Most people by now have had experience purchasing or using a coupon from Groupon, Living Social, Plum District and similar websites. Aside from a couple of incredibly annoying experiences with two purchases from Living Social, I have been a content consumer of these coupons.

Recently, the ABA Journal provided an overview of ethics opinions on lawyers and law firms using these services. The state bar associations in North Carolina, South Carolina and New York have issued opinions suggesting it’s OK for lawyers to jump on the deal-of-the-day coupon bandwagon. As this phenomenon spreads, I am willing to bet that more bar associations will also opine on the issue. Here are three main concerns discussed in these opinions:

1)  Does this kind of payment arrangement amount to fee splitting with non-lawyers, which is prohibited by Rule 5.4 of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, as well as the ethics rules of all the states?

2) Are advertisements for discounted legal services using this “couponing” method inappropriate for attorneys to use from a professionalism or appearance standpoint?

3) Is a “couponing” for business a good business model for attorneys?

One analysis of the fee-splitting issue says it does not amount to more than a payment of reasonable advertising costs. The South Carolina Bar’s advisory opinion states the fee charged by the website operator amounts to payment of the reasonable cost of permitted advertising by a lawyer rather than sharing the lawyer’s fee.

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I just finished putting together my materials for the MSBA Annual Meeting. I will be speaking Thursday morning during the conference about how lawyers can use social media effectively and without getting themselves into trouble. My presentation will be part of a broader session that will also include technology tips and online resource pointers. It will be in the morning, but yes, I have been promised that there will be coffee. (Pastries too, I hear.)

My presentation will focus on how social media can be used effectively by lawyers. From blogging to LinkedIn to Facebook and Twitter, social media can help you find new audiences for your work and can put you in control of your professional reputation. There are a few lawyers who have perfected the art of using these social media platforms for professional purposes.  Check out the Connecticut Employment Law Blog, the Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, and The Employer Handbook.

My materials include, among other things, a list of tips on how lawyers can use social media effectively. I think one of the most important is, “don’t be afraid to show your personality.” Tastefully and professionally, of course, and in moderation.

We spend so many of our waking hours thinking about work and do so much of our communication and networking electronically that it is far too easy for us, the online generation of lawyers, to lose who we are as individuals. We may not think about it, but in divorcing our personal lives from our professional lives so completely, we are losing the things that set us apart and that can help us naturally identify with colleagues, potential clients and referral sources.

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I was sitting comfortably on the couch in front of the TV a few weeks ago, adding new contacts to the J. Franklyn Bourne Bar Association‘s email list when suddenly my Mac started moving at a snail’s pace. I didn’t panic — I just simply closed all of my open applications and clicked restart, a process that took an unprecedented five minutes.

Of course, that didn’t resolve the issue, and then it took another 15 minutes for another restart. Something was really wrong but maybe I needed to do a complete shutdown. Nope. A shutdown didn’t fix the problem because it took about 20 minutes to load up. I was in big trouble!

I quickly pulled out my external drive in an attempt to backup. My mind was focused on saving my pictures, my documents, my music, my pictures and my pictures. Once I connected my external drive, I sat back and watched the screen. It indicated that it was “processing” and it “processed” for 30 minutes. By that point I was frustrated and exhausted so I ended the backup, disconnected the external drive and shut the Mac down.

I restarted, waited another 20 minutes for everything to load and plugged in the external drive. I figured since there was a lot of information to backup, it probably needed to run overnight, so I let the Mac do its thing while I was sleeping. I didn’t get much sleep because I was too worried about the situation. I woke up at 5:30 a.m. and found that the backup was still “processing.” That is when my frustration turned into panic. My last backup was Aug. 25, 2011. That wasn’t good.

I had a Carrie Bradshaw moment. If you are fan of “Sex and the City,” you probably remember the episode where Carrie’s laptop died. She hadn’t backed up and lost years of her work. At least I had backed up, but I still felt that I had lost both arms.

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A few weeks ago, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that language software maker Rosetta Stone could proceed with its lawsuit against Google over whether an Internet advertising program creates brand confusion.

In 2009, Rosetta Stone sued Google in the federal court claiming  Google’s AdWords advertising program unlawfully allowed the use of trademarks in the text of ads that accompany Google search results. Rosetta discovered that Internet consumers were purchasing counterfeit versions of its software.

Rosetta Stone’s counsel said pleased with the ruling and that it set a very important precedent. Google’s AdWords advertising program offers companies the opportunity to buy advertisements that run with a Google search engine’s results. Companies “purchase” certain keywords that trigger the inclusion of the their advertisement.

In 2009, Google began allowing the limited use of trademarks in advertising text, which it had earlier prohibited. While Google expected increased legal expenses stemming from future disputes with owners of trademarks, the company also anticipated a boost in revenue.

Rosetta Stone sued on claims that included direct trademark infringement. The company’s case-in-chief presented survey and anecdotal evidence that would-be customers were buying fake Rosetta software via Google advertisements. It will be interesting to watch this matter go to trial.

What are your thoughts? How will this affect monetization not only on a large-scale platform such as Google, but on smaller platoforms, such as blogs?

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Last week, my cell phone started ringing incessantly. By “incessantly,” I mean every two seconds. The numbers that came through were not 10-digit numbers, but sometimes 15-to-20 digits. When I answered, the call disconnected.

I called Verizon and was told there was nothing they could do about it, that a machine was likely dialing my number and that it would take 24-hours for them to get the real 10-digit number behind the calls rather than the fake numbers showing up on my phone. (Verizon can only block 10-digit numbers.)

I had a gut feeling that a scam was underway but Verizon assured me that no one could hack into my phone just by dialing it incessantly. After three calls with Verizon, I turned my phone to silent and hoped that the calls would eventually stop.

I then got a call from a woman named “Maria” who claimed that she was from Verizon and apologized for the technical difficulties. She asked me to turn off my phone. I asked her for her name again and a call back number. When she hesitated in giving me the call back number, my suspicions that she was a scammer were solidified.

I could not imagine what would happen if I turned my phone off but I knew I did not want to do what “Maria” asked. I kept my phone on until the battery drained from all of the calls and it shut off.

I had been checking my bank accounts periodically online throughout the day. For some reason, I had hunch that the scam was going to be on one of my accounts. I have the Bank of America app on my phone and, although Verizon assured me that no one could get that information simply by repeatedly calling me, I still felt uneasy.

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One of the benefits of striking out on your own is that you can finally have the law firm you’ve always wanted. All of those experiences from prior jobs can be distilled into your firm’s philosophy, used to create your ideal work-life balance and inform the technological purchases you make.

Actually, it might be more accurate to say that you can eventually build the law firm you’ve always wanted. So many of those first decisions are based on necessity.

One of the common complaints from BigLaw lawyers is that the only option is a work-life imbalance weighted heavily in favor of work. The culprits are common enough: long commutes, heavy billing requirements and a need to impress the higher-ups in hopes of access to the partnership track. In that type of culture, it can be difficult to ask for time off or to suggest some type of alternative working arrangement (like once-weekly telecommuting).

I think smaller firms tend to have a better track record for some things — telecommuting seems a little more common, for example. All of my past firms have been understanding on the time off issue. My biggest concern has long been the ability to get two days off with almost zero notice when we get foster care calls. Fortunately, it has never been a problem.

My second concern, as most parents know, is being able to call out on days when the kids can’t make it to daycare. Somehow it always worked out, but I can’t help but feel a bit guilty about taking unplanned time off.

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