AFFILIATE NEWSLETTER | Volume 5, Issue 3

While it might initially seem difficult to Brand your online CLE site, it is imperative to do so in order to establish perceptions of your brand’s offering and value. Through the branding of your site you build awareness and, in concert with direct marketing, you guide people to choose you over your competitors.

Creating brand recognition is critical to ensure that your site is anchored in your customer’s minds when they make the decision to take action and make a repeat purchase. With enough repetition of your brand, you win the customer long before they ever visit your site to buy their CLE programs and assure a repeat sale.

By providing you with a CLE Catalog that mimics your web site, LegalSpan goes some distance in helping you to create an Online CLE Brand unique to your association, but there is more work to do.  You can further enhance the power of your Online CLE site by creating a unique name for it such as CyberCLE: NCBA's 24/7 Site! (tm) which is the name used by the North Carolina Bar Association for their Online CLE Catalog.  

To create the value your customer associates with your brand, you must monitor and identify trends in their behavior and tweak your messages for effective branding as well as adjust your support of what will create an optimal experience for your customer.

Consider the process your customer may go through, consciously or not…

• they have a problem to be solved
  they need CLE before a certain deadline;
• they choose to solve the problem via the Internet
  they know they can because of your direct marketing, articles, or advertising on your main web site;
• they arrive at your online CLE catalog
  because you carry the brand through the rest of your web site or you’ve branded it via a shortened URL in your direct marketing pieces…e.g., CyberCLE or cle.azbar.org or onlinecle.pbi.org;
• they recognize your catalog and system
  because you’ve advertised screen shots of the main catalog page at your live seminars, and you’ve trained them to recognize how to create an account in a powerpoint presentation that has played at your live seminars during breaks;
• they select your online CLE programs
  because creating the account was easy, because they trust the quality of your programs, and because when they called for some assistance they reached a knowledgeable and helpful person who clinched their experience with your brand, transitioning them from a visitor to a brand advocate.

An established or known brand cuts this process down to only the last two steps and facilitates a repeat sale.

Don’t let your hard work at marketing go to waste by missing any piece of this puzzle. Smart marketing calls for comprehensive branding starting with your advertising at live seminars, ads and links from your main web site, articles and tutorials in your bar journals, reminders and helpful tips in your general and direct marketing pieces, and finally and most importantly, from the helpfulness of your staff and ours, from the front desk to the back room to the top. 

Win your customer before they ever visit your site, by ensuring that your brand is the first brand that springs to mind when they think of Online CLE.

BRINGING OTHER ASSOCIATIONS UNDER YOUR WING

Since our association of Affiliates has now grown to more than 25 state bars and others, our competitors are really working hard to win business from other providers in your state. If other online CLE providers are able to capture a significant number of other bar associations in your state, the volume of sales could affect your total sales figures. For this reason, it would be wise to consider working with other bar associations in your state, through a business model that will benefit you both. After all, they represent additional effective paths to the market and through their efforts can add meaningful marketing. Working with them will both add to your total sales and also preempt the competition. We have a few different models for doing this and would be delighted to discuss these with you. Please contact John Davis, or Jim Carder for more information.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Several new programs from individual content providers are now available for your catalog. These national providers help you to round out your catalog with high quality programs that can be used in any jurisdiction. Each program is available in the shared seminar area of your administrative area under the appropriate category heading. In addition, many of these national providers are available for speaking engagements. Contact them directly for more information on their programs or to schedule them for a live seminar.

Also, don’t forget to mark your programs to be shared to other affiliates when you know that the content is general enough in nature to be of interest to other jurisdictions. With the upcoming compliance periods of several of our affiliates in June, you’ll want to be sure you are sharing as many programs as are appropriate well before June.

CLE Options:  Master Advocate Institute Series LIVE Web Casts

In 2003, CLE Options will produce two distinct live web cast events on each of three different days, totaling six programs and 18 hours of CLE. The first morning program will be 4 hours in length, followed by an hour break and the afternoon event of two hours. Our idea is to produce and present two different lengths to the market under distinct different formats. The June 27 event is a great example of this approach with the first program addressing a complex tax case and the second the specifics of US v Arthur Anderson. The morning session is a general skills based program and the one in the afternoon is a more advanced course relative important skills associated with one specific current case, with a discussion of specific issues as identified in that case. We will be broadcasting both events, via satellite and live web cast, in progression, on the day of the event. Once these programs are produced and captured on video they can either be combined or separated for any actual video replay event and will be offered as distinct online streaming archived events. 

June 27, 2003: A Guide in a Complex Litigation - Effective Handling of a Federal Tax Case 

The Litigator’s Edge June 27 two hours - US v Arthur Anderson

These core competency programs, in various practice areas, have been produced by the State Bar of Texas, as a capture of a live seminar event. They have been evaluated and selected by State Bar staff as being appropriate for lawyers throughout the nation. They are listed in specific practice areas and would be excellent additions to you online product line in to fill gaps in your catalog or in areas that are of interest to you lawyers but difficult for you to justify your own production.

CLE Source programs involve:

--Topics of National interest or Skills based
--High quality production values
--Planned by CLE program attorneys with years of experience
--Includes quality materials
--Easily selected from the LegalSpan catalog

For a complete list of these programs please visit CLE Source in your administrative area.

Nationally Recognized Negotiation Expert Martin E. Latz joins LegalSpan

Founder of Latz Negotiation Institute, Martin E. Latz brings his expertise to you in his first online seminar – Negotiation Ethics: Winning Without Selling Your Soul. This lively, 3-hour professionally-produced seminar has Latz playing Devil’s Advocate by presenting a series of ethically challenging negotiation scenarios to a panel of expert lawyers, business professionals and politicians.

