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15 April 2010 / Joe Reevy
Issue: 7413 / Categories: Features , Profession , Marketing
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The Google myth?

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Joe Reevy advocates using traditional methods for winning business

I am really interested in how often ideas become part of the accepted wisdom without any real evidence for their veracity. This is one of the reasons that having one’s thoughts challenged is something I would strongly recommend all managers to make part of their regular routine: the discipline imposed by knowing that you may have to justify any view is a discipline worth encouraging.

The world is replete with examples of accepted mythology and a chance conversation I had a year or so ago has led me to do a little informal research into what I now am starting to regard as “the Google myth”.

I was talking with several other company directors and we were talking about how we choose law firms to do our work. These people are the sort of potential clients most law firms would regard as the bulls-eye on the target of their client-acquisition strategy. The word “Google” was never uttered. We used advisers we knew and

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NEWS
Freezing orders in divorce proceedings can unexpectedly ensnare third parties and disrupt businesses. In NLJ this week, Lucy James of Trowers & Hamlins explains how these orders—dubbed a ‘nuclear weapon’—preserve assets but can extend far beyond spouses to companies and business partners 
A Court of Appeal ruling has clarified that ‘rent’ must be monetary—excluding tenants paid in labour from statutory protection. In this week's NLJ, James Naylor explains Garraway v Phillips, where a tenant worked two days a week instead of paying rent
Three men wrongly imprisoned for a combined 77 years have been released—yet received ‘not a penny’ in compensation, exposing deep flaws in the justice system. Writing in NLJ this week, Dr Jon Robins reports on Justin Plummer, Oliver Campbell and Peter Sullivan, whose convictions collapsed amid discredited forensics, ‘oppressive’ police interviews and unreliable ‘cell confessions’
A quiet month for employment cases still delivers key legal clarifications. In his latest Employment Law Brief for NLJ, Ian Smith reports that whistleblowing protection remains intact even where disclosures are partly self-serving, provided the worker reasonably believes they serve the ‘public interest’ 
Family law must shift from conflict-driven litigation to child-centred problem-solving, according to a major new report. Writing in NLJ this week, Caroline Bowden of Anthony Gold outlines findings showing overwhelming support for reform, with 92% agreeing lawyers owe duties to children as well as clients
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