Give a Cow

/ Bruce Cameron

I know its early, but before you blow all your Christmas shopping money this holiday season, take a moment and consider sending some of that moola to Heifer International. Heifer’s mission is to bring an end to world hunger by helping people obtain a sustainable source of food and income. The concept in a nutshell is that Heifer makes a gift of livestock to one individual in a community. They teach that individual sustainable agriculture (how to breed for quality, how to care for the livestock, etc). In return, that individual agrees to share the offspring of the gift animals along with their knowledge, resources and skills with others in need.

If there is one thing I could give to the struggling people of the world it would be self-reliance.

Everyone deserves the dignity of providing for themselves and their families. That’s why I support Heifer International.”

— Walter Cronkite

What’s in a Name

/ Bruce Cameron

Your firm name is important. It often provides the first impression your clients have of your firm. It is your corporate identity, your nom de guerre, and for some it can be an ethics violation. The ABA Journal is reporting that solos who add “and Associates” to their firm names may be in violation of ethics rules.

After reading the ABA Journal article, I called the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board and confirmed that they agree that were a solo to add “and Associates” to their firm name, they would not be making a truthful representation. This also applies to phrases such as “The Law Offices of …” if there is only one physical office, “and Associates” if there is only one associate, “and Associate” if the person referred to by the word associate is not an attorney (paralegals don’t count).

Thanks for the Invite, but I may not Follow You

/ Bruce Cameron

As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being. — Carl Jung

While Jung may have the collective unconscious to have a great signal-to-noise ratio, the part of the collective conscious that Twitter seems to have accessed has a poor signal-to-noise ratio. So, I may not be following you because:

Your stream of tweets is simply a catalog of your every waking moment. A constant bombardment of information eventually becomes noise. I don’t have time for that.

Your tweets are simply monotonous diatribes on a single topic. I left that behind when I left usenet. While others may find that endless catalog of links interesting, I’d rather google for the information when I need it.

Finally, blatant self-promotion doesn’t trip my trigger.

I’m looking for the art, poetry and interspection that occassionally winds its way through general morass. I want to read something that is funny, interesting, relevant, cute, or thought provoking. I use Twitter to be entertained and to meet people. So be a light in the darkness and I will follow.

Crossover to Linux

/ Bruce Cameron

I’ve been running CrossOver on my CentOS Linux desktop for the last week or so and have been quite impressed with the software. For those that may not of heard, CrossOver allows you to install and run Windows applications under Linux without the need for a Microsoft Operating System license. Once installed, its just a matter of click and run.

With the exception of Access, I had no problems installing and running the Office 2003 Pro suite, OneNote, Flash, Quicken, and Acrobat. While the CrossOver install process does add an additional layer of complexity when compared to a native install under Windows, for CrossOver supported applications the process is simply a matter of running an install wizard application and specifying which CDROM contains the application install disk. For unsupported applications, installation gets a bit more complicated and my attempts to install demo versions of Tabs3/PracticeMaster and Amicus Attorney have failed. I should note that, at present, I’ve only tried twice to install these applications and have yet to crack open the relevant documentation so my failures are more indicative of my lack of time than the software’s overall performance.

The Value of Tradition

/ Bruce Cameron

At the onset of my journey to a solo practice, I conducted a fairly informal market survey of my potential client base to see if a virtual office practice would work as well in a rural community as it does in the more densely populated urban areas. While my survey indicated that my potential client base was willing to accept some deviations from their concept of “lawyer” (such as flat fees v. hourly rates), they value the more traditional trappings of an attorney. Here, there is value in engraved letterhead and wax-sealed wills, in the formality of a wood paneled office and a heavy oak desk and there is comfort and confidence in that three piece suit and a good firm handshake.

I found that this is a community that still does business face-to-face and is one where impressions matter, especially when issues such as trust and confidence are involved. The virtual office concept falls flat because the web can never give the feeling of permanence that bricks and mortar provide. It does not matter that a virtual office means lower overhead, that brick and mortar office is permanent — you can trust permanence; you can have confidence in permanence. There is value in tradition.