from the legal profession and business world about the importance of trust in relationships, both between in-house and external lawyers, and between lawyers and the businesspeople they advise. We also reviewed academic research into how people build trust, and how trust comes into play in a business context.
The Science of Trust Trust is a dynamic process, which ebbs and flows like the tides. Trust is never offered forever. Rather, it is fragile and may strengthen or weaken depending upon the quality of the relationship. The reason for this fragility, especially now, is that social connection lies at the core of trust and is the crucial ingredient at the human level. Events have conspired against us, placing unprecedented strains and obstacles on interpersonal bonds. Who has been able to truly nurture connections of late? Anxiety in our everyday existence impedes us from building security and stability in our professional lives. As our circumstances have changed markedly, the means of gaining and maintaining trust are more important now than they have been for generations.
Pain and Gain We all inherently want to feel appreciated, recognized, valued, respected, liked. Individuals want to be part of something bigger. If someone hits you in the jaw or treads on your foot, a strong electrical signal heads straight for your brain’s pain center. By the same token, if you are excluded from an activity or not picked for the team, a signal heads straight for the very same part of your brain. Both types of pain, physical and emotional, light up the brain and are recorded in the neurological system in precisely the same way! What’s this got to do with trust? Social exclusion creates emotional pain and this in turn destroys trust and the social bond. Landmark research by Professor Paul Zak shows that higher 10
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levels of trust can lead to noticeable improvements in performance (“The Neuroscience of Trust”). He argues that creating a high-trust culture in an organization helps us stay engaged over the long term. More oxytocin is released in our brains, translating to greater trust if we create the right environment. This directly impacts the lawbusiness triangle: in-house lawyers, business, and law firm lawyers. Various factors affect trust and how it is perceived. Age, seniority, hierarchical position, and role in the organization impact how trust is obtained, perceived, and maintained over time. The persons whose trust you seek will—consciously or unconsciously—assess your behavior to determine if they can grant you trust safely. Focusing now on lawyers and legal teams, similar evaluations will occur based on perceived competencies, the atmosphere in the legal department, team diversity, etc. In essence, people are trying to answer this simple question: Is this legal department a place where I feel secure?
Trust and Culture Trust develops in significantly diverse ways depending on your culture. In certain cultures, trust is given upfront, in others it must be earned and nurtured. We have come to believe, from our own experience and from research, that if greater trust is offered from the get-go, it immediately creates a cognitive bias in the form of a bond. And this bond exists at the neuronal level/brain level for all involved. Do you trust with your head or with your heart? According to Professor Erin Meyer, this largely depends on your culture, and it is important to understand these cultural subtleties to avoid misunderstandings. There are two basic types of trust: cognitive trust and affective trust. Cognitive trust is based on the confidence you feel in another person’s accomplishments, skills, and reliability. Trust from the head. Affective trust comes from feelings of emotional closeness—parents, spouses, old friends. Trust from the heart. Professor Meyer found that in “task-based” cultures such as the US, Denmark, Germany, Australia and the UK, businesspeople are much more likely to develop work bonds based largely on cognitive trust. In China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia and India, trust is more “relationship-based” and is built through developing a personal bond. In the business world of those cultures, cognitive and affective trust are not separate but woven together.
Speed of Trust
How Business Leaders Responded
As Stephen Covey puts it in his book The Speed of Trust, the seminal reference on trust: “Trust always affects two outcomes. Speed and Cost.” Essentially, when trust gets depleted, or is broken, then fluidity, efficiency, and progress suffer and expenses shoot upward. Conversely, when trust is high, productivity increases, and costs fall.
Businesspeople insisted on simplicity and authenticity in relationships, clarity of language, and conscientious communication. They felt that what is most detrimental to trust is an arrogant, “know it all” attitude, whereas there is great strength in showing humility and admitting doubt in complicated situations.
Trust Wins Clients In The Trusted Advisor, David Maister et al. assert that trustworthiness is a fundamental component in winning new business and retaining clients. The equation used is: Trustworthiness = (Credibility x Reliability x Intimacy)/SelfOrientation. Hence, service providers should focus on the elements needed to build trust, such as listening, investing in the relationship, and being available and responsive when needed. The less ego comes into play, the quicker trust is gained.
Lawyers and Trust: Survey Findings Now to our survey. We will share with you our findings on how trust works in the lawyer-business paradigm. We asked a population of more than 100 in-house lawyers, lawyers working in law firms, and businesspeople this question: “When working with lawyers, what are the key elements that can boost or reduce trust?” Overall main lessons learned from business and in-house lawyers: • Be transparent, always ensure the key actors share your level of information. • Show you are available for the business and will hit deadlines. • Practice active listening, ask questions, invite questions. • Show your enthusiasm for the project. • Know your limits, be honest if you need extra legal support. • Encourage collective intelligence and bring together lawyers and businesspeople to find the best solutions. • Show courage and don’t hesitate to disagree in a constructive manner.
How Lawyers Working in Law Firms Responded Individual responses highlighted the importance of “visible engagement”, “knowing the subject area”, “the ability to say I don’t know but I’ll look it up”, “confidence that someone is being honest and truthful with me”, “what is best about trust is it saves you a lot of time”, “I don’t trust people because I believe they are worth it. I trust them because it makes my life easier.”
