Amazingly, we even found our own post on the earthquake mentioned in Mark's piece: the brief observations Kevin blogged about last night (and shortly thereafter put up on Twitter) had by this morning been picked up by an internationally renowned news source and cited as yet another angle of the story.

But did word of the quake actually break on Twitter, before the major news media were able to pick up on it? Malcolm Moore at The Telegraph seems to think so (despite being from a professional news source, he doesn't hesitate to give Twitter credit for its role in the disaster response). Malcolm's story also echoes the sentiments of many in the blogosphere this morning, and notes the unexpected significance of this seemingly simple tool in a time of widespread confusion and panic:

The news of the Sichuan earthquake apparently broke first on Twitter.com, a website whose users constantly update the world on what is happening around them.

Links to maps showing the epicentre of the quake were posted alongside accounts of shaking buildings and evacuated offices from Chengdu, Shanghai and Beijing.

"Breathing normal again, feeling an earthquake on the 31st floor was not fun," wrote Ana from Shanghai.

Ana's Twitter page, like so many others, continues to provide her take on the earthquake and micro-conversations with other users. It seems likely that in any Chinese city where there's an Internet connection this evening, someone's tapped in and sharing their perspectives with listeners around the world.

To some, it may seem downright absurd: web users armed with nothing more than their eyes, ears and 140 characters of empty space. But that's exactly what happened this morning...and it seems likely that next time a newsworthy world event strikes, all eyes will be on Twitter.

The focus of the conference is how developing a community can significantly impact your business’ bottom line. Blogs, social networking, community strategies, reputation systems, and customer engagement are among the many topics to be covered.

Being a lawyer, overseeing a network of lawyer blogs, and soon to be publishing a legal new media site, I'm addressing some of the legal issues of communities and social networking.

It's frankly an honor to get to present at this conference. Past speakers include author and consultant, John Hagel, Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist, and author and consultant Patricia Seybold.

This year looks like a great group of presenters including Shel Israel, Co-author of Naked Conversations–How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers, Charlene Li, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, and Dave Weinberger, a pioneer in blogging and author of Everything is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder & Co-author of 'The Cluetrain Manifesto.'

Getting to non-legal technology conferences is critical for me. Nothing against legal conferences. But the future lies closer to what those outside the law are evangelizing. Plus I get to spend time with some of the thought leaders who I have followed and networked with through the blogosphere.

I'll blog direct from conference sessions to share what I'm learning. And if we're lucky, we'll pick up some nice interviews for more live blogging.

If you didn't get a chance to attend, here's a recording of the webinar, including screencast. Click here to run the webinar from the LexBlog learning center. It's 45 to 50 minutes long.

I'll also be doing an encore performance within the next few weeks. Drop me an email, if you want to recieve word of the date and time. It'll be free of course.

And in LexBlog's continuing effort to educate folks in our legal profession on the power of blogs and social networking, we'll start running a series of free webinars on various topics.

Please drop me an email on topics you'd like to see me cover and if you want to be added to an email list keeping folks abreast of the times and days, drop me an email. Not to worry. LexBlog is a 'spam free' environment. No sales pitch BS or press releases to folks who share their email addresses.

New Internet and communications technologies continue to change our daily lives. It’s possible today to switch easily between e-mail, text messaging, instant messaging, blogging and social networking sites.

Teenagers simply use all of these at the same time! But for those who are a bit older, the impact of new technologies is profound. For in-house counsel, it is becoming increasingly important to think about both the challenges and opportunities these changes create.

When it comes to employees blogging (Microsoft has 1,500) Smith advises providing guidance on how to blog legally with a focus on existing company policy.

The goal [for Microsoft] was not to devise entirely new policies for blogging, but to help employees apply existing standards on confidentiality and business conduct in this new online environment. It was important to provide this advice in a form that employee bloggers would find natural and useful—namely, a list of frequently asked questions and best practices posted on an internal ‘blog for bloggers.’

