Los Angeles Mediation, Collaborative Law, and Certified Family Law Specialists

Congratulations to Cari Pines, Donna Laurent, and Heidi Lauer on the launch of their FindLaw developed Family Law website for the recently formed partnership- Pines, Laurent & Lauer, LLP, a Practice Devoted to Family Law in Southern California.

The website has sixteen pages total, including detailed biographies of each partner and two articles that were recently published in Valley Lawyer (the San Fernando Valley Bar Association's monthly magazine). There are four specific practice area pages on the website:

• Divorce
• Child Custody & Support
• Special Needs Children
• Mediation and Collaborative Family Law

The imagery and content tone does help this firm stand out- and two of the pages on the site are definitely different than most Family law websites and those pages do show up very well in Google searches for "Los Angeles Family Law for Special Needs Children" or "lawyer for collaborative divorce in Southern California"

Each of the attorneys over 15 years of legal experience. Two attorneys - Cari Pines and Donna Laurent, have been certified Family Law Specialists by the California Board of Legal Specialization. Heidi Lauer has an extensive Mediation and Collaborative Law background.

Personally, from my business relationship to date, I can say that this is great firm to work with - energetic, focused, and outgoing. The site development took a little over 40 days, and we all worked closely with the FindLaw team back in Eagan MN to make it right. Stay tuned for a few image additions to the site as well as increased content, as Heidi, Donna, & Cari are very active in the legal community there will be much to add to the PLL Family law website.

Los Angeles Area Mobile Home Park Residents Win Lawsuit

The LA Times is reporting the details about residents of a San Fernando Valley mobile home park and the battle against the management and owners http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mobile27-2009jul27,0,2043044.story.

Issues were about about code violations, unsafe conditions, failure to maintain, and a variety of other points. Via ADR, back rent was awarded, as well as punitive damages and attorney's fees- a very large victory for plaintiff residents.

I've been working with consumer rights attorney Robert Starr for almost a year, and as his website has grown, he has added content about the above issues for mobile home tenants.
A page about mobile home management failure to maintain and a page about California mobile home evictions / relocation. Examining the traffic and keyword searches to his website - I've seen over 120 different phrases bringing potential clients to his website (by just filtering for "mobile" and "trailer"). Only 4 of the 125 were phrases that were repeated, for a total of 14 searches. This is another great example of the "long tail" - the variety and unique nature of search. Properly written content brings these potential clients to lawyers and help convert them to clients- matching the right lawyer with the right issue.

Los Angeles Criminal Law Website Launch - DUI, Drugs, & Domestic Violence

Congratulations to attorney Marc Legget for the launch of his FindLaw developed web site, focusing on criminal law matters in Southern California. Marc is an experienced lawyer, with over 50 trials of various types under his belt. He's handled many clients facing serious allegations, and has exceeded their expectations in the end- that's what experience gets you.

Marc's website is a clean design, with a traditional legal focus theme. Courthouse and historical imagery, with flash quotes from Abraham Lincoln, perhaps our country's most famous lawyer and president. The site content is tied together very well - most of the emphasis is DUI and Drug related for Los Angeles, but California domestic violence issues are also covered.

Working on this web site with Marc has been pleasurable and efficient! I met Marc via Robert Starr (consumer law attorney in Woodland Hills), and the trust Marc has put in FindLaw and me has resulted in the site being developed in just 60 days! The development team (Project manager, Designer, SEO specialist, and copywriter) did an awesome job. I look forward to posting about the great results Marc gets due to the site.

Los Angeles Family Law Attorney Launches New Web Site

Congratulations to Robert Gantman for the launch of his family law and estate planning focused web site at www.gantmanlaw.com - this is Robert's second interaction with the FindLaw development process, as late last year he launched his initial FindLaw template site. The new site is a custom design, with subtle flash elements to enhance the user's experience. The color scheme and background imagery really let the content stand out - especially the unique Legal Fact vs Fiction section. There are some other great content sections: hidden assets, estate plans & divorce, and California paternity issues.

Robert comes form a family of attorneys, and is very well known and respected. In fact, if one does a Google search for his name, you'll see what his referrals see when they want to learn more about him and his practice. This is very important, as the Internet is often a source that people turn to before meeting someone for the first time.

San Fernando Valley & Santa Clarita Attorneys who Blog

I've been reading a bit about an ongoing "controversy" between two service providers for blogs for lawyers. Much of the back and forth is about pricing, features, and services - but I do want to reiterate what is most important about a blog- commitment. To be effective as a communication tool, blogs do need to be updated often with relevant content. Unlike a web site, blogs are expected to have new content added frequently, I suggest at least weekly.

Here's nice list of attorneys with whom I work that blog, there website, their blog, and which platform they are using.

Gerald Kane

• Estate Planning website
• Blog (TypePad)

Owen Patterson & Owen

• Injury website,
• Car accident website,
• Motorcycle accident website
• Blog(Blogger)

Steven Mehta

• Meditation Website,
• Law Practice Website (with Michele Mann)
• Blog (Wordpress)

I'm sure this list will grow in the next few months.

Regarding platforms - I'm partial to Blogger, since that is what I am most familiar with tweaking it to my tastes - including customization of the graphics, title tags, and making it look "clean". But I've heard great things about WordPress. But the again, the real value comes from what the blogger writes - not the platform or design.

Attorneys on TV - Recognizing FindLaw Clients

In the last few weeks of TV viewing, I've recognized two Los Angeles Attorneys (both Family Law Lawyers) solely because they are FindLaw Clients. First, on a A KCET (PBS) show called "Move Away, I noticed Rozanna Velen of Korol & Velen. I've embedded the segment here.

Before June was over, I saw another familiar face (I see the website at least once a week) - Stacy Phillips of Phillips, Lerner, Lauzon, Jamra, LLP. I haven't found an embedded version, but here's the link - http://www.etonline.com/index.html?tag=stacy-phillips.

Both the attorneys above are highly respected and very well known. I consider it a great thing that FindLaw has such esteemed clients, and I hope to see many more of our clients as legal experts in important and interesting matters.

Palmdale & Lancaster Personal Injury Site Launched

Congratulations are in order for the Second Website for Robert Starr- focusing on accidents & injuries in Palmdale and the surrounding high desert area. Also a quick shout out to the development team at FindLaw who were able to get this site out in less than 30 days after the team conference call (we started the whole submission process on 5/26, we had our call on 6/4 and the site officially launched today 7/2)!

Counting upgrades for his first site, this is actually the fourth time he has gone through the developement process - one reason why the site was efficiently brought online. It might not be too long before this most recent site is upgraded to a fully custom design - alhtogh I think it looks great and has a neat message with a bit of a geographic feel with the desert road.