Verbatim on trust between in-house and outside counsel: • External lawyers are partners, part of the team. The client company plays a key role in fostering “team spirit,” and embedding the law firm into the project. • As real partners, lawyers in law firms should help identify and assess risks, but without being averse to risk. • Describing risks without producing adaptive or creative mitigation measures puts trust at risk. • Failing to respect a budget of fees agreed upfront damages trust.
In a Nutshell We are now more than a year and a half into the worldwide shift that was catapulted by COVID-19. Many individuals and organizations are hungry for concrete signs of trustworthiness, while at the same time trying to demonstrate that they too are worthy of trust. As we press on in our new business circumstances, we should all make a habit of checking the current level of trust that exists between ourselves and our internal clients, our boss, our team, and our external partners. But how can we do this? Listening and interviewing many of you has led us to this conclusion: better cultivate trust in both professional and personal situations, go for depth. Keep exchanges from being merely transactional. Stay curious and respectful of the human before you. Kick your ego to the backseat and let your better self take the wheel to drive the connection forward. Trust evolves over time; it is never offered, obtained, or secured without the vulnerability needed to shift to another level. Trust is fragile because it is very human. So above all, we need to focus on being human first, and lawyers second. n As Europe Director of Talent Development at Nextlaw Inhouse Solutions, Patryk Zamorski helps clients develop and engage talent, create high-performing teams, and manage the people side of transformation. He has developed numerous award-winning talent programs to help lawyers develop leadership skills and emotional intelligence, based on principles of neuroscience and behavioral science—first as Talent Director at Dentons, and now for in-house teams at leading multinationals. Co-authored by Patrice Yermia, Vice President General Counsel, Total Marketing Services
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FIRM FOCUS ON EMPLOYEE BENEFITS LAW
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Butterfield Schechter LLP is San Diego County’s largest firm focusing its law practice primarily on employee benefit legal services. Our experience in employee benefits law and business law provides creative solutions for the most pressing business concerns. We are also dedicated to employee ownership and know all things ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plans). Learn more at www.bsllp.com.
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Dedicated Exclusively to Divorce & Family Law MAGGIO LAW Orange County Divorce Attorneys is solely focused on representing clients in both contested and uncontested Divorce as well as Family Law matters.
We are also experts in providing Divorce Mediation Services to individuals or both parties who wish to achieve an amicable and cost-effective dissolvement of marriage. We Provide Aggressive Representation with: • Child Custody • Visitation Rights • Divorce • Legal Separation • Domestic Violence/ Restraining Orders • Prenuptial (Premarital) Agreements • Spousal Support • Property Division • Same Sex Marriages/ Domestic Partnerships • Stepparent Adoptions Gerald A. Maggio
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Conquering Legal Workflow Automation Challenges with Tomorrow’s Technology by Mitratech
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hy automate legal processes? For one thing, most of us have been a part of an organization where the instructions to a critical process existed solely in the head of a single stakeholder. Job security for the person who knew the process? Possibly. A huge vulnerability for the organization? Definitely. And what happened when that person inevitably left the organization? Chaos, probably. If you work in the legal department, the experience likely got you thinking: Let’s never let our legal processes be beholden to the presence of a single point of failure ever again. Perhaps it inspired a big push for documentation, and maybe the creation of a shiny PowerPoint slide. But no matter how well that operational legal process is documented, and how many people “know” the process, it’s still subject to human error, manual time-consuming hours, redundancy of effort, and an inability to scale. So, let’s take the possibility of a single link breaking the entire chain completely off the table, and evolve into a forwardthinking, workflow-automation-ready organization. Automating legal processes ensures you’re bringing the right information to the right people, quickly and efficiently. It often cuts time spent on legal processes by more than half (often a lot more!), and it should take the guesswork out of any approval process. Along the way, the right technology will identify compliance concerns, cut down on redundancies and human error, integrate seamlessly with existing tools, and may just even help you sleep a little better at night. All you need is the right solution to get you started. Here are a few key characteristics to look out for in your search for the right piece of technology for digitizing legal processes.
The Right Legal Processes Automation Solution Is Robust Unlike your matter management software, which is a starting point and ending point for all your matters, your workflow automation software is all about the journey. When legal processes become muddled, or risk non-compliance, or are just aggravating, automating them is the best way to cut through the clutter and streamline your department’s collaboration efforts. A robust legal processes automation solution has a far reach. Any process, whether in the legal department or merely touching the legal department, can benefit from it. In Legal, it makes sense to start with the big pain points like NDAs and Conflict of Interest disclosures, but pretty soon it will become apparent that any manual, repetitive task can be automated with the right platform. Ease of use: Make sure you’re looking at platforms that are built
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for self-service. Can a user design and publish workflows for any legal process without any code, IT, or developer involvement? Cross-functional adaptability: Your tool should be the hub that brings together processes across multiple functions and departments. Have you found one SaaS process automation tool to unite them all? Flexibility and scalability: Your processes change quickly, so your technology needs to as well. Do your legal processes empower users to take on agile methodology? Do they enable iterative design and implementation? Can they scale quickly to meet sudden demands? Comprehensive integrations: If your enterprise workflow automation platform can’t integrate seamlessly with anything that has an API, swipe left. Legal departments are increasingly working across the entire enterprise, within different processes and systems: you need to be able to configure custom integrations or integrate smoothly with major software applications, including a robust set of advanced REST API and eSign integrations. Reporting and analytics: If your enterprise workflow platform isn’t reporting on the legal processes (or non-legal processes) it claims to make more efficient, it may very well result in even more work. You need a tool that provides easy access to reports in a variety of formats, providing one-click visibility and transparency across your whole organization.
