Maxwell Kennerly of Litigation and Trial: LexBlog Q & A

Philadelphia civil litigation and trial attorney Maxwell Kennerly is passionate about blogging and social networking, and it comes through on every page of his blog, Litigation and Trial. A self-described "tech geek," Max found it easy to make a jump from e-mail dialogues to blogging, especially when he took into account the business possibilities.

Max, an attorney with The Beasley Firm, said his reasons for blogging have changed since he first started out.

"I really cannot overstate how much I’ve learned from just generally staying on top of the court opinions and articles (including blog posts) coming out, something which I would rarely do if I did not have the blog," he says. "I’ve definitely experienced a tangible improvement in how quickly I come to solutions and how often I ‘know’ a couple solutions the moment I hear a problem."

We caught up with Max for this LexBlog Q&A, and he shared with us more about what he’s gotten out of blogging, why he thinks blog names should be a pun and why he "adores" Google Reader.

See our e-mail exchange with Max (after the jump).

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you initially decide to start a blog?

Max Kennerly: I have always liked writing and have always been a tech geek, so the transition to writing a blog was fairly natural and represented something that I wanted to do anyway, regardless of the business merits of doing so. If you’re the type of person who, unprompted, will e-mail articles to your friends with a bunch of comments and get in an e-mail dialogue, then you’re naturally a blogger, you just need to make some tweaks for a wider audience and the one-way nature of blogging.

That said, the business possibilities were a big component in making me finally take the plunge. Just as many lawyers question the return on investment of running a blog, I question the return on investment of shaking a bunch of hands over cocktails at a Bar Association meeting. It certainly does help for people to have actually met you, but, really, when is the last time you actually referred a case to someone with whom you chatted briefly at the Bar Association? In practice, it happens rarely, you refer cases to people you either know or have heard are competent and qualified to handle the case.

And that’s just for lawyers. For clients, it’s even harder to reach out to them in a purposeful manner. In my field, civil litigation, no one thinks of themselves as a potential client until things go really wrong, and there’s no way to predict who, for example, will have their business trashed by an independent contractor breaching their agreement. So, sure, you can do a couple presentations in front of a handful of business people, but you have to do a whole lot of them before you can get tangible results. I think it’s better to leave a trail on the internet of what you’re like for people to encounter when trying to solve a specific problem (more on this below).

Lisa Kennelly: Have your reasons for blogging changed since you first started? What has been most rewarding about it?

Max Kennerly: My reasons for blogging have changed a little bit since I first started. As Kevin LaCroix pointed out a little bit ago, one of the best benefits of blogging is that you learn a ton about your field and related fields. As part of the blog, I report on interesting cases coming out of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, and I really cannot overstate how much I’ve learned from just generally staying on top of the court opinions and articles (including blog posts) coming out, something which I would rarely do if I did not have the blog. I’ve definitely experienced a tangible improvement in how quickly I come to solutions and how often I ‘know’ a couple solutions the moment I hear a problem.

Same goes for improving my writing. Given how I already write a ton for my practice, with seemingly endless briefs, letters and e-mails, I didn’t expect the blog to really teach me much about writing, but it certainly has, particularly about condensing complicated ideas and putting them in a format that people can understand, which is always a useful skill for a trial lawyer.

So I believe the most rewarding part about blogging is the "sweat equity" you build up by doing it; it’s a lot easier to put aside work and devote the time to learning something if you have a specific goal (i.e., blogging) in mind for learning it.

Lisa Kennelly:Your "About" page is very detailed, with a lot of background about blogging in general and how to use a news feed reader. Why did you set it up this way?

Max Kennerly: I probably should keep my mouth shut and have the page resemble other lawyer blog pages, but I just can’t help it. I adore my Google Reader and believe that it (or any feed reader) is an essential component of efficient Internet usage and thus blogging. I am a far happier surfer with the readers; I honestly don’t know how I would keep up with all the good websites and still get anything done if I didn’t have my reader.

The bulk of the Internet, however, does not see it that way, and newsfeed readers really have not caught on as much as you’d think they would. Indeed, one of my pet theories about Twitter is that it has caught on precisely because people are using it as a streamlined newsreader, one where they don’t feel as obligated to read everything that comes by.

I know that page is either tilting at windmills or preaching to the choir, depending on the visitor, but I really think people would be a lot happier if they weren’t just clicking refresh on a handful of sites over and over again, so I do what I can. If I can improve someone’s experience that way, so much the better.

Lisa Kennelly: Your blog is subtitled "The Tales and Tribulations of a Philadelphia Lawyer". What went into choosing this specific title?

Max Kennerly: I’ve been online for years now, having hosted a bulletin board system prior to public use of the World Wide Web, and I have a fundamental belief that every personal website should have some sort of pun, joke or other silliness as part of its title. Howard Bashman is the grand poo-bah of this, having named his appellate law blog “How Appealing,” which I think embodies the quintessential blog title, one that is memorable, interesting, and on topic.

I tried to incorporate some of that in my own title, and came up with a bunch of bad ideas that the Lexblog folks wisely talked me out of, resulting in the generic but unmistakable Litigation and Trial title I now have. But that’s so boring that I had to get something with a little character in it, so I thought of ways to put the maligned term “Philadelphia Lawyer” in there and eventually that subtitle had the best ring to it, and helped convey a sense of what I do every day. Philadelphia litigation and trial is not for the faint of heart, and I wanted some of that flavor to come across. That’s the same reason I chose the background image I did.