South Florida Estate Planning Law : Florida Estate Planning Lawyer & Attorney : David Shulman Law Firm : South FL Wills & Trusts

I'd like to put something out there on the table.

I'm a tech nerd and an Apple fan.

I've been a fan of Apple computers since my dad bought an Apple ][+ when I was about 9 years old. Since then, I've owned many Macintosh computers and other Apple products, although I have occasionally strayed to the Dark Side and used Microsoft Windows. I currently run my law practice on Macs, with a Mac mini in my office, and an iMac at home, and a Macbook laptop for when I am traveling, and thus neither at the office or at home. I have an iPhone, an AppleTV, and have owned multiple iPods. While I do run Microsoft Windows in virtualization on my Mac for certain proprietary programs, I avoid it as much as possible.

I admit that I am an unabashed Apple Fanboy and am fully ensconced in Apple's reality distortion field.

To me, my Macs and my iPhone are not just "toys" but are an integral part of my practice of law. I use Apple's Mobile Me to keep my calendar and contacts instantly and wirelessly synced between all of my computers and my iPhone. If I make a change to a calendar or contact on one computer or on my iPhone, it instantly updates that contact or calendar item on all of my computers. While I could use Mobile Me for email, I use Google Apps for your Domain . With Google Apps, I still have my email domain of @davidshulmanlaw.com, but am able to use the Gmail interface in categorizing and storing client and other business emails.

Although I do keep files of certain original paper estate planning documents, for everything else, I run a paperless office. Every single document coming in or going out gets scanned with my Fujitsu Scansnap S1500, labeled, categorized, and put in the proper (computer) folder. Furthermore, I use a service called Dropbox. This is another syncing service, but I use it to sync all of my files and documents between all of my computers. It doesn't matter where I am or what computer I am using including my iPhone, but I can pull up any client document, at any time, anywhere. This has been very useful in answering client questions about their documents when I am away from the office. I do not have to wait until I get back to answer their questions; nor do I have someone "pull the file" to see what's in there. All of my files are available to me all of the time.

I do have various levels of encryption and password protection, and multiple redundant backups both online and off to protect the data.

This weekend I went out and bought an iPad. I stood in line at Best Buy, waiting for it to open so I could be one of the first ones to get one. After playing with it for a while, I realize that it's really nothing more than a giant iPhone (or to be more accurate, a giant iPod touch, because it doesn't make phone calls). And that's a good thing.

While of course I can play games on it and watch movies and read books, which I have already done, and will continue to do, I see, with the right applications, the iPad becoming an integral part of my practice. It's not a full computer or a laptop, and it will never replace them. All of my significant work and document creation will still be on my full desktops. But, I hope it is something that I can take to meetings instead of a notepad, and to have any notes taken on it synced to the proper client file. I think I'll be able to pull up documents, wills, trusts, contracts, deeds, and make changes when I am not able to do so at my computer. In meetings and court hearings in which a document is being discussed, I'll be able to pull it up and annotate it, without having to schlep the whole file to court.

But will it change the world and the practice of law?

Recently, Miami criminal defense attorney Brian Tannebaum wrote a post titled, "The Technology Curmudgeon Gives his Technology Secrets", in which he gently pokes fun at those of us who excitedly rushed out to buy the iPad as soon as it was released. He challenged us to show him how the iPad will significantly change how he practices law. He states that "there are several folks out there that want to convince you that technology is what makes you a better lawyer. It doesn't. It never will. It may make your life easier, but it will never make you a better lawyer. Sorry."

You know what?

I agree with him 100%.

I don't use and love technology to make me a better lawyer. I use it to make my life easier, and to simplify my daily non-lawyerly tasks. The more time I have everything around me "just working" and the less time and money I have to spend searching for a file or storing thousands and thousands of pages of documents (estate planning and administration can be a very document intensive practice), then the more time I have to dedicate to doing "real work." I use the extra time to serve my clients, market and expand my practice, and to become better educated on the latest developments in the law.

So is the iPad for everyone? Is it the future of the legal practice? Will it fundamentally change the way that everyone practices law?

Of course not.

But will it make my life easier? Yes, which is the whole point of technology, no?

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I'm going to take a little detour from writing about estate planning to write about being an estate planning attorney, and different ways that I find clients and generate business. This post is a modified response that I wrote to the Solosez Listserv. Solosez is an email discussion list hosted by the American Bar Association for attorneys who are either solo practitioners or are members of small firms. Not just estate planners, and not just Florida attorneys, but attorneys all over the country and the world, practicing in all fields. It's a great resource for the solo practitioner, and a warm and supportive community.