Automate in Q1 for a More Streamlined Q2 Our modern work lives are riddled with monotonous tasks and processes. Often, these procedures are not only dull and poorly designed, but they also detract resources from the most pressing needs within our organizations. Imagine if you could recapture 520 hours of productivity per year, per employee from repetitive tasks. One pre-pandemic study found how much time spent by U.S. employees could be automated, adding up to a collective loss of $1.8 trillion annually. The “pain of the mundane” is even sharper when you’re wasting the time of wellpaid legal professionals. And no, this isn’t about automating you or your team out of a job. Instead, it’s about tackling the repetitive, error-prone processes that occupy our limited head space and redirecting that newly freed brainpower towards novel ideas and human-worthy challenges that create more value for the business. The real question is: What are you going to do with all those extra hours lying around? n This article was provided by Mitratech Holdings, Inc. Mitratech, a leading provider of legal, risk, and compliance software, is excited to announce that it has acquired Australian-based quality, health, safety & environment (QHSE) platform Integrum. Learn more at www.mitratech.com.
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A Selective Resource A Small Personal Injury Firm Positioned to Make a Big Impact by Dan Baldwin
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owe Lazar Law is a small law firm making a big impact on their clients’ lives and the legal community at large. “We are very selective on the cases we accept to devote the necessary time and resources to obtain full justice for each and every client,” says co-founder Jeremiah Lowe. The firm was recently founded on August 1, 2021. Prior to founding the firm, Lowe and his cofounder, Victoria Lazar, worked as a trial team at Gomez Trial Attorneys. During their time as a trial team, they faced many trials, challenges, and successes. Lazar says, “As a team we’ve always been very strong. Jeremiah, who was the lead attorney on our team, made sure that my opinion was heard and taken into consideration. I think that’s important and rare, especially when you have a senior-junior relationship. That gave me a lot of confidence in going into business together.” Through their time working together as a team, they discovered how well aligned they were with each other’s core values. Lazar says, “We value integrity in the profession above all else. Our slogan is ‘Steadfast Integrity, Proven Results.’ It appears front and center on our website for a reason. Practicing with integrity is our number one core value.” That has led to proven results inside and outside the courtroom. Lowe recognizes the significance of being a partner in a woman-owned business, and
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believes women-owned firms are something to be celebrated. Lowe says, “We’re no longer in a senior-junior relationship. We’re equal partners. As a gender-balanced firm, we have a good balance of perspectives. I hope as a society we are moving toward more women-owned law firms. For far too long women have not been given equal opportunities to advance in this profession.”
VALUING AUTHENTICITY, INTEGRITY, AND COMPASSION Lowe and Lazar have proven to be a powerful team inside and outside of the courtroom. Lowe says, “One word that best describes us in the courtroom is authenticity. We don’t see ourselves as ‘suited-up lawyers.’ We simply see ourselves as human beings who care immensely for our clients, and who can provide a credible and authentic voice in the courtroom. The jury can see we care for our clients and believe in our case.” According to Lazar, “[their] practice is to treat clients as people, not cases,” which allows them to be more responsive and more tailored in representation than a lot of larger firms. “We attribute that to our smaller, boutique size. We make communicating with our clients a top priority. There are rarely hours that go by when we do not respond to our clients.
© Bauman Photographers
Co-Founders / Partners: Jeremiah Lowe and Victoria J. Lazar
JOURNALS
LAW FIRM
OF THE MONTH
2022 2021
© Bauman Photographers
“We value integrity in the profession above all else. Our slogan is ‘Steadfast Integrity, Proven Results.’ It appears front and center on our website for a reason. Practicing with integrity is our number one core value.” — VICTORIA L A Z AR
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We are also consistently updating our clients. The most common feedback we get is, ‘Thank you. We never had to wonder what was going on with our case. You were so pro-active.’ That level of communication puts them at ease. That’s something I’m really proud of.” As a team, Lowe and Lazar have had tremendous success in trial. “I would say the trial experiences we’ve had together demonstrate we can handle adversity well and we thrive under pressure,” Lowe says. In addressing his partner’s strengths, he says, “She is an honest and authentic human being. At the end of the day that is what matters most. You have to pick a partner you can trust who has the highest ethical standards, and who will always treat the client with the utmost respect. That’s the number one thing. Treating people well. She also has an unparalleled attention to detail and organization. As a lawyer, often the devil is in the details. You can’t overlook the importance of the details. Victoria has always been exceptionally good about understanding the nuances of the case, which has been instrumental in our ability to get full justice for our clients.” Lazar says of her partner, “Jeremiah has an innate ability to relate not only to clients, but to everyone else he encounters in the profession from opposing counsel to trial judges. He is an incredibly empathetic person and understands what our clients need, which allows them to instantly connect with him. Jeremiah quickly develops close relationships with our clients and it’s that emotional connection that makes them feel seen and heard, and it makes all the difference.”
