Client Calls from the Ether

March 1, 2006 | Filed Under Law 2.0, Technology, New Services

How would you like to have clients calling you out of the blue?

The New York Times has reported that Google (who scared the Street yesterday) is testing a new ad service that allows search users to initiate a conversation:

Starting late last year, the site began showing green phone icons next to selected advertisements that appear with search results. When the icon is clicked, the user is prompted to enter his or her phone number. The phone will then ring, with the business on the other end of the line…

When I first saw this and wondered about legal applications, I thought mostly of lawyers looking for cases where a potential client is searching for “dog bite” or “slip-n-fall.” But what if some enterprising corporate lawyer or firm started buying search terms like “section 703(b) allocations” or “superfund de micromis buyouts.” In other words, search terms that would be more likely to be used by potential clients with money rather than by a young kid in his parents’ basement.

This Google capability could put more pressure on Thomson/West (findlaw.com) or LexisNexis (Martindale/lawyers.com) to figure out quickly what their lawyer search capabilities really want to be when they grow up.

On a related front, chronicle of web 2.0 TechCrunch reports (scroll down) that the start-up Ether is being launched tonight by Ingenio, who has already a leader in pay-per-call.

According to TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington (who is a lawyer, by the way), Ether would work like this:

Service providers set up an account by providing some personal information and a phone number that they would like to be called at. Any service that can be provided over the phone is a perfect match for Ether. “Sellers” set their price, from free to anything (on a per minute or per hour basis). They can tell Ether the hours they are willing to take calls. Every seller is issued a toll free phone number (with a dedicated extension), which forwards to their phone.

Robert Scoble wonders how people would use Ether. I think lawyers will use services like Ether (and Google) to find clients–or perhaps more accurately to have clients find them.

Lawyer and law firm advertising may never be the same.

Technorati tag: law2.0

Electronic Discovery by the Numbers

January 31, 2006 | Filed Under Technology, New Services

The mainstream press is starting to focus on the growth in market demand for electronic discovery services.

AP technology writer Brian Bergstein reports on certain trends, and a few numbers caught my eye:

– $2 billion and 35% (the size and growth rate of the electronic discovery market according to Michael Clark of EDDix LLC).

– Two petrabytes (the the size of the data center at Kroll Ontrack, which has quadrupled in 18 months).

– 120 (the expected 2006 employee count of Fios Inc., nearly triple that of 2004).

At the end of the article Gerald Massey, president of Fios, makes a prediction:

“The ultimate buyers of a company like ours have only just begin to emerge in our space,” […] “The names we’ll associate with the services we provide in three, four, five years from now will be like IBM and EMC and Oracle.”

IBM and Oracle. I think I’ve heard of their work.

Also quoted is Jonathan Redgrave of Redgrave Daley Ragan & Wagner LLP, a firm that specializes in electronic discovery and related litigation issues. One of Mr. Redgrave’s partners is Lori Wagner, who was interviewed last year in this space.

For the companies that are targets of litigation and the consumers of electronic discovery services, one of the long term issues will be document retention. Perhaps IBM or someone else will offer an outsourced, combined document storage/retention/electronic discovery service.

The implicit issue in all this isn’t what to keep. It’s facing the ongoing challenge of what to get rid of. Probably 90%+ of what is on company servers is either unnecessary or redundant.

If a vendor can help figure out the 10% to keep–now that’s something people would listen to.

Wired GC — Unplugged: Show #5

January 19, 2006 | Filed Under Unplugged - Audio, New Services, Legal Resources

The Wired GC -- Unplugged

“Time-Shared Legal Services for Full-Time Businesses”

An interview with Kent Larson, Founder and CEO, The General Counsel, Ltd.

Today’s show is here (just click on the “mp3″ link):

mp3 (12:48 min; 2.9 mb)

Show Notes:

– The General Counsel, Ltd. is found here.

– Kent Larson bio.

– GCL’s client list.

– The GCL team.

– Original Wired GC article on Rent-A-GC.

The VC’s Lips are Moving

January 6, 2006 | Filed Under New Services, General

It’s early in 2006, and thoughts of many in business turn to new ventures. And of finding the money to finance them.

So who ya gonna call? One option is your friendly neighborhood venture capitalist. For those of us a long way from Sand Hill Road, we can spend a lot of time looking.

When you finally meet one, you might want to really listen closely to what is said. It may be one of the Top 10 Lies of Venture Capitalists, courtesy of Guy Kawasaki.

Here’s #7:

“This is a vanilla term sheet.” There is no such thing as a vanilla term sheet. Do you think corporate finance attorneys are paid $400/hour to push out vanilla term sheets? If entrepreneurs insist on using a flavor of ice cream to describe term sheets, the only flavor that works is Rocky Road. This is why they need their own $400/hour attorney too–as opposed to Uncle Joe the divorce lawyer.

At the end, Mr. Kawasaki notes that he writing this blog entry from Hawaii. I am very jealous. Never feel sorry for a man who owns a plane–or one who blogs from Hawaii.

Updates (08 Jan 06):To be clear, there are some shining examples of VCs in the blogosphere. Brad Feld is one, and Fred Wilson is another. Mr. Feld had a great series on term sheets last year. As Rob Hyndman notes, Mr. Wilson has a devastating view of the recent disclosure that some telcos may be trying to charge extra for iTunes or Google downloads that go through their systems. Hugh Macleod is also a fan of Mr. Wilson, and offers a great sign-off on the view initially raised by Mr. Kawasaki:

To VC, or not to VC????