Crafting your own presentation…
by David J Bilinsky

In the day, In the night
Say it all, Say it right
Words and music by Nelly Furtado, Timothy “Timbaland” Mosley and Nate “Danja” Hills, recorded by N. Furtado

A good way to market your practice is to do a live presentation before an interested group of people that you can then nurture and develop into clients. However, the number of venues for live presentations are not all that numerous and the audience may want to hear about a topic that doesn’t quite fit in with your business strategy and plan. Since the presentation takes place “live,” it will be limited to those who can attend in the same place and time. What is an enterprising lawyer to do? The answer is: Create his or her own custom presentation that can be hosted on the Web and made available 24/7 for download by any interested potential client for viewing on the client’s own time and schedule. Furthermore, the client already knows your website (having downloaded the presentation) that contains credentialing and contact info on how to reach you, whether in person, by telephone, e-mail or fax.

How do you do this? The lawyer podcast. Podcasts are on-demand presentations (which can be audio or both audio and visual) in the form of MP3, iTunes, Windows Media or other files that can be downloaded from the Internet and then loaded onto appropriate computers or players for listening or viewing 24/7. The term “podcast” is originally derived from Apple Computer Inc.’s iPod portable musical player, upon which people download the audio files for later listening. Think of them as online CLE’s that you launch for your potential clients that are both informative and can help market your experience and background in your chosen area of practice. Furthermore, podcasts have a “long tail” since the time and effort in developing one is fixed, yet it can be downloaded and viewed by hundreds if not thousands of potential clients.

And of course, Google and others who follow legal blogs spider and list your site and your podcast, thereby helping to spread the news…

What’s in it for viewers or listeners? Convenience is a big factor. Downloading a podcast means being able to listen to the presentation anywhere, anytime. If audio, it can be listened to on an iPod or other player hooked up to a car’s stereo or through headphones on the drive to work. If video, the viewer will require a computer or a video iPod or similar device. But once on the device, the listener can see it on their schedule. Another factor is random access; the presentation can be played, paused, fast-forwarded or rewound at any time.

If you develop this type of content regularly, you can incorporate an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed into your website, so that interested persons will receive updates of new podcasts on your site automatically. This means that people subscribe to and receive updates on your content! Virtually every browser, such as Firefox or Internet Explorer has add-ons that incorporate an RSS feed that allows subscriptions. So does Google Mail and other customizable sites. Or you can download an RSS client to subscribe to and monitor your RSS feeds.

On your side, you will need a podcast client as well as the hardware and software to create, edit and produce your podcast. You will also have to decide whether to do an audio podcast or an audio-visual one. The former is easier and requires less production work; the latter can be very effective as it delivers a “head-shot” as well as other visual elements (such as PowerPoint slides, graphics, sounds and video) that can enhance your podcast. The choice of format may also influence your product, as iTunes and QuickTime offer enhancements over an MP3 file, for example.

Is there anything that you should read before launching into a podcast? Certainly, one of the best resources is a distinctly Canadian legal guide to setting up your podcast found at: www.creativecommons.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/podcastinglegalguideforcanada.html. This is a “must read” as it delves into copyright as well as other legal issues in and around podcasting.

Are other lawyers doing this? While this is still a new phenomenon, some rather big names in the Canadian legal community are jumping on this Internet bandwagon. For example, Osler’s podcasts can be found at: www.osler.com/resources_landing.aspx?id=10366 and Gowlings can be found at: www.smithlyons.ca/ohslaw/index_PodCasts.asp.

Lest you think that podcasting is only for the larger firms, smaller firms are also podcasting.

http://estatelaw.hullandhull.com/2007/01/articles/audio-podcasts/
podcasts-hull-on-estates/hull-on-estates-podcast-41-the-waters-law-of-trusts-in-canada/ is a smaller Canadian estate and trust firm that has launched podcasts.

The SLAW (a cooperative Canadian weblog on legal: research, information, technology, miscellany, etc.) community of legal bloggers – a very respectable group in the Canadian legal community – have posted the podcasts that they would recommend at: www.slaw.ca/2007/08/28/any-podcast-listeners-out-there.

The CBA has incorporated podcasts onto their CBA PracticeLink pages. Find their podcasts at: www.cba.org/cba/PracticeLink/podcasts/.

The Legal Services Society of B.C. has podcasts on family law issues. These can be found at: www.familylaw.lss.bc.ca/resources/podcasts.asp.

www.llrx.com/features/techpodcasts.htm features a very good online article on law and technology podcasting and discusses many American podcasts on the web.

And of course, if you wish to find out more about podcasting or any of the latest innovations in legal technology, you can attend the Pacific Legal Technology Conference on Wednesday, October 10, 2007 at the Westin Bayshore Hotel and Resort in Vancouver. This will be a full-day of concurrent sessions divided into tracks such as: Solo and Small Firm Track (with such sessions as “Law Office Technology for 2008: The Best of the Best on a Budget”), the Tips and Marketing Track (where you can catch a session entitled “Podcasts, Websites and Google”) and the Applications Track (featuring sessions on Adobe Acrobat as well as Dragon’s Naturally Speaking). Tracks such as the Implementation Track and the Administrators and Managing Partner Track delve into the issues of how to successfully integrate technological changes into your firm. Lastly, the e-Discovery and Litigation Track deals with all the changes that have occurred in litigation courtesy of technology, including Electronic Evidence Best Practices as well as Bringing Technology to Court. You can check out the full program, distinguished speakers and registration information at: www.pacificlegaltech.com.

Once you have crafted your podcast, then the web will allow you, in the day and in the night, to say it all and say it right....

David J. Bilinsky is the Practice Management Advisor for the LSBC. E-mail: daveb@lsbc.org Blog: www.thoughtfullaw.com. The views expressed herein are strictly those of the author and may not be shared by the author’s employer, the Law Society of B.C.

This article originally appeared in the October 2007 issue of BarTalk and is reproduced here with permission of both the author and the Canadian Bar Association, British Columbia Branch.