Laptops – we love them and so do thieves.  You can protect your critical data with a few simple precautions such as those from Security Hacks recent post titled 5 Essential laptop security tips.

The article mentions Truecrypt which is a great free encryption product, but for softwar to locate your laptop if its been stolen, I would choose Lojack For Laptops which has a solid company behind it.

We all would like to think that clients will come to us without our having to do anything more than do a good job and the work will come in all by itself. Unfortunately, that's not the case.Building and maintaining a practice takes work which includes, dare I say it, marketing.

Say the "M" word, and it conjures up marketing plans, hours of work, lots of money and staff time. But it doesn't have to be that way. Long time legal marketer Terrie S. Wheeler lays out what she considers to be marketing best practices in her ABA LPM Law Practice Today article Low Cost, High Impact Strategies to Market Your Law Practice – Even If You Only Have Five Minutes!

Terrie believes that there are four pillars to marketing:

*   Retaining and Growing Relationships with Existing Clients – At least 70% of next year’s revenue will come from your base of existing clients and contacts. Don’t overlook them!

* Attracting New Clients and Developing New Business – Know the criteria of your best clients and referral sources (A-level people). What traits and characteristics do they have in common? Then, proactively seek to develop new relationships and business opportunities with these individuals and companies.

* Increasing Name Recognition and Awareness – In order to hire or refer you, people must know who you are. Focus on increasing your personal name recognition in the marketplace through public relations, community and association involvement.

* Utilizing Targeted and Effective Communications – Know what makes you unique as a lawyer, then capitalize on your skills and communicate timely, relevant information to your contacts and clients.

In her article she takes these four pillars and spells out what she believes are the best practices for you under each. She recommends that you keep a copy of these on your desk and strive to implement just one a day. What do you have to lose?

Thanksgiving is almost upon us and you know what that means? Yes, I’m talking about Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving when the Christmas shopping season unofficially kicks off. There are a number of websites manage to get the sales flyers for retailers and post them in advance of their delivery in your weekly paper on Thursday. PCMag.com has posted this article on the 10 Best Black Friday Sites.

According to the article, the reason you should check out these sites is so that you:

Know before you go, thanks to these sites that collect the best holiday deals and discounts offered on the day after Thanksgiving.

So plan out your shopping strategy in advance to make sure you get the best items first. Oh, and if you are wondering how this relates to your law practice, think about all of that technology that you've been holding of buying - now is the season.

We all love happy clients - they refer new business to us and also come back when they need future legal work. With existing clients, it's easier than with new clients as you have an established relationship; but how do you make new clients happy?

In September of this year John Remsen, Jr. published Ten Golden Rules to Make Your New Client Happy in LawPractice Today. His article contains some great suggestions that everyone can benefit from. Number 3 on his list is:

3) Establish Your Client’s Expectations and Then Exceed Them

Walk your client through how you propose to handle the matter and what he/she can expect in terms of results and timelines. Create a reasonable set of expectations and do your best to beat them. If you discover you are unable to meet your commitments or the results are not likely to be what you anticipated, share that information with the client as soon as possible. In almost all cases, you will be forgiven.

The other 9 are just as insightful and it's a quick read for information that can benefit your practice in building a great relationship with new clients. 

Tired of the same old computer bags? Looking for a back pack computer bag, but don’t want it to look like a backpack? If your answer to these questions was yes, then you should check out BBP bags (Bum Back Pack) site .

BBP provides “urbanomic” back packs that don’t look like backpacks: they look like messenger bags or briefcases with the added benefit of easily converting from backpack to messenger style bag with really easy steps using their Bak2Pak™ carrying system. How easy? Check out the video on the homepage to see just how quick and easy you can convert these bags.

I first became aware of these bags when I went looking for a new computer bag last April and came across a review of these bags on the gadgeteer website here. I’ve used a Kennsington Contour ™Roller for a number of years and love the bag, but was looking for a carried bag when pulling a roller bag isn’t appropriate or will prove to be cumbersome. I also wanted a bag that wasn’t such a pain in the back. After spending some time checking out the review and this site, I then happened to run into a State Bar of Wisconsin member who had one of the bags with him while he was attending a seminar here at the State Bar Center. His experience was positive, so I ordered a Hampton model in Abyss Blue Tango to evaluate in actual use.

I’ve been living with this bag now since April and will be writing a long term use review in March 2008, but so far I like this bag and the good far outweighs the bad.There a number of well thought out features which are detailed here. One caveat I will give about these bags – if you are looking for a lightweight bag, then a BBP bag is probably not for you: the small bags start around 3lbs and the large bags top out at 5 lbs. What you get for all of that weight is good materials and great padding for your notebook and your body. These bags have been included in CNNMoney.com’s 4 must-have gadgets  post.

The folks at BBP are offering a 15% off coupon that can be shared so here are the instructions to take advantage of this before November 30, 2007:

coupon code = 15patiencereward

*use on the first page of the shopping cart *expires on 11/30/2007

While you will have to wait for my full, long term review, if you’re in the market for a bag to help ease your back problems or a unique Christmas present for someone, then you definitely want to look at these bags.