Canadian Lawyer

REGIONAL WRAP-UP Half mile of Hell Continued from page 11 tWo laW firms and tHe continue, but some needy Calgarians would benefit. It was also a real boost to the food bank in the summer months when a lot of Calgary minds turn to the mountains and the coast and donations A tend to trickle off. The single-night spon- sorship program has proved a winner and BDP has been buying canvases ever since. The firm' Bugeaud says, with matter-of-fact lawyerly logic, "there was a need in the community, we needed to help the community so we re-directed our budget to our commu- nity's needs." So what about s managing partner Gary important clients during Stampede? The firm continues with its Stampede enter- taining but on a much smaller scale. It now focuses on a one-on-one lawyer and client approach, which BDP's director of marketing Brian Feick thinks may be more effective than a 2,000-person party where it can be hard to "really connect with somebody. stroking those all- Feick, sitting in a boardroom at the firm's shiny new downtown office, admits he found his first auction in 2009 "scary." " But at this year's affair, he was a veteran and coolly laid out $150,000 for a can- vas. Feick and Kristen Brown, another member of the marketing team, have now got a nearly full slate of single- night sponsors. They are confident they'll clear something very close to $170,000 for the food bank. As for the food bank, it calls the BDP initiative generous — and vital. — GEOFF ELLWAND writerlaw@gmail.com 12 JUNE 2012 www. CANADIAN Lawyermag.com LSBC TWEET-A-THON CAPTURES YOUNGER MARKET promote transparency, is capturing an audience consisting of rapidly shift- ing Canadian demographics, includ- ing a younger population that may not embrace the status quo. That's one of the reasons the Law Society of British Columbia decided to experi- ment during Law Week in April and tweet on its daily operations, a ven- ture that took seven communications staff, who sent out 100 tweets over the course of a day. "Social media is another way to challenge faced by any legal organization today, especial- ly a law society wanting to communicate in the local forum," says LSBC president Bruce LeRose. It captures a "broad-based audience" he said. While it takes in a traditional audience — including B.C.'s attorney general who is an honorary bencher and followed the day's tweets — it also reached that younger sector, both lawyers and law students, who tweet regularly. "We are excited to use all the tools that we can to communicate. The tweets provided insight to is a communication method that " existing lawyers as the LSBC dealt with public queries such as "I want to change my lawyer" to "caller asking to see if lawyer has been disciplined. The tweets also dealt with retired law- yers wanting to know how to dispose of old corporate seals, while another retiree was being monitored on trust accounts. Other tweets dealt with articling student issues. Lawyers were also tweeted advising them the LSBC had updated its confirmed fraudsters' list that was now available on the LSBC's web site. Many of its tweets were retweeted " through groups such as the Trial Law- yers Association of British Columbia, the Canadian Bar Association (B.C. branch), Courthouse Libraries BC, and others. As a result of the day-long campaign, the LSBC increased its fol- lowers to 735 from 661. It is estimated that with retweets, as many as 60,000 viewed the daily machinations of the regulatory body. LeRose pointed out that the LSBC's department communications Twitter on a daily basis, sending out at least one tweet a day, but the Law Week experiment provided the oppor- tunity to intensify the process. "Focus- ing the whole day on it is something that has not been done, uses ing, "I expect we would do more of it," although the specific format is still under discussion. The LSBC has had a Twitter account " he said, add- since March 2011. It has also used tweeting to broadcast material from a webinar held on succession planning. However, the LSBC day-long cam- paign did have one detractor. "Great idea in theory, but their Law Day is flooding my Twitter feed, back. Follow the LSBC on Twitter @LawSocietyofBC. jean_sorensen@telus.net — JEAN SORENSEN " he tweeted

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