Beyond employee blogs Smith offers other potential uses for corporate blogs:

• Medium for sharing information with employees.
• Make broad communication with employees a two-way street.
• Legal statements from companies not in the form of a traditional press release, but as less formal blog postings.

As to whether the corporate legal department should have a blog and what it should offer, Smith says 'A decade from now these questions may well seem like old hat.'

This from Dan Slater at the WSJ Law Blog looks pretty close. Too bad they cut my head off.

Lisa's takeaways from my presentation:

• Blogs are good idea for lawyers. Especially if they want to package their legal musings in a zippy, readable way, shine up their firm's reputation and attract reporters looking for expert sources.
• While not every individual lawyer has a flair for the conversational writing style that is the mainstay of a popular blog, "every type of practice area and every firm could benefit from blogging."
• Lawyers should become familiar with social networking sites LinkedIn, Legal On Ramp, YouTube and Facebook.
• There are 2,000 law blogs today, and every day, four new law blogs are created.
• 75 percent of reporters scan blogs to find experts for articles -- which in turn could mean pretty valuable exposure to a lawyer and a firm.
• Law firms are part of the media today. If you don't put information out there where it can be seen by influencers, then you're really missing something.

Thanks for the report Lisa, especially the plug that LexBlog '...[Coaches lawyers on how best to present their blogs in terms of design, marketing and writing style -- so that they enhances their firms' reputations rather than damage them." She added "We're not going to let [law firms] embarrass themselves."

Thanks to the New England Chapter of the Legal Marketing Association and its President, Jeff Scalzi, Director of Marketing at Foley Hoag. First class event attended by what I understand was record crowd of over 80 legal marketing professionals.

Click here for a copy of my PowerPoint presentation . The PowerPoint may not mean too much as the presentation drifted to subjects of keen interest to the audience.

Looks like I am doing encore presentations for Legal Marketing Chapters in Cleveland, Portland, and Seattle. If you need a speaker to cover a fun and what appears to be an in demand topic, give me a call. I'm cheap. ;)

I'm thinking someone wrote a script that's causing 'spam followers,' if you will. I'm getting ready to set up a filter in my mail app to send all emails saying someone was following me on Twitter into spam. I was just thinking the last week that Twitter is a cool tool that I'm figuring out how to use. Then this.

So I 'tweet' that 'I am getting hit by 'spam followers,' has anyone had that happen to them?" Saad Kamai replied that 'Somebody recommended you in Twitter, so i guess its natural to get a couple of new 'followers.'

Couple new followers? More than that. And who has that type of draw? That type of influence to recommend an unknown (I am one) and get folks to start following what you are saying?

Then the answer from Phil Ferris in West Cornwall, UK: "Scoble recommended you a few minutes ago in a Tweet. I call it the Scoble Effect."

Quick look back in Twirl, my Twitter application, and sure enough.

Scobleizer: I love reading @kevinokeefe who today linked to a thing about lawbloggers doing journalism. He's a lawyer and a blogger and smart too.

Robert apparently picked up via a tweet of mine that I had posted about lawyers and investigative journalism.

Wow Robert. I'm honored. Seriously. But you'll need to give folks a warning of what's coming - when you're ready to Scobleize them.

Like Jerry Yang when he called Jeff Bezos 12 years ago and said Yahoo was going to name Amazon the 'site of the day.' Bezos thought sure and couldn't figure out why Wang was asking. But Yang wanted to warn him of what's to come. Bezos had bells on each employees computers (a few only) that rang with each book purchase. Guess the next day when Yahoo did the site of the day the bells rang all day.

Good thing I have the bell notifying me of new emails on mail app turned off. Otherwise the folks in this sleepy little coffee shop would, like me, wonder what the heck's going on.

Let there be no question as to the influence one person can have on others through blogging and social networking.

