In this episode of the The Legal Beat Tip of The Day, Personal Injury attorney, Gerald Oginski, discusses marketing his legal services. After years of investing in traditional marketing and advertising, Gerald focused his efforts online with viral video media. Go Lawline.com soon to view Gerald Oginski's full course.

Creative thinking and commanding knowledge of the law landed Lawline.com faculty member Gerald L. Shargel into Sunday’s New York Times.  The article, entitled Bail Sitters, discussed the increased privatization of bail, and detailed such high-profile cases as that of Bernie Madoff and Marc S. Dreier, the latter who Shargel defended.

Shargel has produced such Lawline.com courses as Ethical Issues with Roger Clemens and Other High Profile Clients and A Practical Approach to the Rules of Evidence, amongst several others. He has been a member of the New York Bar since 1969 and limits his practice to the defense of serious criminal cases. Over the past several decades, Shargel has handled numerous high profile cases at both the trial and appellate level.

Shargel is cited in the article for his role in convincing the courts to allow his client, Mr. Dreier, to be released into the custody of a team of private guards at his home. “What guards do is put a mechanism in place that reassures the court,” Shargel explained in the article. “There are people on site who are there to make sure that the conditions are enforced.”

Bail generally cannot be denied unless there is reason to believe that the individual poses a danger to the community or is a threat to escape. It is often associated with favoring wealthy individuals; the poor often lack the resources to post bail. As Judge Jed S. Rakoff wrote in his statement for the Dreier case, “This is a serious flaw in our system. But it is not a reason to deny a constitutional right to someone who, for whatever reason, can provide reasonable assurances against flight.”

Shargel has also been the recipient of many awards, including the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Thurgood Marshall Award for outstanding criminal law practitioner.

Bridgewater, NJ (December 21, 2009) – Editors of the ABA Journal announced they have selected E-Lessons Learned as one of the top 100 blogs by lawyers, for lawyers.  E-Lessons Learned was founded by Fernando M. Pinguelo, a Member of the law firm Norris McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A. and Adjunct Professor at Seton Hall University School of Law.

“Each year, it’s gotten harder and harder to pick the 100 best blogs because so many lawyers are now sharing their professional expertise online,” says Edward A. Adams, the Journal’s editor and publisher. “We’ve never had as strong a group of law blogs as we have this year.”

E-Lessons Learned is an educational blog about electronic discovery and how technology affects corporate governance and lawsuits.  E-Lessons Learned features insightful content authored by young lawyers and law  students from across the country.  Each blog post identifies a case that includes a technology-related mishap, which occurred through negligence, ethical lapses in judgment, too much reliance on outside counsel and vendors, or fraud; exposes the specific conduct that caused a problem; explains how and why the conduct was improper; and offers suggestions to businesses about how to learn from these mistakes and prevent similar ones from re-occurring.

“It seems only fitting that a course in electronic discovery – which teaches students the art and science of using electronically stored files and emails to build a legal case – would use a Web-based tool as a study aid and an opportunity to develop further e-skills,” explained Fernando M. Pinguelo.

Pinguelo described the impetus behind the creation of e-Lessons Learned: “I wanted to create a place where business leaders and corporate counsel could see first-hand how technology impacts lawsuits and learn how common mistakes can be avoided.  I also wanted a place where my students could showcase their skills and contribute meaningfully to the legal discourse of this emerging area.  E-Lessons Learned does just that.  It’s a place where ‘law, technology, and human error collide.’”

Pinguelo, Co-Chair of the firm’s Response to Electronic Discovery and Information (REDI) Group, devotes his practice to complex litigation with an emphasis on business disputes, electronic discovery, and media and employment matters.  He has experience in all facets of litigation (trial, mediation, arbitration, and appellate) in both federal and state courts. As a former prosecutor, he has tried numerous cases. Today, Pinguelo handles a broad spectrum of disputes including copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, fraud, breach of non-compete covenants, discrimination, and business torts, and is able to address a rapidly evolving crisis or emergency.

A leader in the emerging area of electronic discovery, Pinguelo works with business owners, C-level executives, in-house counsel, and human resources, information technology, and risk managers to develop strategies to manage business and legal issues related to electronic documents. He recognizes that complex contract and statutory considerations impact the evolving business environment. This understanding enables him to help clients comply with the broad array of laws that regulate document management. Pinguelo focuses on preventing claims and pursues strategies that enhance a client’s ability to manage electronic documents because he is keenly aware of the financial and public relations fallout that can result from high-profile electronic discovery abuses and negligence.