Earlier today a colleague posted the following message:

"Does advertising in bulletins, Yellow Book and Mailing etc. work? I am
advertising in three different church bulletins for 6 months now and I
have not received a single client. I have also mailed 100s of
postcards but nothing from that either. I am giving up on advertising.
Is their a best way to advertise estate planning practice?

I am so confused and lost.

Help!"

While I am not going to print his name, for the purpose of this story it is important to know that he has a very Indian (from India) sounding name. I responded to him and I ended up liking what I wrote, so I thought I'd copy it here. The only change I'm making is to redact his name, and some slight spelling or grammatical fixes.

"I'm answering your questions in the order you presented them, but the most important thing will be number 3 below. So you might want to skip to that.

1) The yellow book works for PI attorneys, not for estate planning. I'm not looking for the type of client who looks for an estate planning attorney in the dead tree yellow pages. They aren't going to be willing to pay me what I want to be paid. Plus, anyone who looks for an estate planning attorney in the dead tree yellow pages instead of either going online, or getting a referral from a friend or colleague is going to be extremely unsophisticated. Again, not the type of client I'm looking for.

Plus, the dead tree yellow pages themselves are on the endangered species list. I don't know anyone who uses them for anything. (Yes, I know there are people here who do). Place your money elsewhere.

2) You mailed postcards to who? Random strangers? Are you allowed to do that under [State] law? You need to build your personal address book and database. Make notes about every single person and send them personal communications every now and then. All of these people should be people you have some sort of contact with.

3) Network, network, network. Did I mention that you need to Network? I just looked at my calendar and I have EIGHT different networking events, or personal one on one lunches or meetings this week. Join networking groups, referral groups, chambers of commerce, social, charitable, cultural, etc., groups. Go to everything. Talk to everyone. Never be without your business cards. Follow up with people. Send people random emails asking how they are doing. Stop looking for clients and start looking for referral sources. You want people to be comfortable referring you business, and they only will be once they get to know you.

4) If you're going to advertise, might I suggest targeted advertising? I may be going out on a limb here, but with a name like [Indian Name] I am going to assume that you are not a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant from Boise. Fair or unfair, there is still racism or at least culturalism in our society and until people know you, you aren't going to get any bites by putting an advertisement in the back of a church bulletin. How big is the local Hindi community? Why don't you, for starters at least, market solely to the Hindi and other Indian community. Go to all the events, place advertisements in their cultural and religious bulletins. People like working with people like them. I'm not asking you to pigeonhole yourself, but it's a start.

5) You got to be online more. Blog. Tweet. Interact on this and other listserv -- I've gotten some nice business from Solosez.

6) Did I mention that you have to Network?"

I have to admit that sometimes following my own advice can be difficult. There are only so many hours in the day and I have to do actual work for my clients too. But I think that the above is a good roadmap to establishing a successful estate planning practice.

Hmmm.... Maybe I should give up being an estate planning attorney, and instead teach other attorneys to do the above.

Nah.

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I am both fascinated and touched by this New York Times Story about Yitta Schwartz, who when she died last month at the age of 93, possibly had 2,000 living descendants. According to the article, Mrs. Schwartz, a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, had 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren, and too many great and great great grandchildren to count. I don't want to plagiarize the article, but I highly recommend that you read it yourself, to see this remarkable story of a Holocaust survivor and her family.

As far as the estate planning angle? Just imagine if she in her will made a class gift to her grandchildren, or to her great grandchildren. For example, if her will said, "I give $100 to each of my grandchildren." Or, even if she gave property to her children or grandchildren on a per stiprital basis, in which younger generations stand in the shoes of their deceased parents. It would be quite a task for whoever is administering the estate to categorize and find all of those relatives. Then again, from the article it appears as if almost all of them are living in the same area.

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As you, loyal reader, may know, in February of 2009 I left the law firm that I was working at to start my own solo practice. Although my solo practice is new, I graduated George Washington University Law School in 1998 and worked for a number of years at the IRS in Washington, DC and for a firm in Fort Lauderdale.

Like anyone else who starts a law firm or any other business from scratch, marketing is an integral part of business development. Practicing law is easy. Finding people who are willing to pay me to do it is the tough part. But my practice is growing. I am getting new business through referrals from other clients and from other professionals in the area with whom I have established relationships.

