We decided to have some professional corporate photos taken of Shirley and me. We went straight to Jeanette Verster who is a terrific photographer and asked her to take the photos at our offices. Jeanette published a few of the photos last night and they look great. Here is one of the photos she published:

The rest of the photos she published are on her blog. We'll have more when she is finished editing the set and we'll start sharing them when we have the rest of them.

Here is a little more information about Jeanette from her blog:

I am an on-location photographer and I work mostly with natural light. I am based in Johannesburg, South Africa and will organise photoshoots on weekends, anywhere in the Gauteng area.

I do mostly family, maternity, newborn and fun shoots, but have also done a few functions, corporate portrait sessions as well as weddings.

It is definitely worthwhile to either subscribe to her blog or visit it regularly. Jeanette's photography inspires me to do better with my own and it is an absolute pleasure to work with her.

I had a little fun of my own during the shoot and took a couple photos of Jeanette taking some of Shirley's photos. They aren't nearly as good as Jeanette's photos but I thought some behind-the-scenes photos would be fun.

The social Web can be a scary space for a company venturing out and adopting social media initiatives as part of their overall marketing strategies. Engaging with customers on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook involves a loss of control over the message and the conversation.

Actually, I don't believe companies and brand owners have real control over their brands and the conversations springing up around their brands largely due to the distributed and viral nature of these platforms. What companies can attempt to do is engage with the people who are talking about them and their brands and participate in a brand and relationship building exercise.

Now this sounds like the sort of marketing speak you might expect from, well, marketing types but an awareness of these sorts of dynamics is essential if you have any hope of understanding and working with the legal issues that arise out of social media initiatives. One tool which a growing number of companies are using is a social media policy. This video interview with Adam Brown, Head Of Social Media at Coca-Cola, gives a pretty good overview of what a social media policy should address (thanks to my client who referred this video to me):

I really like Coca-Cola's approach to its social media policy. A big part of the policy is intended to establish a broad framework (in this case a set of principles and values) that governs how various stakeholders make use of social media based on their roles within the organisation. I firmly believe that educating employees and other stakeholders about the social Web and social media tools goes a long way to reducing exposure to liability.

Combine that with a clear and carefully thought out framework that caters for the multitude of regulatory and other relevant compliance considerations and you are better equipped to manage the uncertainties that remain part and parcel of social media marketing campaigns and initiatives. It is also a good idea to approach a social media policy from the right perspective as lawyers. Lawyers have a tendency to try and cover all the bases and create documents that are very specific and prescriptive. The challenge with social media policies is that their subject matter is virtually in a state of constant flux as new services emerge and new uses for existing services become popular. A policy that is too specific will quickly become irrelevant or just inappropriate.

In addition, the process of developing a social media policy should create a better awareness of what the various social media tools can help the company achieve, where the risk areas are and strategies to help manage them. A better awareness means a more informed decision making process and the comfort of have a plan to deal with issues which may pop up along the way.

Social media policies will become increasingly valuable as more businesses start using social media. Just remember that social media policies, perhaps more than any other policy document, should be reviewed regularly to ensure that they remain relevant, appropriate and effective.

I read an amusingly titled post "PAY YOUR !*?@!%! LAWYERS!!!" yesterday which touches on a topic lawyers don't often talk about: actually getting paid for services rendered. While the title of that post evoked a smirk, it hits home for the majority of lawyers who provide the best service they can, only to find that their clients either pay late or don't pay at all.

While experiences of this phenomenon differ, I have had both experiences in my career and it is a tremendously frustrating experience. I was chatting to my partner about this yesterday and she remarked that when you walk into a store, you pay for the goods when you leave (well, you should). When you go to your doctor, you generally pay when you walk out the door or your medical aid handles that for you. I think clients forget that legal services are frequently critical to help avoid, mitigate or facilitate a greater awareness of risk. That risk can be profound and good legal advice can make a world of difference. My partner was telling me that she once met with a major client which was considering a fundamental change to its operations and she identified a solution which helped turn that business around and become more profitable.