One of the nation’s leading instructors on negotiating techniques and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Arizona State’s College of Law, Latz has presented his seminars to more than 25,000 lawyers in over 30 states. And now he’s taking his expertise online. In fact, LegalSpan now provides two Latz online seminars – both in the best-selling ethics arena. In addition to the one described above, Latz’s second online seminar - Ethical Negotiation Strategies - just became available as a 1-hour audio program. In this seminar, originally a telephone seminar for the California Bar, Latz presents several negotiation ethics scenarios to those listening. Participants then respond and discuss the morals, ethics and effectiveness of various negotiation strategies.

From 1993-1995, Latz negotiated for The White House nationally and internationally on The White House Advance Teams. He currently negotiates on behalf of a wide range of clients in addition to presenting his public seminars and private training programs to a variety of businesses and law firms. Latz also writes a monthly negotiation column for The Business Journal of Phoenix. His forthcoming book, Gain the Edge! Negotiation Strategies for Business and Life, is due to be published in early 2004 by St. Martin’s Press. Latz received his law and negotiation training from Harvard Law School, where he graduated cum laude. For more on Latz and to check out his negotiation columns, visit www.NegotiationInstitute.com.

New programs from Juris Research’s Kathy Shimpock

Quality online programs are what you expect and get from our long-time individual provider of legal research and business programs, Kathy Shimpock. She brings you three new programs and more will be coming soon. In the first new program, entitled Cost Effective Electronic Research, Kathy discusses the various pricing models for online and Internet research. She explains expert search strategies to use to conduct your research at the lowest possible cost. She covers the perils of Internet research and identifies when to stop your research. In the next new program entitled That’s Not Legal – Business Information Sources, Kathy details sources for researching businesses, building a profile on a company, and uncovering answers to common questions about businesses. And finally, with Successful Presentations, Kathy discusses what to do and not do when it comes to creating your presentation for that important case or client. Anyyone who speaks publicly should take this seminar at least once.

Kathy E. Shimpock is an attorney, author and lecturer. She is president of Juris Research, a company specializing in research and information technology training; electronic broadcasts and publications; and consulting in law practice technology, and management. Previously, she has worked as a lawyer and as a law librarian in both the academic and private sectors. In addition to her law degree, she has a Master Degree in Law Librarianship and a Master Degree in Business Administration. Ms. Shimpock has written and lectured extensively in the areas of the Internet, research, technology, and privacy and digital law.

From the American Arbitration Association, Arbitration 101: What Every Advocate Should Know

Take a crash course in the ABCs of commercial arbitration. From drafting pre-dispute clauses to writing post-hearing briefs, this program provides an in-depth analysis of every stage of the arbitration process. Hear from three seasoned AAA arbitrators how best to prepare for and present your case in arbitration. Using an hypothetical case study to illustrate important learning points, panelists Harold Coleman, Jr. (California), Richard Flake (Texas), and Mark Lassiter (Arizona), offer practical tips on how to effectively represent clients in an arbitration proceeding while maintaining the integrity and efficiency of the process.

This program can be added to your catalog in full (4 hours) or in four segments (1: Considerations in Choosing Arbitration, 2: Commencing an AAA Arbitration, 3: the Evidentiary Hearing, and 4: Post-Hearing Issues). For more information on the AAA, visit www.adr.org.

Leading Computer Forensics expert, Joel Pogar brings his expertise to you in his first Online CLE program

In today’s electronic world, evidence relating to many types of cases may be found in cell phones, watches, fax machines, copiers, printers, voicemail, PDAs, as well as computers! Common mistakes made by attorneys and judges relating to evidence that may be housed within these electronic devices can destroy the information. Enter the Computer Forensics expert. By using proper procedure, information stored in these devices may be the evidence you need to help your case. Learn what to look for in a good computer forensics expert and what information you need to know to work with a judge to preserve the right to seize the evidence. This course should be mandatory for every attorney and judge who has not yet worked with a computer forensics expert.

Joel A. Pogar, of Entrude, Inc., is a recognized expert in computer forensics and has provided security and forensic services to many Fortune 500 corporations, legal professionals and law enforcement agencies. He brings his expertise to you via this first online CLE presentation on the basics of digital discovery. Entrude personnel have appeared on television, newspapers and national magazines discussing a wide variety of topics on forensics and computer security. Joel can be reached via e-mail at jpogar@entrude.com or visit www.entrude.com.

PRODUCTION BENCH

How and Why to Use the Online Seminar Submission Form
The online seminar submission form enters some preliminary information directly into our database and makes the process of putting up your seminar faster and easier. It sends a message to our production staff that your program is on its way so they can add your program to the production schedule. If you don’t use the form, your program doesn’t get into the scheduling queue until it actually arrives in our office. You can help us and get your program up faster by completing the Online Seminar Submission Form each time you are ready to send us a program.

To use the form, go to the main page on your administrative area and click on the link for the Online Seminar Submission Form. The form will pop up in a new window and you’ll be asked to complete some information about your seminar including the title, credits, pricing, category, and your marketing description. You will also have the opportunity to include special comments to the production staff.

If you have any questions about this form, please give us a call and we’ll be happy to walk you through it. Thanks very much!

Thanks for your continued support! 
Feel free to contact Karen Lodoen or John Davis at any time: 888.892.7676 or Karen@Legalspan.com / jdavis@legalspan.com .