May be worth a listen as we covered a range of issues including defamation, insurance coverage for bloggers, anonymity, corporate blogging, and blogging policies.

You may download a MP3 file which has been edited down to 21 minutes.

Presented at Legal Marketing Association yesterday. Large crowd of about 80 folks. Reviewed state of blogs and large law and the social networking tools law firms may want to use - and which ones that don't require their attention.

Followed with more informal briefing and discussion on similar topics with large law firm I hope to be working with. They've got excellent group of marketing people working with lawyers driven to use blogs and other social networking.

Out for a run along on the Charles earlier and now up towards financial district or Cambridge to hopefully meet with some folks.

From folks who author law blogs of their own to those just interested in what lawyers are doing in the blogosphere, it was a good group that turned out to celebrate with a pint of Guinness.

Thanks to everyone who turned showed up to introduce themselves offline, and to Amy Campbell for the photo.

Her blog, which launched in 2003 and has been going strong ever since, recently added more authors and has been further expanding its coverage of small business-focused issues. In our interview we chatted about how blogs can be used productively by lawyers (and any entrepreneur looking to expand their reach, regardless of the industry) as a community building tool. The specifics are after the jump.

1. Rob La Gatta: Why do you blog?

Anita Campbell: The reason I started and the reason I do it now are very different.

I started the blog as a way to publish a newsletter, easily and quickly. I was doing some consulting, working with small business clients – doing business plans, helping them with strategy, development and so on – and was doing an e-mail newsletter, just to develop a bit more of a customer base. But it was just taking me forever to actually create the newsletter every month. Someone said, "Go over to Blogger and start a free blog." So I did, and I started putting up little articles up there. Then, when it came time to do the newsletter, it was very simple...at the end of the month I could simply create some links, and maybe a little paragraph introduction about an article…and voila, that was my newsletter.

Of course, things have changed since then. As time went on, I realized that the Small Business Trends site got much higher rankings in the search engines that my regular business website, and so I started putting more and more time into it. And that just grew; the blog tended to get a lot of attention. (It was good timing, too, because it was when business blogs were just starting to take off in late 2003 and 2004). Gradually, it totally changed my business model. I realized I could make money with a business model where the blog was central to it.

2. Rob La Gatta: Do you think that approach is a growing trend among businesses?

Anita Campbell: I definitely think so...though I’ll qualify that by saying I don’t think a blog is for everyone. But I do think that a growing number of professionals (especially small businesses, lawyers & CPAs) really get tremendous benefit from a blog compared with the amount of money that you have to put in it. If you tried to get those same results by other means, you could spend a tiny fortune.

A blog is definitely cost effective, but there are tradeoffs...you have to spend a little more effort of your own. But I find with lawyers – who tend to be good with words – that’s really not as big of an issue as it might be with some people.

3. Rob La Gatta: Do you see a blog as something that can give a company transparency and help consumers feel more at ease?

Anita Campbell: Yes, and I think part of it comes from the conversational nature of blogs. You can talk in a more intimate way...“me to you,” if you will, as opposed to a regular website where you tend to write in marketing speak. And that creates a connection with people. They come to trust you more, and you come to have this emotional bond that you really can’t get from a traditional website. Plus, on a lot of blogs, you can talk back – a visitor can comment, and so it really does become a conversation in that sense.

4. Rob La Gatta: There are few general counsels out there blogging, but those numbers are still low. As a former GC yourself, why do you think that there aren’t many of these professionals blogging?

Anita Campbell: I think it’s difficult for larger companies to blog in the same way that I think a smaller businesses can blog. The bigger you are, the more you have to be concerned about:

• First of all, everybody inside your company or your firm being on board;
  
• second, if you’re a publicly traded company, you have concerns over what gets revealed in a blog and what can you reveal;
  
• and third, with a larger company, you have more constituencies, and so you have to be concerned about all of these different angles.
  

