From the Archives: My 8 Most Popular and Useful Posts for Attorneys from 2011

As much as my ego hopes that Cogent Legal Blog is read by attorneys far and wide who eagerly await each update, I’m well aware that busy attorneys have limited time to read blogs and that thousands of law-related blogs vie for your attention. For all of you who might have missed my most practical and popular blog posts from the year, I compiled the following list with links to ones that I feel are most worth your time.

5 Popular Posts:

Tips and Tricks for Attorneys to Use Google Maps and Google Earth: This post definitely generated the most “wow, cool!” feedback.

How to Avoid “Death by PowerPoint”: 3 Tips for Visual Presentations (and three more in Part 2 of this post). Who hasn’t suffered through a bad PowerPoint? This pair of posts put forth my six main pieces of advice for strong PowerPoint/Keynote presentations.

How to Create a Timeline for Your Case: This post highlighted a few key choices to make and steps to take to create a timeline.

5 Social Media Tips for Law School Grads and Solo Practitioners: Some essential social media advice to help new attorneys find a job and build a practice.

5 Key Tips for Trial: In this post, I reported on judges’ advice from a roundtable discussion in which they candidly discussed what works—and what doesn’t—in court.

3 More Worthwhile Posts

These next articles didn’t rank as high in readership, but I believe they’re worth attorneys’ time because they’re full of practical advice and tools.

How to Easily Calculate a Net Verdict in a Personal Injury Case: Neither plaintiff- nor defense-oriented, this worksheet—downloadable as an Excel spreadsheet—can help California attorneys calculate what a plaintiff actually receives after a verdict, and also is useful for estimating net values for settlement.

Medical Illustrations for Attorneys: This post spotlights the work of our firm’s professional medical illustrator and shows how to make anatomy accurate and understandable for your case.

Case Study: Why You Should Develop Graphics for Your Case—the Sooner, the Better: This headline speaks for itself, and I hope you’ll read it to see why it pays to plan and develop visuals for your case as early as possible.

It’s been nine months since I wrote the Welcome Post—my first post here—and for all of you who’ve read the blog over this time and shared your feedback, I greatly appreciate it. I’m heading to the Eastern Sierra this week to spend time with my family through New Year’s Day, so I’ll be quiet on the blogging and social media front until the first week of January 2012. Happy new year!