I have been discussing the concept of originality with a number of other lawyers. When you post to your blog, send out a story to a listserv or otherwise disseminate information it is not only good form, it is required that you provide attribution to the original source.
There was a brilliant mathematician who passed his work off as original when it fact it was not. So do we remember his good works or his falsehoods? You decide.
Guest post by Chris Nichols who can be found at his Web site Nichols Law Firm and his great blog North Carolina Trial Law Blog I was thrilled when Chris agreed to give me his account of moving from the Treo to the iPhone. What you see below is that post. Thanks Chris!!!
Recruited
So this is how the story goes: I posted a comment on Grant’s blog, and low and behold he asked me to guest blog about the experience of transitioning from my Treo 650 to the new iPhone 3G . That’s good blogating (blog + delegating), or is that deleblogging? Which ever it is, Grant somehow thought that the lawyer with the world’s ugliest blog might have something to offer. We’ll see.
My Operating System
A little about me and my set up, which will give you context to my thoughts. I am the principle of my own law firm, Nichols Law Firm and I am PC based. I use my Treo 650 as my primary phone, more or less. I say more or less, because I use eVoice Receptionist for my 800 phone number. Evoice is a web based program which allows me to have my 800 calls routed to multiple phone lines, either in series (three rings on one then switching to the next) or concurrently (ringing up to five phones at once). Since I’m often on the go, I’m often picking up my calls on the Treo. And by the way, when you answer your phone with eVoiceReceptionist, the system says “This is eVoiceReceptionist with a call for Chris Nichols, press 1 to accept or 3 to send to voice mail.” If you send a caller to voice mail, eReceptionist then creates an audio file of the message and sends it to your email. It is very handy. And it works with caller ID. And did I mention is costs only $29.95 a month?
I do not use Outlook, nor do I use Office. I use OpenOffice and I use Gmail (and iGoogle) as my “everything” manager. I have not broken down yet and purchased a case management software, but have created my own using some data base management and tools on the PC. My legal work is generally personal injury litigation referred from other attorneys. I don’t do much billing at all.
My Shredded Treo 650
I use my Treo a LOT. I’ve liked it, but things were starting to go wrong. First, the ear speaker broke (twice) and I could only listen to calls on speaker. Then the case cracked a bit and the phone would power off if you applied the right pressure (like answering the phone). And finally, the #9 on the key pad only worked in random intervals. Not such a good thing when you live in area code 919.
I could NEVER get the Verizon push mail to work well with Gmail, so I just accessed my mail via the web browser, which worked, but had some limitations due to screen size and of course, data flow throughput (speed).
I needed a new phone about two months ago, but I held out for the iPhone. I was not very impressed by the Blackberry clones, I refused to use a Windows mobile system, and the newest Treos just didn’t impress me as being all that better than their ancestors.
Surviving the Line
My 19 year old nephew is living with us this summer and his deepest desire was to have an iPhone. So much so that he convinced me to wait in the line at 7 am on the release date which coincided with my birthday. We gamed the system and tried to go to the most hidden away AT&T store, but we missed the mark by about 10 people and were sent home iPhoneless. I took it better than my nephew did. We regrouped the next day at 6:45 am at the Apple Store in the mall and walked away with two new iPhone 3G’s. An 8 gig model for me and a 16 gig for him. His iPod already had 12 gigs of data, so the 16 gig model made sense for him. I’m a little lame in the music department, so I went with the 8G model.
The Transition
Well, my first priority was getting my contacts from my Treo 650 to the iPhone. I really like to know who I’m talking with before I answer. Of course, there is no direct route to do this for Treo users but several “work arounds”. I’ll go through those and let you know what happened:
First, according to Apple, some folks have it easy. If you use Outlook, you can export to the iPhone. If you use Yahoo to store contacts or even Google to store contacts, there is a direct “import” into the iPhone. I was out of luck.
So here is what I did:
1. Export from Treo desktop to .csv file:
So this gets your contacts into “comma separated values” (i.e. spread sheet form). The problem I found later on is that the “columns” from one system (Treo) would be different from the next system I would use (Yahoo).