That said, I think it definitely can be done. And like you said, there are some general counsels who are writing, because they find things to write about that don’t violate SEC rules and that don’t hit too close to home on customer issues that might be problematic.

5. Rob La Gatta: What do you personally see as the most rewarding element of writing a blog?

Anita Campbell: I’ve been thinking a lot lately about this idea of community. A blog lets you build a community, and it’s a community of people that could include everyone: 

• current clients or customers,
• those who might be checking you out to see whether they want to hire you,
  
• or just the general public – who knows, someday they may become a client, or come to know you. 

You can develop a reputation as an expert in your field or niche, and blogs are perfect for that: they're cheap, and you don’t have any gatekeepers that are keeping you out of developing that reputation. If you use a blog and you think of it as developing a community, what you’re really doing is you’re extending your network...you’re able to touch more and more people, literally sitting at your desk in front of your computer.

Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:

• Steve Matthews of Stem Legal, discussing the state of the Canadian legal blogosphere [3.11.08]
• John Sirman, manager of TexasBar.com and technology editor for the Texas Bar Journal [3.10.08]
• Robert Scoble, video blogger for Fast Company.TV and author of the technology blog Scobleizer [3.8.08]
• John Bolch, UK-based family lawyer and author of the blog Family Lore [4.1.08]
• Stuart Buck, attorney with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel PLLC and author of the blog The Buck Stops Here [3.27.08]

Emmet's Pub at 6 is the plan. Emmets is located at 6 Beacon Street. Bob says to email him to confirm details (his last at gmail.com).

In that I'm coming all the way from Seattle, Bob said the least Bostonians could do was buy me a beer. But in the LexBlog tradition started last month in Chicago, beer for bloggers is on us. Don't any tell Weston, LexBlog's CFO.

New England LMA: "How to Work a Room in the Digital Age: Social Networking for Law Firms"

Social networking...from Facebook to LinkedIn and even blogging...has exploded as a phenomenon in recent years, and has found its way into the legal industry. As legal marketers, more and more of our lawyers are using these sites to connect with clients, prospective clients and colleagues in their marketing and business development efforts. But with this technology comes the inevitable questions on what to watch, what to not, ethics, ROI, firm policies and procedures, and more.

• Location: Foley Hoag LLP, 155 Seaport Boulevard, 13th Floor, Boston, MA
• Date: 4/17/2008
• Time: 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
• Fee: $45 members/$60 non-members
• Program sponsor: Media Networks, Inc.

Click here to register.

Hope to see many of you there. I also understand that for LMA members in the Hartford area, Jeff is going to see of he can arrange for the same program via the net at a date to be determined.

Today, the Vancouver-based SEO specialist is back, talking about Canadian law blogs. Bell Canada's Dominic Jaar offered us a bit of insight on the state of the Canadian legal blogosphere when we spoke to him recently...but for today's interview, that issue was the focal point. Steve's insights on where it is and where he sees it going in the future, after the jump.

1. Rob La Gatta: Is it safe to say that Canadian lawyers are not embracing the legal blogosphere as quickly as their American counterparts? Why or why not?

Steve Matthews: Actually, the Canadian legal blogosphere is right on par. The current number of lawyer blogs in the U.S. is around 2000, and the Canadian legal market is 1/20th in terms of size. My running list of Canadian law blogs on LawBlogs.ca is sitting at 116 as of April 1st, 2008. So there's really not much difference in the adoption rate.

2. Rob La Gatta: Do you have any idea at what rate Canadian legal blogs are popping up (i.e. # per month)? Do you expect the number to have a greater increase in 2008 than it did in 2007?

Steve Matthews: Because we're smaller in number, it's tough to estimate. I almost always add 1 or 2 each month, and sometimes as many as 3 or 4. I hope there will be an increase in 2008, but again it's difficult to say.

3. Rob La Gatta: Dominic Jaar has said Canada is about 3-5 years behind the U.S. when it comes to adopting new technologies. Do you believe this to be the case? If so, do you expect this rule to apply to blogging?

