Grace Healy of Outside Inhouse Lawyer: LexBlog Q & A

The marketing tactics that are most effective off-line are often equally as effective online. Just as cold calls and solicitations can’t compare to a face-to-face meeting, so too do mass emails and bland marketing pale in comparison to the personal touch a blog can offer.

Seattle corporate attorney Grace Healy turned to blogging precisely because she believed that a blog could be a way to "introduce myself in a substantive way" and present information showing her abilities.

Grace’s blog, Outside Inhouse Lawyer, provides commentary from an outside lawyer who has been in-house. As expected, it’s given her a marketing boost.

"Clients have told me that the blog shows that they are hiring a lawyer who is actually thinking," she says.

We talked to Grace about how blogging has "amped up" her interest in the law and how the images on her blog reflect her background.

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

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start blogging?

Grace Healy: I thought that blogging would be an effective marketing tool because it would let me present information showing my abilities. When I was in-house I thought that the most effective marketing was done by lawyers or firms who gave conferences for potential clients because you got a feel for how they viewed the law and whether they were people with whom you might have a relationship of trust. Cold calls and solicitation letters just don’t give a potential client that information. Blogging seemed to present a reasonably priced, on-going opportunity to introduce myself in a substantive way.

Hiring the wrong lawyer can be an expensive mistake – because of the fees paid and the results stemming from the work done.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been most rewarding about blogging? What has been most challenging?

Grace Healy: I’ll start with the most challenging because it has resulted in the most rewarding. Finding things to blog about has been the most challenging to me. I just don’t want to write what I consider the equivalent of "dog bites man" non-news stories. For example, in-house departments are worried about increasing legal fees; law firms are concerned they won’t be able to raise rates. Looking for interesting topics has made me follow pending cases, new decisions and other bloggers. The rewarding result is that blogging has really amped up my interest in the law.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been the response to your blog from clients, other lawyers or anyone else? Have you seen an impact on your practice from your blog?

Grace Healy: Yes. I think that some people think that solo practitioners are lawyers who still use tissue carbon paper. Clients have told me that the blog shows that they are hiring a lawyer who is actually thinking. It has also helped me reconnect with old friends, and co-workers.

Lisa Kennelly: Many first-time bloggers (and long-time ones as well) can have trouble thinking of blog post topics. What do you use for inspiration when you get stuck?

Grace Healy: I have a lot of RSS feeds that I read, I hope that the Washington Supreme Court and/or the New York Court of Appeals will issue some fascinating opinion today or tomorrow, and I rationalize that by not blogging about some self-evident truth I am not wasting someone else’s time. That last thing really isn’t very helpful.

Lisa Kennelly: Your blog’s masthead is dominated by three photographs. Why did you choose to set up the design this way?

Grace Healy: I set up a similar design on my website to illustrate the main parts of my working life. I was born, educated, worked and lived in New York for a really long time. In fact, even though I’ve been living in Seattle for eight years, a lot of people can’t believe that I really left. Thus, the NY portion of the picture. The Seattle portion shows where I live now. Between New York and Seattle, I worked for Champion International, a forest resource company. The lake and mountains in the middle remind me of some of the great places I visited (and people I met) when I worked there. My only regret about the blog picture is that the NY portion doesn’t show Bellevue Hospital – where I went to school and worked as an emergency nurse – a huge portion of my growing up.