2. Import .csv file to Yahoo contacts:
I didn’t want to run the risk of having duplicate contacts or garbage data on my Google contacts, so I just opened a free and new Yahoo email. I then imported the .csv Addresses from the Treo export. Things got a little strange. Yahoo wants you to choose the labels for the columns and I didn’t really pay enough attention to get them all aligned. For example, Treo saves last name first. I think Yahoo saves first name first. If you go this route, study your columns first so you get them right on the import.
3. Import Yahoo contacts to the iPhone.
This is by far the easiest part of the process. The iPhone uses iTunes as the software platform on your PC. In the “settings” tabs, you will find a setting for importing emails and contacts. Also, your iPhone will prompt you to do this on initial set up. You enter your import account info (your screen name and pass word) and the iPhone will go get your stuff.
User Failure
Ok, so things did not go so well for me. I botched up the export from the Palm desktop because I didn’t pay enough attention to the column headings. So when things got into Yahoo they looked ugly. I really didn’t want to import a bunch of garbage, so I formulated a new plan.
I knew that I could import my Gmail contacts straight to the iPhone. I felt pretty sure that everyone I have ever called I’ve probably emailed. So I imported my Gmail contacts.
BIG MISTAKE. Gmail considers every person you have emailed or who has emailed you as a contact. My iPhone is now full of addresses I might have sent or received to once. On top of that, I don’t use the Gmail contacts for phone numbers, so all I have is a really long list of emails. Now I have 600+ contact emails in my iPhone. I probably had 200 in the Treo.
I Have a Good Excuse
I was just about to go back, clear out the iPhone contacts and start again with Yahoo (paying attention to the columns this time) when my laptop stopped working. I’ve had this Toshiba Satellite A-105 for a year and a half and it has been a good machine, but it just crapped out on me. (I have my suspicions that my iPhone wanted it dead, but that’s just the paranoid ranting of a man deprived of his laptop).
So I was able to pull my HDD out and recover all my data, which tells me that XP is somehow corrupted. I’ll leave that fun to my IT guy. But here is my real problem: my Treo desktop was on there, along with the driver software. And of course, my treo now refuses to sync with anything. I think one of the connecting pins broke.
The Old Fashioned Way
Yep, that’s me, the techno lawyer punching in phone numbers, one at a time, into his new iPhone. I know I don’t have to do it this way, but I’m tired of my computer right now. So when I unwind at the end of the day and the “bad TV” is on, I clean out my contacts and update. There is something organic about the process that is somehow appealing to me at the moment. I started by programming in all of the “hot clients” so I know when they are calling. I’m sure by next week I’ll have my wife’s great aunt on board.
But Really, the iPhone is Great
Aside from the fact that my iPhone is owned by a somewhat technically challenged guy, the phone itself is great. I get great reception in places where my Verizon Treo didn’t. I’m in a city so the 3G network is rocking 24/7. My iPhone can find every wifi pickup point around for even faster service. And a warning: it is really fun to watch all of your neighbors and local business wifi networks pop up on your iPhone, but not so safe while driving.
I’ll save a complete review of the iPhone for another post, but suffice it to say that even after my wild adventure with my contacts, I still really like the phone. My Gmail is automatically integrated. I can have it update every 15 minutes, but typically I just have it updated on demand. Of course, for you push freaks, there are many options to turn your iPhone into a crackberry. I just don’t want to be that connected. If I can’t go 15 minutes between emails, I’ve got some problems I need to address in therapy.
Don’t freak out about the on-screen keyboard. It takes a few days to adjust, then you’ll be fine. It’s admittedly harder to text while driving (not that I would ever do that.)
iGoogle Users Will Love the iPhone 3G
If you use iGoogle features like Gmail, you will really love the iPhone compared to the Treo 650. The iPhone was designed to integrate with Google products and the Linux based programming just works so well, and so quickly. I find that checking emails on my iPhone is almost as fast as checking them on the PC, possibly faster. Every Gmail change you make on the iPhone immediately changes in your Gmail account. No messy sync issues.