Steve Matthews: I would say 2-3 years. There's a definite gap, but it always depends on the firm in question and the technology. Many of the big firms, and especially the national firms, are very close to what's going on in the U.S.

Having just come from Clark Wilson in Vancouver, my perspective may also be distorted on the positive side. The firm was always progressive - combing through the ILTA conference each year, implementing new technologies, and investing on a regular basis. As an example, we were blogging internally - everyone from the mail room to the Managing Partner - several years before the concept was even mentioned in U.S. publications. Not that U.S. firms weren't doing the same, but we're Canadians... sometimes we're just (too) quiet about our innovation.

On the blogging front, I would say the lag is with our larger firms. Blogging gets some support, but it's often done under the radar, and there are few firm sponsored initiatives. I would also describe this as the demographic that is about to break through. I suspect it will only take a couple of early adopters, and the land grab will be on.

4. Rob La Gatta: As you alluded to earlier, LawBlogs.ca is living list of Canadian law blogs on the web. Does that page get a lot of traffic? When reviewing this data, is there anything that is particularly surprising to you?

Steve Matthews: The site gets several thousand visitors per month, mostly from law firms. The numbers aren't huge, but the fact that firms are checking out the competition makes me suspect at least a few of them are kicking the tires.

I'd also say that creating this list, and then moving it to its own website, was probably one of the smartest things I've done. Not only does it force me to watch for new Canadian blogs, but it also gives me a chance to get to know a lot of Canadian law bloggers. I'm a big believer in community, but communities need infrastructure. This is just my contribution.

5. Rob La Gatta: What are some of the most noticeable differences between how Canadian and American lawyers who are blogging approach it? Do you see any noteworthy patterns?

Steve Matthews: One aspect Canadian law bloggers do very well is the social side of blogging. We actively read and link to each other's blogs. There are many  great conversations, debates, and generally a strong web-community being developed.

It could be the fact that we're smaller, but I also give a lot of credit to Slaw.ca, our Canadian legal blogging co-op. Simon Fodden has done a great job of expanding both the range of participants and the topics we're discussing. There's also a core group of us that work hard at welcoming & acknowledging new Canadian legal blogs. I think that's important.

Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:

• John Sirman, manager of TexasBar.com and technology editor for the Texas Bar Journal [3.10.08]
• Robert Scoble, video blogger for Fast Company.TV and author of the technology blog Scobleizer [3.8.08]
• John Bolch, UK-based family lawyer and author of the blog Family Lore [4.1.08]
• Stuart Buck, attorney with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel PLLC and author of the blog The Buck Stops Here [3.27.08]
• Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and author of the blog The Common Scold [3.26.08]

We'll cover, among other things:

• What are professional marketing blogs?
• Advantages of blogs for law firms.
• Challenges of blogs.
• Alternatives for setting up and running a blog.
• How much time it takes?
• Legal liability and ethics issues.
• Getting firm management buy in for blogs.
• Which law firms are using marketing blogs.
• Your questions.

Please click here to register.

Not to worry if you can't make it. We'll record the webinar and make it freely available with the accompanying screen shots and online demo's.

This will be the first of many free webinars on blogging and social networking for law firm marketing that I'll be doing. There's so many questions and so much confusion on the subject. My hope is to provide helpful information so good lawyers and legal marketing professionals can make informed decisions as to which way to go on innovative online marketing.

Edited by David Lat and published by the team at Breaking Media, AboveTheLaw has got to be the most well trafficked law blog by far and away. I wouldn't be surprised if it were the most widely read news site of any legal publication. The site provides news and gossip about our profession’s most colorful personalities and powerful institutions, as well as original commentary on breaking legal developments.

David apologized earlier today at Twitter for some tech issues on the relaunch, but the site appears to be functioning fine now. I am sure there will be more to come.

Maybe after things calm down, we can get an interview with David as to where he sees things going with the upgrade.

