Post by Gustavo Rocha, lawyer and consultant in management, IT and quality for law firms. He’s the author of Gestão.Adv.br (content in Portuguese only):

There are over 192 millions Internet domains registered on the Internet, until 2009.

What does this mean? To put it simply: your brand depends on you. There’s no turning back: Internet, social networks, contacts, connections, businesses.

When it comes to Internet domains, lots of people register the “.com.br” and the “.com” even if it is one and the same law firm. Two different law firms that have the same name have different Internet domains, i.e. one is “.com.br” and the other “.adv.br”.

It is a basic need to register their practice with the same name on the most common domains in the business area. The online brand management can not be overlooked.

Adding to this, it is important to keep you ears and eyes open to what’s being said about you, over the web.
Keeping up with your “online name” can prove to be an excellent path for new contacts, to check the degree of your clients satisfaction thus leaving a subconscious trail of your brand on those surfing the web.

How come? If I Google my name and find that there few references to it, I may start writing more and being more active in social networks and online groups and chats concerning my area of activity, i,e. make my online presence more noticeable. By doing that and always having some sort of online signature on my emails with my contacts, name, practice name, etc,  I’ll be broadning my brand.

Sharing and participating on online debates, will provide for others to better know of my work and to quote me in future references.

The more virtual contacts I get online the more they can turn into live ones, not to mention the ever growing of my brand.

So, don’t just read this, take action. Try this:

• Verify your present domain(s).
• Register your practice in all others that are most common in your business area.
• Be active in social networks. Interact.

Be online and keep at it. Your brand may depend on it!

Lumbrales & Associados, one of the many LawRD – Reports on Demand users, requested us for helping them to devise their new website - www.lumbrales-associados.eu -  which came about after a close collaboration with that law firm, resulting on a completely customized one:

Its content management is fully controlled by the user, via back office, with no need for a third party for issuing newsletters to their clients, just to name of the perks that such a collaboration has produced.

The interface design is also a joint result. The fast provision of contents from that legal office made way for a pretty fast deployment of this whole web initiative. The domain registration and hosting procedure requirements were all dealt with by us as well.

If this resonates with some of your IT needs, please let us know at info@lawrd.com.

Post by Gustavo Rocha, lawyer and consultant in management, IT and quality for law firms. He’s the author of Gestão.Adv.br (content in Portuguese only):

“The client knows best”, this is an adage not always true and ought not to be interpreted in its stricto sensu.

What is the client’s dream is another issue. Dreaming is good, it is free, but one needs to “keep it real” so the dream can come to be. If a client looks for a wreckless quest, should I play along so I can prove him wrong. What about the lawyer’s ethical code, then? Is a client’s dream any good, if it means to work in the German market, which is known for its demands for price and quality, when he is not up to those standards?

We have to put the clients inner yearns and hopes along side with the facts of reality, possibility and professionalism.

Being a lawyer and consultant and psychologist and entrepreneur, is what Being a Lawyer is all about. The market demands for professionals with business strategies, calculated legal risks included. In this mind frame, to be a lawyer is to be a strategist. Not just a petition clerk, but a real Guru for clients.The one they look for guidance in rough moments, through hard times.

The same goes for lawyers who deal with individuals. Employees in any company. To be aware whether  the company they work for is compliant with the legislation, their rights and duties (not only the rights,
like many love to stress) are all fundamental by the time to decide  whether or not to stay working in the present job.

Clients do not always know best.

Dreams do not always come true.

Recurring to the law is not always the best move.

In any of the above cases, a lawyer who has a strategic overview of the market, who is sensible to human interactions and has a good knowledge of the law, can provide an outcome closer to justice and the truth.