Web browsing is a pleasure on the iPhone compared to the Treo. You have up to 8 “pages” available at all time on the iPhone, so no lengthy waits for pages to refresh like on the Treo. Let’s face it, to me, the Treo was “survival Internet.” You could access a page if you really needed to but it was almost never fun or easy. The iPhone is fun and easy. Web browsing, while not exactly like a desk top, is about as perfect as i could imagine it to be on a hand held screen.
Also, I should mention that after the PC crash, I was at the Apple Store today looking at a MacBook Pro . I realize that if I completely switch my office over to Mac simply because I bought an iPhone, that’s like buying a really cool tie and then getting 4 suits to match it. But you know what, sometimes a tie really is that cool.
I am suggesting that all of the readers the Home Office Lawyer go visit a new blog devoted to the Mac computer in the law office. Esq Mac is the work of Adam Greivell. Good stuff and a good looking blog. Check it out.
In order for your practice to make a lasting positive impact you need to see things through the eyes of the customer. Create a positive experience and the customer will come back again and again.
Consider our friend the iPhone. Millions purchased the original unit last year for $399 or more. This past Friday, many lined up to spend another $299 for an updated 16GB version.
This is not an “I love iPhone,” post. In fact, you can skip to 3:00 on the video to see exactly what I mean when I say that Apple does customer experience right.
Imagine how YOU would have felt to be one of the people descending those steps at 8:00am this past Friday. Now imagine how to get your clients to feel the same way.
I try not to do this very often, but Chuck Newton really hit the nail on the head with this one. All you 1L’s, 2L’s and 3L’s, read this and do exactly what he says.
Do you want a good job immediately after law school?’ Or, do you want to successfully transition into the profitable private practice of law after passing the bar?’ If so, you should start networking or building relationships while in law school.
I know, especially the first year, that law school takes up so much time that this is difficult.’ But,
students wait or put off doing anything until it is time to interview for internships or associate positions, when the market is crowded.If you want to work in a particular field you need to start calling on lawyers, judges, government officials, in-house counsel, or whoever now.’ Learn who they are from the career services office of the law school or by just getting on the web.’ Ask to drop by and speak with them.’ Email them.’ Ask them about jobs, ask them about the practice area, ask for advice.’ Do not ask them for a job.
If you want to go into the private practice of law, you need to figure out those people, groups and organizations that you need to succeed.’ You need to start contacting them – just to look for information and advice.
Then do what I do now.’ Collect their information.’ Follow up with an email, a letter, a call now and then.’ Input that information in a spreadsheet, set up an cheap email broadcast account, a broadcast fax account, and save the list for mailings.’ Start a blog to reference and keep as your hub about the subject you are pursuing.’ Then keep in touch regularly this way.’ Have a question, pick up the phone and start calling.’ Ask these informal advisers what they think would be best for you.
First, you will learn a lot – whole lot a valuable information they just do not teach you in law school.
Second, you meet a lot of interesting people.
Third, you will be able to define your opportunities better, and quantify more of what you want.’ It is a learning process.
Fourth, you learn better not only who you might want to work for or with, but also who you do not.
If you get an internship or job from one during law school and decide to take it, all the better.’ But, do not stop your efforts.
Remember, it is always easier to build relationships that will serve you well later at a time when you do not need anything but advice and comfort from the person with whom you have solicited.
Source for Post Chuck Newton.
Much is made about the home office; my good friend Grant Griffiths extols the virtues of a home office and waves the banner high. For that, I applaud him.
Alas, I do not have a home office. Nor, I suspect, will I ever have one.
Make no mistake, I do work from home. I also work from the courthouse, the local coffee shop (what a cliché), my parent’s house in sunny Florida, and the laundry room in the basement of my apartment building. That begs the question – can I reasonably say that I have a “home office”? I think not.
My office is located where I am at any given time. Whether I have my laptop, my cell phone, or just a notepad and a pen (I don’t use pencils; the feel of the lead on paper has always freaked me out) I can transact business and do the work for which clients hire me.
So I suppose I have a mobile office. But that’s like saying I’m a mobile person. Still doesn’t fit.