Our guest? Robert Scoble, well-known technology guru and co-author (with Shel Israel, who we interviewed back in January) of the book Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the way Businesses Talk with Customers. Robert, who writes the blog Scobleizer, currently works his "real job" with the tech magazine Fast Company, serving as managing director for their companion site Fast Company.TV.

Though a busy man, Robert recently took the time to answer an e-mail interview on blogs, lawyers and how he sees the two interacting. Check it out after the jump.

1. Rob La Gatta: In today's market, do you think there is any potential for vertical communities built around lawyer blogs and the content they're producing? Why or why not?

Robert Scoble: Absolutely, and not just for lawyers either. Why? Well, let's say I am looking for a lawyer. How would I find one?

1. Play "Yellow Pages roulette" and pick one of the ads in the Yellow Pages.
2. Ask my friends.
3. Go to Google and search for one.

Most of your smartest, richest, most educated people will use Google. So, how do you get found in Google? Well, if you understand how Google works, it rewards companies and people who:

1. Pour a lot of content into the site.
2. Get a lot of links from other places, especially ones with influential inbound links themselves.

What's the best way to get both of these done? A blog, of course. So, if you're a lawyer and you want to be found on Google, it makes total sense to regularly update a blog and teach people about your field.

2. Rob La Gatta: If a company was interested in using video as a marketing tool, how would you suggest they go about doing so in a way that had some value? Any major do's or don'ts?

Robert Scoble: One show I'd watch for some insight into how to use video to build an offline business is Wine Library TV. That's done by Gary Vaynerchuk, who owns a wine store in New Jersey that sells $50 million of wine every year. He is already seeing a big impact on his business from his video blog, which now is getting 60,000 viewers per episode. He told me a story of how people now drive thousands of miles to see his store and take pictures with him.

3. Rob La Gatta: Why do you think many companies outside of the tech world haven't started blogs to engage in conversation with the general public?

Robert Scoble: Many businesspeople don't hang out online everyday and don't see the waves of people who are now using Google instead of traditional media to find businesses.

3a. Rob La Gatta: Do you expect that this will ultimately be a necessity for companies looking to succeed?

Robert Scoble: Absolutely. It already is incredibly stupid if you are in business and you haven't spent a lot of time figuring out how to get found in search engines.

4. Rob La Gatta: What about for the law: does the premise of Naked Conversations also apply to lawyers? Why or why not?

Robert Scoble: Absolutely. It applies to all businesses...at least businesses that need to grow by having new customers find them.

If you don't care about finding new customers, or if you think that ads in newspapers, on TV, or in the Yellow Pages are going to serve you well, then maybe. I think that's an incredibly stupid way to look at business, though. Most of the smartest, richest, most educated people are online and will only look for you online. They'll go to your competition if you don't have a way to be found (which, to me, is a blog).

5. Rob La Gatta: What do you see as the single most personally rewarding aspect of blogging?

Building relationships with great people in the world. Without blogs I'd never have met Kevin or Rob, for instance, who put together this blog.

Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:

• John Bolch, UK-based family lawyer and author of the blog Family Lore [4.1.08]
• Stuart Buck, attorney with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel PLLC and author of the blog The Buck Stops Here [3.27.08]
• Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and author of the blog The Common Scold [3.26.08]
• Mary Flood, reporter for the Houston Chronicle and author of the blog Legal Trade [3.24.08]
• Hugh Hewitt, executive editor of TownHall.com and author of the blog at HughHewitt.com [3.18.08]

One that won't make me sick
Or make me feel three feet thick

One that won't hurt my head
Or make my eyes too red

One that won't make me nervous
Wondering what to do

One that won't go away
One that won't keep me up all night
One that won't make me sleep all day

One that does what it should
One that wont make me feel too bad
One that wont make me feel too good

One with no doubt
One that won't make me talk too much

Read the New York Times front page story that bloggers are developing health disorders from working too much. Followed with Doc Searls lamenting blogging's not what it was and wanting something new for which the making of money is lower priority.