A SMALL FIRM HANDLING BIG CASES Lowe Lazar Law handles catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. For several years they have specialized in spinal and orthopedic injury cases. Over the course of the last five years, they have also developed a niche practice area pursuing wrongful death cases against for-profit residential drug and alcohol treatment providers. Lowe says, “This multibillion dollar per year industry is tainted by fraud and neglect, with companies preying
© Bauman Photographers
“We don’t see ourselves as ‘suited-up lawyers.’ We simply see ourselves as human beings who care immensely for our clients, and who can provide a credible and authentic voice in the courtroom.”
on some of the most vulnerable and desperate people in our society, treating patients as commodities rather than human beings. As a result, countless innocent lives have been lost.” Lowe and Lazar have been highly successful in holding these companies accountable. The cases have even garnered national attention, which has the potential to impact an entire industry and lead to improved safety. Lowe and Lazar have been recognized by their peers for their success in the courtroom. Each has received Outstanding Trial Lawyer Awards for their work on cases together over the years. In 2020 Lowe also received the prestigious honor of being voted as San Diego’s Trial Lawyer of the Year by his peers at CASD. He credits Victoria as being a significant contributor of the success in the courtroom that led to his recognition. Lowe says an essential part of their model to obtain big results for their clients is spending a great deal of time getting to know their clients and their stories well. The partners of Lowe Lazar Law, LLP are committed to maintaining a manageable caseload, so they have the time and resources to dedicate to their clients and to get to know them on a personal level. This would not be achievable in a different setting with more cases. “We know our cases inside and out. We have the freedom to do that whereas if we had many more cases, we wouldn’t be able to go as in
—JEREMIAH LOWE
depth as early as we do. That leads to better results because the defense can see that we are all in on our cases. We are prepared from the very beginning.” A recent case exemplifies how their approach to representation led to a big result. The firm represented a man who was injured in a car crash. The defense never treated him fairly in litigation and argued it was nothing more than a soft tissue injury. One challenge was that their client worked in construction and continued working in the field after the crash up through the time of trial. Lowe and Lazar said that despite his continuing to work in construction, he had a significant back injury that would affect the rest of his life. Prior to trial they spent a lot of time visiting with the family at home getting to know not just the client but also his entire family. They also spent time getting to know his friends and his co-workers. That experience was reflected in the trial. When they went to trial, both partners believed in their client and were able to tell his full story. “This type of personal connection and commitment is something we strive for with every client. I think the jury could clearly see we understood his story, his injury, and how it affected his family,” Lazar says. Lowe and Lazar obtained a verdict of approximately $3 million for their client.
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REFERRAL-BASED PRACTICE Lowe Lazar Law doesn’t advertise, so a significant part of their clientele comes through referrals. They are often brought in by other attorneys who benefit from the support of a team with trial experience and who can commit the necessary resources to take the case to trial. There are a lot of great lawyers, but they’re not necessarily trial lawyers. Everyone has things they thrive at. When lawyers hit that wall in negotiation, often they benefit from having a trial lawyer step in to take the case to trial because that’s when they’re going to pay full value on the case. Lowe says, “That’s where we come in. To maximize recovery, insurance adjusters must know that when an attorney says they will take a case to trial, they mean it. Insurance companies have already learned that we are not only willing to take our cases to trial, but that we thrive on it. As my mentor, Jude Basile, taught me, the best words for a trial lawyer are, ‘All rise’.” Lazar says, “We truly want to help. And if that means consulting on a case but ultimately turning down the opportunity to come on as counsel, then so be it. We are honest and upfront about our view of all issues on a case, from valuation to pitfalls. If we cannot add something to
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the case for both the referring attorney and the client, then we say so. At the end of the day, we want what is best for the client.” Lazar also notes that often other attorneys come to the firm just to talk through cases or to collaborate. “We value collaboration and working through cases with other lawyers.” Lowe says, “It’s the collaboration with others where great ideas are often formed.” Nearly 100 percent of the firm’s cases are referred from other attorneys. While they have only had their doors officially opened since August, they have already managed to resolve numerous six and seven figure cases. It is clear, while small in size, this firm is well positioned to make a significant impact in the legal community. n Contact Lowe Lazar Law, LLP 402 W Broadway, Suite 1720 San Diego, CA 92101 (619) 878-2725 www.lowelazarlaw.com
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How to Make It Rain: Social Media Marketing for Lawyers by Shari Davidson
Leveraging Social Media Gone are the days of attending endless events every week. Nothing beats nor will ever replace face-to-face networking. Social media extends your message to your prime prospects, amplifies what the firm specializes in, making the process of business development more efficient and effective. “If you want to make it rain, the best way is to optimize your social networks and leverage them properly“—Shari Davidson, President On Balance Search. You may have heard that in order to be ahead of your competition, you must be able to accept change. In order to remain competitive, your law firm needs to accept that the ways business gets done are changing. Embrace the change. Or get left behind. Social media marketing is a highly effective and cost-efficient means to help your firm make it rain. The expansive reach and engagement you can generate with a well-crafted social media campaign puts your law firm in front of the right people. Thankfully, it’s still not too late to start networking on the social media channels. Although entirely possible, don’t expect overnight success nurturing relationships online. Let’s get started.