Also I have been active online. I have this blog; I post on a number of different listservs; and I try to maintain relationships on Facebook and LinkedIn (as opposed to just randomly adding everyone).

Have I made a few missteps? Of course. I'm human. The point is, I think I have a fairly decent idea of what works and what doesn't work. And what doesn't work is this: fax spam otherwise known as "junk faxes" or unsolicited faxes. In short, it's sending a fax to someone you don't know and don't have an existing business or other relationship with, in which you offer to sell something.

Today, I received fax spam from another attorney. Note. I have never met this person, never heard of this person, have no working relationship with this person. This was spam pure and simple.

This faxer informed me that he is writing because he is "pleased to inform you that I am available to provide coverage for your Foreclosure Motion Calendar hearings in Miami-Dade counties for 99 per hearing. . "

Let's ignore the fact that unsolicited faxes are generally illegal. This is 2009. I don't even own a fax machine. My faxes are converted into email and sent to my inbox. To send a fax I scan it and send it via email too. And this wasn't a fax just to me, but it was obvious that he was mass faxing or "fax blasting" as the case may be.

If you want to build a relationship with someone, pick up the phone, send them a personalized email or a letter.

As attorneys, we are all trying to sell our services, which means that we are trying to sell ourselves. Our potential clients need to be able to trust us before they hire us. Potential referral sources need to be comfortable referring us business.

So the question is, why would I ever send clients to someone who thinks it's proper to blast out fax spam?

And of course, if he would have taken a second to do the slightest bit of research he would have known that I don't have Foreclosure Motion Calendar hearings. But if anyone asks, I now know someone not to send them to.

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 I've been thinking about my blog for the past couple of weeks, and I think that I've come to a crossroads.  My intention in starting this blog was for the most part to write about estate planning news and updates for both the practitioner and for the consumer.  And I will still do that.

But I think we've gotten to a point where there really isn't that much news developing.  Sure, there is the impending expiration of the estate tax in 2010 and its coming back in 2011.  And when there's real developments I'll be writing about them in detail.  But for now, there is just talk.  So there's not much to write about on the Congressional front.

Nor have there been very many interesting cases lately.  There have been a couple, but nothing really worth waxing philosophical about.

So I figure that I can go in one of two ways on my blog.  

In the first way, I'll write post after post about whether or not you should have a Will (hint: you should) and whether or not I think online or Do It Yourself wills are a good thing (hint: I don't).  I'll send emails to every legal blogger (or is that blawgger) that I can find, along to every listserv, telling people that I'll link to them if they link to me, because that's the way things are done, and if we link to each other we can trick "the Google" into ranking us higher.  It won't matter that I don't read the other blogs, or when I did read them I thought they we subpar.  I'll follow every single person I can find on twitter in the hopes that they follow me back.  I'll friend the world on Facebook and then spam my friends incessantly for them to join my firm's fan page.  I'll put aside my integrity and personally vouch for blogs that have nothing to do with my geographic or substantive area and be "fans" of people I don't even know.  Then I'll write some treacly posts about puppies and flowers and babies and how much they'll thank you for doing your estate planning.  

Maybe I'll even sign all of my posts, "Love, David."

Blech.

I can't do that.  

I actually started writing another post about why you need a will and I titled it "So it has come to this -- My Why You Need a Will post."  Look.  You, yes you need to have your estate planning done.  It can provide for and protect your family after you are gone, save lots of taxes, help charities, and stop global warming.  And subject to the Florida Bar's rules on advertising, I think I can do a pretty darn good job at doing it for you.  But I'm not going to convince anyone of that with yet another "why intestacy is bad" post.

Why do I blog?  Is it to market my practice? Sure.  But I blog because I like to write and I like to write about things that interest me.  One thing that interests me is estate planning, and I will certainly write about that here.  In fact, I hope that it will be the primary focus of my blog. However, I'll be expanding the focus too.  I'll be writing about. . . well, whatever I feel like writing about  --life as a lawyer, technology, South Florida, and of course estate planning, probate, tax, and the like.  I'll do my best to keep it semi-relevant and occasionally entertaining, but no promises.

I will promise however, to write.  I will not let the blog go weeks without a post.

Unless I run out of ideas, of course.

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 Ok, this has nothing at all to do with estate planning.  But after yesterday's rant, I thought I'd post something a little different.  The Oasis of the Seas, the world's largest cruise ship arrived in Fort Lauderdale Today.  Here are a few picture of it that I took from my balcony.  The first is with optical zoom and the next is with digital zoom.

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