Tips for Bar Leaders (and Lawyers and Legal Pros) 2024
At the recent 2024-5 NCBA/F Leadership Orientation, CPM Director Catherine Sanders Reach shared some tips for productivity and efficiency for busy lawyers and bar volunteers.
Add Your Volunteer Activities in the Right Place
There are lots of Profile Sections to add to your LinkedIn profile. The primary ones include Education and Experience. Many lawyers put their bar associations and professional organizations in the Experience section. However, a better place to add this information is in the “Background” section under “Volunteer Experience”. You don’t have to have a leadership role, but by using this section you can leverage those organization’s networks. When you type in the name of the organization, for instance “North Carolina Bar Association”, make sure to type until you see it show up in a drop-down menu. By selecting the organization from the menu, it will enhance your visibility to others with the same affiliation.
Connect on LinkedIn in Person
While you still may carry business cards to in person events, you should also make sure to connect on LinkedIn for networking and information exchange in the future. This is easy to do! On your smartphone open the LinkedIn app and press the Search bar at the top of the screen. Click the QR code icon that appears in the right corner of the search bar to see and share your LI code. You can toggle from your code to “Scan” to scan another person’s LI QR code. You can take a screenshot of your QR code (or use the handy “Save to Gallery” button) before you head to your next conference or business meeting so you can be ready to connect without fumbling with an app. You can also add the QR code to the back of your business card!
Reply with a Template in Outlook
Microsoft Outlook has a QuickParts feature that lets you insert text and images from a snippet library into an email. However, this feature has some drawbacks. If you have the MS 365 subscription version of Outlook, take a look at “My Templates” in the Ribbon. You can add clauses and then drop them into your email. If you have searched your “Sent” folder repeatedly for the same clause or email, then save it to My Templates to have it ready to drop into an email.
How to Check Inclusive Language in Microsoft Word
Turn on the inclusive language checker in Editor for Microsoft Word in MS 365 to help identify and correct language that indicates gender bias, age bias, and more. This article in How to Geek tells you how to get it enabled, since it is disabled by default.
Looking Your Best on Zoom
There are a lot of tips for lighting, virtual backgrounds, and more to look your best on Zoom. Want another? Zoom has Instagram like filters in the Studio BETA. In your Settings go to Background and Filters and click on the “Apply Studio Effects”. You can add lipstick, eyebrows, and facial hair (beard or mustache) – and keep your settings for every time you get on Zoom.
Turn Emails into Calendared Events in An Instant
Sending a calendar request to a meeting, teleconference or web conference helps ensure that the participants have it on their electronic calendar and have the information they need to participate. Users of any calendar program from Outlook, Google or Apple should be able to send a meeting request that can be opened and applied to the recipient’s calendar. If not, the recipient will still receive the pertinent information. Be sure to include the location information, including dial in and login information in the “location” area of the invitation, as well as in the body or notes field of the request so that people will not be late because they couldn’t find the information they needed to participate.
When Should I Leave?
In Google Maps enter the address you are traveling to and then click on “directions” and map a point-to-point drive and find out how long it takes based on a specific departure or arrival time by clicking “Leave Now” and choose “depart at” or “arrive by” in the options. You can choose a date and time in the past, as well as the future.
Find Parking (and Where You Parked)
In addition to Google Maps helping identify public and paid parking with a P symbol on the map, now you can remember where you parked without having to take a picture (or multiple pictures). Once you have parked tap the blue location dot in iOS or Android and select “Set as Parking Location” in the options. A “P” icon will appear alongside a note that says, “You Parked Here”. In Android you can also add details like meter reminders, or the parking garage level.
Use a Smarter Notebook
Rocketbook has created a line of reusable smart notebooks for those who want the convenience factor of digital notes with the comfortable familiarity of taking handwritten notes. Each notebook includes a special pen and erasable pages, so you take notes just like you would have 20 years ago, but you can reuse the notebook again and again. The app and the QR code on the page allow you to easily convert your notes to digital form in Google Docs, Dropbox, iCloud, Evernote, Box, or email.
Ask the GAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence)
Do you need some help writing a letter or email that expresses just the right tone? Need a boost of creativity for writing CLE program titles and descriptions? Writing your bar newsletter and need some help with a conclusory statement? Are you looking for a graphic for a slide presentation that helps you create a visual representation of your message? GAI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot and Gemini are adept at helping with these activities!
Send a Handwritten Note
If you always intend to send a hand written thank you letter, birthday card or other custom message but gathering the stationery, envelope, and stamp often get in the way of your good intentions you can use a service like Thankster. Pricing starts at $2.74 per card plus .68 postage, though the more credits you buy the more you save. Pick or create a card, type the content of cards, create a handwriting style, and they will mail them out for you. You can use the Handfont feature to create a font in the style of your own handwriting! There are also a lot of integrations with tools like Zapier and Google sheets to create automatic triggers for cards.
Consider Doodle Alternatives
Getting multiple people to agree on meeting times using email can be difficult. It may result in a lot of additional emails for the group, may be difficult to get and tally responses, and if none of the times suggested are mutually agreeable you will need to start over. Doodle has a free version and a paid version. The free version is so rife with ads that it is almost impossible for recipients of the poll to use. There are ads all over the page and many beckon the user to click on them, making it difficult to discern whether you are clicking on the poll options, or an ad. Consider alternatives like Free/Busy, Calendly, or FindTime in MS Outlook.
Meeting Insights in MS Outlook Calendar
If someone sends an appointment to your calendar you may notice a little blue button that says “Meeting Insights” in the upper right side of the meeting. If you click on the button a panel will open with links to any recent email conversations or documents with the person who scheduled the meeting. This is a great way to get prepared for an upcoming meeting without searching your inbox or scrolling through folders!
If you like tips, NCBA CPM’s blog From the Center does too! See all the tips on a variety of topics. Sign up for the free ICYMI newsletter and follow the CPM blog, From the Center. NCBA members get free consultations and live/archived monthly webinars.