Blogging Start a blog. Making it rain starts with creating quality content. Begin with sound research to clearly identify your target market to develop a sound content marketing plan. A well thought-out strategic plan will shape your content so that you attract the right readers. Here are a few tips you should know when writing blog posts. 1. Talk to One Person, Not Every Person. When you’re writing your blog, develop a writing style that is more of a narrative, as if you’re talking directly to the person, just one. Don’t make the reader feel like they are part of the crowd, but that they are the only person you are talking to. Make it personal. Make it easy to read. Keep them engaged and wanting more! Blogging is perhaps the best way to talk directly to your audience, to build credibility, trust and establish your firm as an authority in the field of law. Don’t get hung up on what to write, check out what the other law blogs are writing about. Analyze how often they write, what they write about, if the articles are long or short. Take the best parts you like about each blog and then produce some great ideas of your own. 24
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2. Link Reputable Sources. One of the top goals of content marketing is to establish your firm as an influencer in your field of law. When you link other reputable sources to your material, not only do readers start to trust your choice of resources but search engines do as well. Google favors your posts when you link reputable sources. 3. Know Your Audience. Knowing who you’re talking to will make writing your articles much easier. If the majority of your followers are women, then write a few women empowerment articles or highlight a gender equality case you think may stand out. Analyze your site’s analytics, identify what content is getting the most hits or what age group, education level, or gender is visiting your website the most. Cross-reference your website’s analytics with your social media channels to begin to develop your brand’s persona. This will shape who you target your messages to and the tone and content of your narratives. 4. Optimize Your Content. Familiarize yourself with the basics of SEO, search engine optimization. Optimizing your content will help your audience find your content more readily and help establish your firm as a leader in your field of law. Basic meta-data goes a long way to ranking your posts high on search engines. One of the best CMS, content management systems is WordPress. That is because WordPress blogs integrate meta-data into the posts, helping to rank well with the top search engines. Wellcrafted headers (60 characters or less) along with meta-descriptions (approximately 160 characters max) will help get your articles ranked on the first page of searches for topics you write about. Keywords are buzz words that people use when searching for news, products, or services. Your headers and body content should include top keywords that are relevant to your article. For example, if your article features tips on tax laws in New York State, then include the keywords <tax law> and <New York State> in your heading and be sure to use those keywords within the body copy of your article. Your article will be found more readily as a result of tactically placing keywords in the header and body. After each blog post you should be sharing your content on social media channels such as Twitter and LinkedIn. A great tactic to employ when engaging on social media is the 4-1-1
Rule: For every one self-serving social share, you should like/ retweet one relevant post and most importantly share four pieces of relevant content written by others. Share your posts 3-4 times a week for a month at different times each week on social media. Stay consistent. Remember to make your shares attractive, add a great photo and add relative hashtags to get more engagement. When scheduling posts, it is important to include a call-toaction (CTA). Develop a CTA that is turn-key and easy for your followers to click-thru to your website or your web pages. Give them an incentive to reach out to you whether it be a free consultation or a discount. Making it rain may seem daunting, but it is certainly doable. You have got to create and consistently speak with one voice. Create and remain true to your core values.
Follow These Dos and Don’ts DO use hashtags. Hashtags will categorize your tweet under a certain topic. Sometimes these topics can trend and will spark a conversation between people following the hashtag feed. DO be mindful of the time of day. Most audiences are on during the day and on weekends. Tweeting during the day will generate 30% more interaction due to higher traffic. People also tend to be more active on the weekends, with 17% more engagement happening on the weekend.
DO follow key influencers in your field. Retweeting or liking influencer content will give people a sense that you understand what is going on in your field. Build a relationship with your influencers and followers alike. If someone retweets or follows you, thank them for engaging with you and have a brief conversation if it comes to it. DO learn what your competition is doing and stay a step ahead. Follow your competitors. See what industries they’re interested in and look for ways to expand your practice or client base. DO make your share more attractive. Try adding a link or an image to get your followers to stop and take a closer look at your tweet. Make sure the image speaks to your audience. DON’T tweet about sex, politics, or religion. Remember everything you say on the internet stays there forever. Like a wise man once said, don’t post anything online that you wouldn’t want on the front page of the news the next day. DON’T share too much. Posting too much can be annoying and can push people away. Don’t overdo it, or they might end up unfollowing you. Find that happy balance. n Shari Davidson is the founder of On Balance Search Consultants LLC. & On-Balance Life Centers. On Balance Search Consultants is a boutique search firm that specializes in finding top talent in the legal community. Shari has placed lateral partner attorneys, as well as group acquisitions & law firm mergers. Learn more at www.onbalancesearch.com.