Do I have a virtual office? No, because I am not virtual. I exist. Flesh and blood, real me. If I were virtual there is a good chance I wouldn’t leave my socks on the floor or dirty dishes in the sink.
I don’t think there’s a word for what I have, nor a term with which I feel comfortable. My office – to the extent that I have one – goes where I go. It resides online and in my head. It sits in the car with me, on the train and on an airplane. My office sleeps when I do, wakes with me as well.
We choose to have an office so that we may have a work-life balance. But self-employed professionals and knowledge workers do not have a work-life balance; their work is their life, and their life is a part of their work. It’s like saying you have an “eating-digesting balance;” sometimes you eat, sometimes you digest. but it’s all part of the same organic whole, the yin-yang that makes up who you are.
I get that we all like a place to keep our stuff; it gives us a means of identifying ourselves to others. We gain a sense of place, of grounding, by doing so. But true mobility does not come from having a home office; all that does it tether us to a place, just like having an office in a downtown high-rise tethers us to a place. Sit in a corner office, sit in your spare bedroom, sit at your kitchen table . . . it’s all the same save the rent.
So once again – I do not have a home office. I am my office, and it goes where I go.
Sometimes I think consumer bankruptcy attorneys are seen as easy marks for self-styled gurus. People pop in and out of our orbits on a near-daily basis, shilling their magical “systems” that will make us millions . . . only to drop out of sight 20 seconds later.
For example, a lawyer recently appeared on a listserv in which I participate. It’s a high volume group, with information and news flying fast and furious. About 2 months ago the group was introduced to a gentleman who was not only a bankruptcy lawyer but also claimed to have hit on a cure-all for lackluster profits and client volume. He offered a free teleseminar via his email signature and invited everyone to sign up immediately.
Listen, I’m all for new voices in the marketing and practice management field. I don’t pretend to know everything (in fact, everything I learned I adopted from other marketing and management people – I take what works and discard the rest), so I gladly signed up. If someone wants to share a nugget or two with me, then so be it – count me in!
So I go to the website for the teleseminar and sign up, handing over my email address and name to this guru’s autoresponder system; now I’m in his clutches, but it’s alright. After all, I’m on so many mailing lists that one more can’t hurt too much.
On registration I get an email confirmation with instructions to tape it to my forehead (or some such marketing guru nonsense) so I won’t forget this earth-shattering phone call. A little hubris, but I can handle it.
Then in the days leading up to the call, one or two more dribble in.
Remember, I know NOTHING about this guy save that he’s obviously a bankruptcy lawyer with big claims to make.
Day of the call, I dial in and am treated to two hours of him telling me what to do. Some good tips and tricks, but I know where they all come from and can even point to the relevant paragraphs in each book. So he steals ideas – big deal. As I’ve said, I never met a good idea that I didn’t make my own in some fashion.
The call goes fairly well and, though I gain nothing from it, I am sure others did come away with a gem or two. He hits us over the head with his $1,000 “system” and tries to convert some of us into paying customers.
As I sit here on July 2, 2008, this lawyer has stopped posting altogether on the listserv where he appeared. He’s disappeared. No follow-up after the teleseminar, no offer to replay the call, no streaming audio on his website . . . nothing. It’s as if he never existed at all.
And this isn’t the first time this has happened. In 2006 my colleagues and I were subjected to another guru who popped onto the scene with a teleseminar. This guy is well known in some circles (not bankruptcy) and came out with guns blazing. Did his teleseminar and then faded away.
What’s the lesson here? Longevity. If you want to sell something to a group – or to a consumer – you must be prepared to invest time and energy into converting that prospect to a customer. It may take weeks, months or even years but when it happens it will be worth it.
During that time, you’re establishing trust and creating a bond. You’re engaging in a grand conversation, letting the prospect know that you have what it takes to solve the problem.
Jumping in and jumping out like these two disappearing acts . . . just not smart business.
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When I'm not working with other lawyers, I'm out there helping people in the fields of consumer bankruptcy, debt collection abuse, and credit reporting errors. [Read More …]