Notably, Pinguelo was involved in New Jersey’s first case addressing its new electronic discovery rule amendments, and has lectured numerous times on the topic, including at the Judicial College which provides judges with a wide range of academic programs. He has designed a state-of-the-art electronic discovery law course and teaches one of only a handful of such courses in the country at Seton Hall University School of Law.  Recently, the Fulbright Program, the U.S. government's flagship international exchange program, designated Pinguelo a Fulbright Specialist for his work in eDiscovery, and he will engage in a project at a university in one of over 100 participating countries.  Pinguelo was also invited to be a member of eDiscovery Group of The Sedona Conference® Working Group Series, a prestigious series of think-tanks consisting of leading experts brought together by a desire to address various "tipping point" issues in each area under consideration.

Pinguelo earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1997 and his B.A., magna cum laude, from Boston College in 1994.  He is admitted to practice in New Jersey, New York, and the District of Columbia.

Norris McLaughlin & Marcus has been serving the business community of New Jersey and the New York metropolitan area since 1953. Once a humble two-man practice on Main Street in Somerville, New Jersey, Norris McLaughlin & Marcus has become the largest firm in Somerset County and one of the top 20 firms in New Jersey, with a significant presence in New York City and the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania.

From Aha! Jokes

Whereas, on an occasion immediately preceding the Nativity festival,throughout a dwelling unit, quiet descended, in which could be heard no disturbance, not even the sound emitted by a diminutive rodent related to, and in form resembling, a rat; and

Whereas, the offspring of the occupants had affixed their tubular, closely knit coverings for the nether limbs to the flue of the fireplace in expectation that a personage known as St.Nicholas would arrive; and

Whereas, said offspring had become somnolent, and were entertaining re: saccharine-flavored fruit; and

Whereas, the adult male of the family, et ux, attired in proper headgear, had also become quiescent in anticipation of nocturnal inertia; and

Whereas, a distraction on the snowy acreage outside aroused the owner to investigate; and

Whereas, he perceived in a most unbelieving manner a vehicle propelled by eight domesticated quadrupeds of a species found in arctic regions; and

Whereas, a most odd rotund gentleman was entreating the aforesaid animals by their appellations, as follows:

"Your immediate co-operation is requested. Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Vixen; and collective action by you will be much appreciated, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen"; and

Whereas, subsequent to the above, there occurred a swift descent to the hearth by the aforementioned gentleman, where he proceeded to deposit gratuities in the aforementioned tubular coverings.

Now, therefore, be ye advised: that upon completion of these acts, and upon his return to his original point of departure, he proclaimed a felicitation of the type prevalent and suitable to these occasions, i.e.:
 

The above was provided by Aha! Jokes and can be found at http://www.ahajokes.com/acmas.html

This "On The Line" interview was four years in the making and too riveting to edit down to just one episode. In Part 1 of the interview Alan and I discuss his background and entrance into the legal profession and then his practice . He reviews then how he built his business to include Lawline TV and then Lawline.com.

The PGA Tour’s current television deal with CBS and NBC expires in 2012 and negotiations for a new contract are expected to begin soon.  For obvious reasons, both sides are closely following Tiger Woods’ recent travails. 

So what negotiation lessons come to mind? 

First, leverage is fluid so strike while the iron is hot.  Here, the networks’ leverage improved dramatically with Woods’ announcement that he’s taking a sabbatical from golf.  His absence will almost certainly result in lower TV ratings while he is out, which lowers the value of the broadcast rights, including for the future (for who knows if and when Woods will return and the impact his problems will have on his and the PGA Tour’s popularity).  As a result, the PGA Tour most likely will try to delay signing any new deal until after Woods’ return has been confirmed and some of its impact evaluated. Likewise, the networks may push for a deal sooner not later.

And second, watch the negotiations to see how the networks will rely on objective criteria to support their position.  Specifically, television ratings decreased by half while Woods’ was sidelined by knee surgery in 2008 – and they will very closely monitor their current ratings while Woods is out now. And if the ratings, as expected, drop precipitously, then watch the networks use those to try to get a better deal.

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Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation Institute, a national negotiation training and consulting company, and ExpertNegotiator, a Web-based software company that helps managers and negotiators more effectively negotiate and implement best practices based on the experts' proven research.  He is also the author of Gain the Edge! Negotiating to Get What You Want (St. Martin’s Press 2004). He can be reached at 480-951-3222 or Latz@ExpertNegotiator.com.