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5 Best Practices for Protecting Sensitive Information During an Investigation by Jeffrey Wolff
O
rganizations are feeling the pinch of compliance like never before as government agencies at every level are scrutinizing their business affairs more closely and issuing more regulations. To meet their compliance obligations, smart organizations leverage internal investigations to address personnel issues, respond to employee complaints, prepare for litigation, and audit their business practices. In most circumstances, organizations want to keep the findings of their internal investigations private, whether it’s to safeguard the company or an employee from embarrassment or to prevent an opposing party from gaining access to damaging information. That requires organizations to take proactive steps to protect sensitive information. Fortunately, there are several tools for protecting sensitive information during an internal investigation.
What Is Sensitive Information? Sensitive information is any information that is confidential, proprietary, private, or legally protected. It can take a variety of forms. Here are some of the most common types of data that organizations need to protect: • Employee data such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, home addresses, and health and benefits records • Financial information, including bank account and credit card numbers, revenue sources, and expenses and losses
Why Protecting Sensitive Information Is Important Organizations and their counsel should protect the sensitive information uncovered or generated during an internal investigation for several reasons. Sometimes the information may be potentially damaging to the reputation of an organization or its employees. Most companies have an interest in resolving internal affairs quietly. Keeping private matters private avoids potential embarrassment and a public relations nightmare. Protecting sensitive information can also prevent the contamination of witness testimony and encourage reluctant witnesses to come forward. If you’re interviewing multiple employees about an employee issue, you may want to keep witness testimony private until the conclusion of the investigation so there’s no possibility of undue influence. Furthermore, employees are more likely to raise concerns if they’re assured that their comments will be kept confidential. Finally, where litigation may follow, organizations should take care to protect sensitive information so that it’s not subject to discovery by an adverse party. The failure to safeguard confidential information may put you at a serious disadvantage if the matter leads to legal proceedings.
Legal Protections For Sensitive Information
• Results of internal investigations and other information not known to the public
The main way to protect sensitive information is to cloak it in the attorney-client privilege. If lawyers participate in an internal investigation for the purpose of providing legal advice, then those conversations and the materials that you share are protected by the attorney-client privilege. Similarly, a lawyer’s work product, including notes and documents, is protected from discovery so long as it’s created in preparation for litigation. Be cautious, though. These protections don’t generally apply to routine audits or other investigations conducted in the ordinary course of business. That’s why it’s important to make sure that you’ve taken the right steps to protect sensitive information before an internal investigation even begins.
Sensitive information is often implicated in internal investigations—and without caution, it could be intentionally or inadvertently shared outside the organization.
5 Best Practices For Protecting Sensitive Information
• Client and customer information, including contact details and previous order records • Proprietary information such as trade secrets or research details • Strategic plans, including potential mergers and acquisitions, development opportunities, and internal processes • Operational details such as inventory records, pricing policies, and marketing techniques
1. Involve legal counsel in the investigation: One of the easiest ways to help protect sensitive information is to involve legal counsel both before and during an internal investigation. 26
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For example, a lawyer can establish guidelines and parameters for the internal investigation, like clearly identifying and documenting its purpose and scope. If you’ve established that the purpose of an investigation is to obtain legal advice or prepare for litigation, the results are more likely to be protected under the attorney-client privilege. An attorney can also correctly explain the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrines to the investigative team and any witnesses throughout the investigation. This ongoing reminder can help focus the investigative team during their work, keep witnesses on track, and strengthen the privilege argument during trial. 2. Keep physical work product in one location: Investigative teams may collect or create countless documents during an internal investigation. It will help if you maintain all data and documents in a designated area. While it’s helpful to have an eDiscovery solution for organizing your data and managing legal holds, you’ll also need to properly and securely store any physical documents. From an attorney-client privilege perspective, securing all of your evidence in a single access-controlled location demonstrates that it’s protected as work product. If documents are floating around the office or stored in various non-private electronic folders, a court is less likely to deem this information sensitive or covered by the work product doctrine. This means you’ll need strong cybersecurity protections and encryption for electronic work product. Haphazardly leaving work product on an unsecured network where others can access it will weaken your argument in court. Added layers of protection demonstrate the sensitivity of the information and show that the organization is proactively taking steps to prevent its disclosure. 3. Document the investigation process thoroughly: Keeping thorough documentation throughout the investigative process is essential to protecting sensitive information with the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. Without thorough documentation, opposing counsel is likely to argue that protections should not apply, and sensitive information may be deemed discoverable. Counsel and internal investigators should keep written records that establish the investigation’s purpose and scope at each step along the way. This includes documenting how each action, witness interview, and document is necessary for obtaining legal advice and preparing for litigation. Counsel should also verbally inform witnesses about the investigation’s purpose—to prepare for litigation or to obtain legal advice—before each interview. At the same time, they should ensure that interviewees aren’t recording the interview, as any copies could become discoverable. 4. Use formal communication channels: In this day and age (especially in the era of COVID-19 and working from home), employees commonly communicate using informal channels, such as texts and chat messages. While these tools make it easier for colleagues to collaborate, they can
also create a horrifying paper trail for lawyers during an internal investigation. During an investigation, counsel and investigators must use formal communication channels each step of the way. Conversations over chat or text message are more likely to become discoverable during litigation because they lack the formality and protections of an in-person interview. Furthermore, these technologies create the risk of duplication of statements, which might ultimately destroy the attorneyclient privilege. Using multiple informal communication channels also fragments information, making it more likely that an investigator will miss or lose track of documentation or testimony or that it might be intercepted or hacked. By instructing investigators to only use formal, protected communication channels, such as in-person interviews and email, a company can shield any sensitive information that the investigation surfaces. 5. Create a script for interviewers and investigators: Counsel shouldn’t expect that employees, even at the executive level, will understand the scope and purpose of the attorney-client privilege and work product or the consequences that their actions might have on future litigation. To combat the risk that investigators and interviewers will unwittingly jeopardize sensitive information, create a script for investigators to read at the beginning of each interview. This script should include a provision for informing witnesses that interviews are recorded and verifying that they aren’t surreptitiously creating their own recording. If the interview is conducted remotely, the script should include verification that the witness is alone. Finally, the investigator should inform the witness that the purpose of the interview is to obtain legal advice or prepare for litigation.