There is this insider joke many lawyers secretly share. We often joke that when we are in a meeting with a client, advising that client, part of our awareness is watching what is going on and wondering both where all that advice is coming from and why the client is actually listening? Its easy for a client to think that the individual sitting across the table is just one person and the value of the advice being given must be judged accordingly. This is one reason why clients visiting their attorneys in larger firms are faced with expensive boardrooms and half a dozen lawyers. It is largely an attempt to impress upon the client the importance and value of the advice being given. It is also a reason why fees are often a little higher than they need be. It comes down to a perception that the advice being given is truly valuable, quite independently of the quality of the advice itself.

Besides damaging an attorney's business by not paying the attorney's fees, non-payment or late payments have a knock-on effect on other clients. The article I mentioned above contemplates the effect of discounted legal fees but the principle applies to late or non-payment of fees too:

At the end of the year, the firms figure out their revenue and profit margin and realize that they didn’t make as much as they would like, so what do they do? They raise their hourly rate. If they are going to provide discounts, they want a larger base to discount from.

The outcome of this is that now everyone is paying higher hourly rates and we are all worse off. In fact, those of us who pay our bills are subsidizing those who don’t during the year.

When attorneys are not paid for their services, it is natural to prefer clients who do pay and to prefer work which results in larger fees. This isn't how attorneys should ideally operate and law societies often have rules and guidelines that discourage attorneys from suspending or ceasing work for defaulting clients. The unfortunate reality is that attorneys rely on those fees to keep their businesses going and to earn a living. An attorney's work is not easy work and involves long hours, high stress levels and tremendous responsibility. Consider that in order to be permitted to practice as an attorney in South Africa, that attorney must be covered by professional indemnity insurance aimed at protecting trust accounts and guarding against professional negligence. Legal practice is a high stakes endeavour.

This isn't to say that all legal fees charged are fair fees and clients should negotiate with their attorneys if they feel they are not being charged a fair fee. At the same time clients often find that attorneys' trading terms become tighter and more onerous as more clients default. We have adopted a fairly strict policy of taking deposits in direct response to clients not paying our fees on time or at all, for example. This policy may deter some clients and we regret that. At the same time this measure and similar measures other attorneys adopt are designed to ensure these practices remain afloat and capable of servicing clients well.

Something else to bear in mind is that attorneys' invoices frequently include 3rd party disbursements like advocates' fees, messengers' fees and other service providers' fees. When clients don't pay their fees or pay late, this has an impact on those 3rd party providers who may find they will have to wait longer for payment for their services. This is unreasonable and something I feel quite strongly about. I know what it is like not to be paid on time and one of my values is ensuring that my service providers and staff are paid when payment is due. I often think that clients forget that when they are faced with a solo practitioner or a partner in a small firm, that there is a whole infrastructure behind that lawyer and real people who depend on their income.

So when you are next presented with an invoice for legal services (or just about any professional service, really), pay it when it is due. You are doing not just your attorney and the people behind the scenes a disservice but also yourself.

You may not be aware that we have a Facebook Page for web.tech.law that updates as new posts are added to the main site. If you spend a fair amount of time on Facebook then why not become a fan?

If you have any ideas or suggestions for the Facebook Page, feel free to post them or send us a message either from Facebook or from the web.tech.law site itself. I'd certainly like to use the Page more productively and any feedback would be welcome.

You can also become a fan directly from the main site by clicking on the "Become a fan" button on the right in the sidebar.

If you happen to be more of a Google or Twitter person, you can also join our Google Friend Connect community using the Friend Connect panel in the sidebar to the right. I happen to have a preference for Friend Connect and I am constantly thinking about how to integrate it better into the site. One of the advantages of Friend Connect is that you can join that part of the web.tech.law community using your Google, Twitter, OpenID and AIM credentials. It is also attractive for people who are not Facebook fans and would prefer to use their existing credentials rather than create a new account.

Speaking of Twitter, we have a Twitter account we update from time to time. Our Twitter name/handle is @webtechlaw so feel free to follow us and check out our lists of interesting Twitter users and thinkers.

Of course you are also welcome to join the web.tech.law site as a member too. We are working on ways to add more value to our members on the site. Actually, it would probably be most helpful to integrate all our communities into the site better so any suggestions will be much appreciated.