Lawline.com 's Weekly Wrap-up for CLE News. On This week's show: Lawline.com's Tennessee Deadline update, Unique Holiday Gifts for Attorneys, and a new Lawline.com Exclusive Course preview.

The Virginia State Bar has proposed legislation that would restrict attorneys to taking only 8 of their total 12 annual MCLE online. We will be polling members for submittal to the state bar and will  post these results as they finalize later today.

The following is a compilation of some of the feedback we have received from our Lawline.com members. We have kept the comments anonymous to conserve our member's confidentiality.

“I fail to understand why the Bar feels it needs to turn its back on progress.” 

“Online education save on transportation and other expenses, increases productivity and allows me to practice law while staying current.”

“Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. Why the Va Bar believes attorneys must be treated like school children is beyond comprehension.”

“With a child at home, I cannot attend live seminars and likely would have to withdraw from the firm and change my license to inactive status.”

“My instructors online are far better than the"in-person" instructors who have graced the podium.”

“I believe this proposal was presented to permit certain organizations to generate more revenue.” 

“There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever from physically attending live CLE courses.”

"Online courses afford me the opportunity to get up, stretch, get a coffee, or even eat during the presentation WITHOUT MISSING A SINGLE WORD presented -- a feat unattainable with live courses."

“It will significantly increase the costs of my CLEs.”

“It would limit the CLE programs I could take to those offered only in the town where I live.”

“Its all about the money for them.” 

“I have no doubt that the initiative is supported by CLE providers, sponsors and presenters with an active interest in real-time formats, all of which are losing market share to pre-recorded programs.” 

“There is virtually nothing to be gained by the proposed restriction.”

"I would be very disappointed if I could not continue taking all my classes on-line.” 

“This is the worst thing the VA State Bar could do."

Feel free to add any of your own comments or feelings.

In this Lawline.com Exclusive CLE Trailer, Attorney Louis Bricklin discusses the fundamentals of Insurance Bad Faith Claims. He further explains the burden of proof in a Bad Faith Claim case. Go To Lawline.com to view the full course.

If you’re in purchasing or procurement, how can you reduce your costs, increase your margins, and still ensure the quality of service required from your vendors?
 
When your vendor contracts come up for renewal, bid out the contract and come up with several alternate plans to renewing the current deal. While you may ultimately stick with your current vendor, this classic leverage move—especially effective in a down economy—ensures you will tap into hungry and possibly desperate vendors increasingly worried about revenue and finding and keeping good customers. The better your plan B, the stronger your leverage; and the stronger your leverage, the higher the likelihood you can negotiate better deals.

And if you’re on the sales or vendor side, reassess your leverage and, as much as possible, incentivize your customers so they don’t bid out your contracts. At the same time, seek out new customers. Challenging times often present great opportunities if you can undercut your competitors’ prices.

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Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation Institute, a national negotiation training and consulting company, and ExpertNegotiator, a Web-based software company that helps managers and negotiators more effectively negotiate and implement best practices based on the experts' proven research.  He is also the author of Gain the Edge! Negotiating to Get What You Want (St. Martin’s Press 2004). He can be reached at 480-951-3222 or Latz@ExpertNegotiator.com.
 

Lawline.com 's Weekly Wrap-up for CLE News.  On This week's show:  Lawline.com's Tennessee Deadline update, Unique Holiday Gifts for Attorneys, Frank Furbacher Jr. of The Frank and Frank Show, and a new Lawline.com Exclusive Course preview. 

These days, everyone is on Facebook and other social networking sites. So what happens when a judge has a Facebook? It goes without saying that a judge must be unbiased. Does being Facebook friends compromise a judge’s impartiality? According to the Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee—not quite. But that doesn’t mean that a Florida judge will be accepting your friend request anytime soon.

The Florida Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee recently ruled that judges may not be listed as being “friends” with local attorneys on social networking sites like Facebook. Of course, being friends on Facebook rarely implies an actual relationship, a fact the Committee acknowledges. However, the issue is not whether an attorney has influence over a judge, but “whether the proposed conduct, the identification of the lawyer as a ‘friend’ on the social networking site, conveys the impression that the lawyer is in a position to influence the judge”.  In this case, the Committee ruled that being Facebook friends gives the appearance of influence and is therefore not permitted.

In her Tuesday New York Times article, "So How’s It Going?," Jennifer Walzer states that she needed “to come up with a better way to track what happens in the office when I’m not there – and even when I am.”  She then recognizes that “if I want to provide my employees with clearly defined expectations and then hold them accountable, I have to have a way to measure their performance.”