Thoughtful Preparation Is Key to Successfully Protecting Sensitive Information When it comes to protecting sensitive information during an internal investigation, the main takeaway is that the more thoughtfully you prepare, the more you can reduce the risk of disclosure. A disorganized internal investigation with no clear scope or purpose is more likely to result in a leak of sensitive information or a breach of the attorney-client privilege. Before beginning the investigation, you need to plan for how you will store and document information, involve legal counsel at every step of the process, and educate everyone involved about the need to protect sensitive information. n Jeffrey Wolff is a Certified E-Discovery Specialist who joined ZyLAB in May 2015 and serves as Director of E-Discovery Solutions. He brought with him over 20 years of experience in Information Systems and enterprise software. He has been involved in solution architecture, design, and implementation for major projects within the Department of Defense and Fortune 1000 corporations. Learn more at www.zylab.com.
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14 Contract Management Processes That Are Shameful by AXDRAFT
H
abits are very powerful. It takes 21 days to form one, and a lifetime to get rid of it. Habits can help us maintain strong mental health, lead us towards becoming successful lawyers, and live a healthy, happy life. Or else, they can make you really miserable without you even realizing it. There are still things lawyers do with contracts that honestly should not be done anymore. Just like there are good habits, there are ones that can be frowned upon, and even call for an intervention. No, no. We’re not talking about a passion for junk food, or binge watching ‘Suits’ in search of a solution for your current case. In 2021, when humans and machines work together on making this world a better place for lawyers, and the role of AI in legal is unquestionable, there are still things lawyers do with contracts that honestly should not be done in 2021. Below is a list of contract management processes that might have worked before, but are not as cool and effective anymore:
Store contracts in file
cabinets, across offices, states, and countries The first one is a big hit. Do the math with us: • One four-drawer file cabinet costs $25K to fill in with contracts, and about $2K to maintain annually • A standard Amazon cloud storage package costs $0.026/Gigabyte/month. That’s $0.026/month for storing 10,000 document pages. No matter how secure and comfortable cloud solutions get, legal is sticking to a millenia-old tradition of storing manuscripts in a dry cool place, away from direct sunlight and children.
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Document drafting based
on old templates from legal, or new ones from the internet “The template worked 5 years ago, and it will work today” says a lawyer that neglected to check compliance with new legislation. The main point of always updating your templates is not only to save time drafting a new contract, but to give your company an advantage before contract negotiations start. Companies may change directions in terms of strategy, even change a legal address or payment details. The contract template must stay in-line with all the changes, or you may risk bringing it down with one bad contract. Remember: it is much easier to draft a fresh template then mitigate the risks caused by a contract that ‘worked 5 years ago’.
Fly around to get a contract signed
Don’t you love flying on airplanes? You get to meet people, push your way through to the client’s big boss, and fly back home. All for the sake of an autograph on a contract. Exactly what a lawyer should do instead of focusing on company strategy and advising the board. While some companies send lawyers on business trips via first class to get a contract signed, others discovered that it is much easier to invite their partner into contract management software to eSign it. Good news for lawyers that don’t like flying.
Negotiate contracts via email A pigeon would have been a safer way to not lose a contract or mix up the redlines and versions. A faster way as well, to be honest, if your email falls into the Spam or Promotions
folder. But, there’s a better option—collaborate on your contracts as you would in Google Docs. Technology already allows you to work on a contract together simultaneously, as if you were sitting in one negotiation room. No matter how formal the email conversion may look, it has long since become inefficient.
Approve the same contract more than once
Deja vu is a commonplace feeling for lawyers that don’t have approval flows set up. It almost seems that you’ve just approved that very same contract yesterday. But something’s different, and you can’t figure out what. Why not look at the contract once and move on to the next task? Today’s technology allows you to get notified when it’s your turn to approve the contract. You can even see the history of changes and the list of document versions, approve clauses and leave comments. When you’re done with the contract, pass it on to the next in line.
