Law firms buying ads on blogs

Northeast leading business law firm Foley Hoag has been begun advertising on the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. Above is a display ad that appears along side of posts in the blog.

And they’re not alone. Womble Carlyle, a 530 lawyer mid-Atlantic/Southest firm, as well Bingham McCutchen, a 1,000 lawyer International firm, are also running ads at the WSJ Law Blog.

Follows Clifford Chance’s sponsorship of third party’s blog last year.

Expect this to be a growing trend. Just as law firms would buy space in business publications, they can now buy ad space at a fraction of a price and reach a very targeted audience.

In the case of the WSJ Law Blog, they’ve got a good sized audience comprised of lawyers of all ages (nice for lateral hires) law students (good for recruiting), as well as in-house counsel and business people.