We hear these same two concerns over and over again from negotiation managers.  So how can you best address these issues in the negotiation management context?

First, create negotiation best practices for your team. Negotiation is one of the last significant areas in business that remains largely unmanaged. Frankly, the vast majority of negotiators just don't consistently and systematically use proven, research-based strategies.  Fortunately, research over the last 30 or so years has tested various negotiation strategies, and it's now become fairly clear which techniques work and which don't.

Second, require your team to implement those best practices.  More specifically, require them to:
   
1. Complete a best practices-based strategic negotiation plan prior to their significant negotiations (and which should include setting specific, written goals and a number of other proven research-based strategic and tactical elements);

2. Update their plans during their negotiations and send you reports of their key moves;

3. Track and retain all of their strategic plans, including their results and lessons learned, and other crucial intelligence that's been gathered; and

4. Incentivize their changed behavior.

Finally, make this relatively easy for your team to accomplish (if you don’t, it will be very hard to get your team to actually do it). You can start having plans developed with word processing and/or spreadsheet programs at a basic individual level. But at an enterprise level, you will need more, one solution of which is my ExpertNegotiator Planning & Management software.

Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation Institute, a national negotiation training and consulting company, and ExpertNegotiator, a Web-based software company that helps managers and negotiators more effectively negotiate and implement best practices based on the experts' proven research.  He is also the author of Gain the Edge! Negotiating to Get What You Want (St. Martin’s Press 2004). He can be reached at 480-951-3222 or Latz@ExpertNegotiator.com.

Lawline's weekly wrap-up for CLE news.  

 In her Monday New York Times article, “Trying to Sell Your Business?  Think Like a Buyer,” Barbara Taylor asks, “Why is it so difficult for business owners to put themselves in the shoes of a potential buyer?”
 
One of the main reasons is the vast majority of people negotiate instinctively, not strategically.  In other words, they don’t systematically and comprehensively prepare for their significant negotiations based on the experts’ proven research. Instead, they prepare and negotiate in an off-the-cuff manner.  So not only are they not adequately considering their counterparts’ situation, they’re not even fully exploring their own. 
 
Negotiation research over the past 30 years has proven emphatically that negotiating strategically will improve your results.  Our Five Golden Rules of Negotiation methodology includes all of the key research-based components present in significant negotiations, included understanding your counterpart’s perspective.  What about your counterparts do you need to know?  As a starting point, answer these questions:
 
1.  What are your counterparts’ goals and interests?

2.  What is their preferred negotiation style and what negotiation strategies have they used in the past?

3.  What is their need level (how badly do they need the deal) and what is their best alternative to doing a deal with you (their Plan B)?

4.  What objective criteria (like market value or precedent) will they rely on to justify their position?
 
Investigating and answering these questions will help you get the best deal possible.

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Marty Latz is the founder of Latz Negotiation Institute, a national negotiation training and consulting company, and ExpertNegotiator, a Web-based software company that helps managers and negotiators more effectively negotiate and implement best practices based on the experts' proven research.  He is also the author of Gain the Edge! Negotiating to Get What You Want (St. Martin’s Press 2004). He can be reached at 480-951-3222 on Latz@ExpertNegotiator.com.
 

Baltimore’s mayor Sheila Dixon was convicted of one count of fraudulent misappropriation, The Associated Press reported Tuesday afternoon. The elected Democrat used or kept gift cards originally intended to be given to the city’s poor.  Although acquitted of a felony, Dixon does face possibly losing her seat in office.

Dixon is believed to have kept $630 worth of gift cards from Best Buy, Old Navy, and Target. After searching her home, prosecutors report finding an Xbox, Playstation, video camera, and DVDs, all believed to have been purchased with the cards.

Dixon’s defense, however, pointed to Ronald Lipscomb, a man who the defense stated has a romantic interest in Dixon, and had been recently providing her with anonymous gifts. According to their argument, Dixon thus assumed the cards had also been from Lipscomb.

Dixon, Baltimore’s first African-American mayor, has brought other controversy during her career. She was indicted in January 2007 for corruption charges as City Council president, the Associated Press states. However, she has been popular during her time as mayor, and she has been recognized with great results in reducing the city’s crime and improving its recycling system.

Other accusations are coming up for the mayor as well, including a perjury charge for not reporting Lipscomb’s gifts. The conviction of these accusations can only lead Dixon closer to being removed from Baltimore’s lead.

Source: Associated Press