Made me think of the Huey Lewis' song. Some of the lyrics applied well to blogging - don't you think?

Anyone up for an 'impromptu' blogging lawyers meetup Wednesday evening April 16? We could meet for beers after work or maybe dinner somewhere convenient for anyone.

Just an idea at this point. But one of the joys of blogging is getting to meet all you guys - first online and then, when possible, in person.

After our first English guest Nick Holmes called John the "leading UK family law blogger," we decided to track him down for an interview. The end result - in which John offers insights on the state of the English blogosphere, how it differs from its American counterpart, and where he sees the whole thing going - is available after the jump.

1. Rob La Gatta: Do you think it's safe to say that attorneys in the UK are taking longer to enter the blogosphere than Americans? Why or why not?

John Bolch: This is probably true, although obviously there are far fewer attorneys in the UK - I don't know what the proportion of law blogs to attorneys is in each country.

What is the reason for this? Well, it does seem that lawyers over here are generally less computer-literate than their American counterparts. They also seem to be far more resistant to change, and perhaps even suspicious of new technologies...especially an interactive technology such as blogging, over which they may fear they do not have complete control.

2. Rob La Gatta: Your blog features posts dating back to early 2006. What made you start blogging at a time when many UK lawyers were not?

John Bolch: I have long been interested in computing - I purchased my first computer way back in 1983, long before most law firms over here possessed one. I was therefore aware of blogging almost from the start, and had been contemplating writing my own blog for some while. I was held back by concerns that I would not have anything interesting to say.

Then, in January 2006, I read an article about law blogs in the Law Society's Gazette and thought: why not? After all, I had more than 20 years' experience to call upon. Family Lore was up and running within a couple of days.

3. Rob La Gatta: Do you think the UK attorneys that have started blogging are seeing any business benefits from it? Are you?

John Bolch: I think this depends upon the type of blog. A number of UK law blogs are written anonymously (something I can't recall coming across in the US), and obviously they will see little or no direct benefit. Other blogs are clearly written as an advertisement for the skills and expertise of the blogger (some are an integral part of their firm's website) and I suspect that they are directly attracting some clients. Attracting business is not the primary purpose of my blog (if it were, I would be rather more circumspect with what I post!) and the number of clients it has brought me is small, although this does seem to be increasing.

4. Rob La Gatta: In America, different state bar associations have different regulations on blogging, some of which are far more restrictive than others. Are there any such laws in the UK governing what an attorney can or cannot say when blogging?

John Bolch: So far as I am aware, none of the UK professional bodies yet have any regulations specific to blogging, although I believe some larger firms have their own in-house rules.

5. Rob La Gatta: When and if the English legal blogosphere takes off, who do you think will drive it: large firms? Small firms? GCs? Solo practitioners?

John Bolch: If the English legal blogosphere does take off, my feeling is that it will be mostly driven by small to medium-sized firms, possibly as their only web presence, as the format is a cost-effective way to raise their profile - provided they are prepared to put the effort in to maintain the blog.

The other thing to say here is that we do of course have a split profession over here, and it may be that the personal nature of blogging is more attractive to barristers than solicitors - I think it’s already true that a higher proportion of barristers have embraced blogging.

Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:

• Stuart Buck, attorney with Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel PLLC and author of the blog The Buck Stops Here [3.27.08]
• Monica Bay, editor-in-chief of Law Technology News and author of the blog The Common Scold [3.26.08]
• Mary Flood, reporter for the Houston Chronicle and author of the blog Legal Trade [3.24.08]
• Hugh Hewitt, executive editor of TownHall.com and author of the blog at HughHewitt.com [3.18.08]
• TechShow Q & A: Brett Burney, principal at Burney Consultants and author of the blog ediscoveryinfo [3.12.08]