Proofread after Junior Associates/Paralegal
An average lawyer spends up to 10 hours a week proofreading contracts, and most of that time is not billable. Unfortunately, you can’t get junior associates with experience straight out of Law School. But what you can do is show them the software that’s already trained to never make an error, and let them draft mistake-free contracts based on your legal templates.
Follow up on counter-parties via phone
Phone calls are already giving way to online messaging. Lawyers, however, still love to hit the dial buttons as part of their contract management process, and be as polite as possible. ‘Please, look at clause 2’, ‘Have you seen my comments to your comments?’, ‘Please eSign the contract asap’ are just some of the phrases from a follow-up phone conversation. It doesn’t really suit a lawyer to do such things. Today, you can send a 1-click notification and the responsible party will get your request straightaway. Of course, you can click the ‘Send’ button 5-6 times to highlight importance and urgency.
Use paper stickers to
highlight the important clauses and places to sign. A paper contract can resemble a rainbow sometimes, if looked at from the side. A multitude of colors sticking out between the sheets is there for a reason. Yellow for the CEO to sign, orange for Accounting to check the details, green for sales to note the delivery terms, etc. A paper contract can look like a rainbow sometimes, if looked at from the side. Just don’t mix them up, or there will be trouble. What you can also do is assign specific roles to each contract and clause with the help of document workflow automation. No one will be able to see what they see, and put payment details onto the delivery terms, or something like that.
Set up alarms for deadline reminders
Wake up, Neo. No, you’re not in the matrix. You just have a contract submission deadline and now you have to run. Remember setting the alarm for 10 minutes before the deadline is over? Good job! If only there were a dashboard where Neo could see all the contracts with all the deadlines, Neo could plan ahead and not have to rush with the annoying alarm sound still playing on the outskirts of his mind.
Send an email to the entire
team regarding the new template Emails don’t always find us at the right time. Heck, they don’t always find us at all. Still, people feel like sticking to the ‘businessness’ of the email is the right way to share and delegate vital information. Such as updates to the contract templates. If you ever took part in drafting an email like that, you know the pain of the consequences, when people start getting back to you to clarify. It all starts just like any email conversation: “Dear all, I hope my email finds you well. I am happy to inform you that, from today on, our company will be using a new NDA template. You can find the updated template in the attachment.
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If you have any questions regarding the new template, feel free to reach back to me, I will happily answer all of your questions. P.S. Not really sure if all of you receive the email, or see it in time before signing another contract, please pass on to your colleagues the information about the updated NDA template. P.PS. I am finishing the first draft of the new master service agreement, and expect to notify you all about another updated template by the end of this week.” To avoid such emails and pointless, annoying conversations that follow, it is nice to use a centralized contract repository that will include only the latest template versions, or simply update every template automatically with the help of proper software.
Get to your desktop to
review or approve the contract Phones today are big and smart enough to play games, watch movies, read books, and even work. Still, some lawyers feel that a contract management process is too important to manage from their phone. There are people who find all the Marvel easter eggs in ‘Infinity War’ by watching the movie once on a 5-inch display. As long as you have internet access and a phone, you don’t have to come back to the office and see a pile of documents in the ‘review’ folder along with a bunch of emails with ‘Pls approve’ subject lines. Manage your contracts on the go, you’ll quickly find this practice efficient and productive.
Sign a contract twice with the same company
A non-disclosure agreement is a document that lets you share important company information with counterparties. Having several hundreds of such documents (stored across multiple cabinets, of course), it can become difficult to recall if you actually have an NDA signed with someone. So, when your sales rep storms into your office to find out if they can share a SOC 2 report with all the sensitive information about the company’s security, what do you do? Sign another document with them, of course. It can become difficult to recall if you actually have an NDA signed with someone. You can spend hours looking for a signed copy, send
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an email to the counter-party, or get into your document workflow automation software and find everyone you have NDAs in place with, using a metadata-based search. What will you choose?
Write contracts that can
only be understood by lawyers A lawyer might not notice that, but the language of their contracts can give people a migraine. Asking for clarification can result in instant fatality, because sometimes, the explanation of the clause in verbal legal language is even more confusing than just reading it. Luckily for the non-legal people, there’s technology that transforms complex language into something that a ninth grader can understand. It’s called GPT-3, and there’s document automation software that uses it for their templates.
Copy and paste client details We think that the Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V combo is one of the best inventions ever made in human history. Or was, right until all the integrations became possible, and now all you need is a CRM, a document automation software, and the ‘Magic’ button that transfers all the important data directly into your contracts. Without you having to even touch your keyboard.
Conclusion While we grow up, we develop skills and habits that go along with us during our lives. While some can be good and helpful for years, others should be changed when it’s time to change them. Lawyers had an amazing era where the contract management process was all on paper. That lasted several thousand years. Then it was a century of phone calls and a couple decades of emails. Today, with document automation software, all of this becomes unnecessary, expensive, and ineffective. More so, these habits can act as blockers to your growth, cause an increase of stress and overwork, and make you start getting impostor thoughts about not being good enough. n This article was provided by AXDRAFT. AXDRAFT is a document automation software that liberates legal and business teams of routine drafting work, unravels the true value of a legal department, and helps companies grow, scale, and thrive. Learn more at www.axdraft.com.
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