Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Law Blogs, Social Media, Twitter

Had I not chosen the road I have and was still practicing law and someone came to our law firm partner's meeting talking about social media and how our firm might use it for professional and business development I would have been one of the real skeptics.

Even though I see the power of blogging and other forms of social media for lawyers and law firms and want to be enthusiastic as all get out, I need to be empathetic with how many of you are feeling.

You're an excellent lawyer. You are role a model and mentor for young lawyers looking to do well by themselves and the legal profession. You have built your practice and book of business by improving your skills as a lawyer, doing high quality work, and delivering outstanding service to your clients.

Your best work and best clients have come through relationships and your word of mouth of reputation. Those are the core concepts of business development for lawyers and law firms. Why bother with social media?

Rather than looking at the Internet and social media as something new, just look at the Internet, of which social media plays an integral role, as an accelerator of relationships and your word of mouth reputation.

If there were a way to accelerate the growth of your law firm's business and revenue in a tasteful and eloquent manner, don't you as a law firm leader have the fiduciary and financial obligation to at least discuss it? Wouldn't the firm want to consider how it could empower its team members (partners and associates) to leverage this accelerator to grow business -- especially if some of your teammates wanted to do so?

Social media is nothing new. View it as a buzz word that's hot if you will. All we're talking about is relationships and word of mouth.

Lawyers nurture and build relationships by networking -- or engaging their target audience. That, and of course, doing high quality work, is how lawyers built a book of business 100 years ago as well as today.

'Social media' didn't change that anymore than the advent of the car and the telephone did in years past. Like those two, the Internet, including social media, accelerated word of mouth and relationships.

You as a law firm leader leave a very wide wake. Your behavior and speech impact your lawyers and other law firm personnel in a big way. You impact how clients, prospective clients, business associates, and recruits (new grads or lateral hires) feel about the firm.

• Do you make feel people empowered?
• Are people excited and proud to wear the uniform of your law firm?
• Are we open to new ideas?
• Do we recognize that we're all different in how we build our careers, some lawyers will do this, others that?
• Do we foster an environment of curiosity and learning?
• Are we competitive with other law firms?
• Are we conducting business itself, not just the law, in the way our innovative and growing clients are?

You might never personally use social media for professional and business development. If I were still practicing today, and not fell into what I do, I probably wouldn't. My focus was being a good trial lawyer.

When I practiced I had weekly meetings with my firm's associates to listen to their concerns, hear what they were excited about, and appreciate what was going on in their lives outside of the office. I felt I had an obligation to help them. I knew they were the future of our law firm.

I would hope that whatever caused me to have those weekly meetings would have meant I would have had an open mind on social media. I don't know if it would have.

I suggest you care about social media, if not yourself, for others and for how you, personally, and as a law firm, are perceived.

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The fact that creating and distributing content is getting cheaper -- "Look, Ma, no trucks, no printing presses!" -- has not been lost on major brands penned the The New York Times' David Carr this week in a piece entitled 'Publishing, Without Publishers.'

Luxury brands have always advertised in the likes of Vogue, Esquire and Architectural Digest and tried to impress their editors enough to get mentioned in the editorial pages, as well. But now companies like Richemont (owns Cartier, Piaget, Dunhill and Montblanc) are reaching out directly to consumers -- and cutting out the middlemen.

Steve Rubel, SVP of Digital for Edelman public relations, told Carr "Brands, especially those centered around lifestyle interests or luxury, are increasingly becoming media companies."

Reading Carr's piece I couldn't help but think of large law firms and the brands they've established.

Rather than advertise in mainstream magazines and trade publications, why not publish directly to in-house counsel, executives, and referring lawyers? Rather than have public relations and communications professionals pitching stories and lawyer's names to reporters and editors to gain editorial copy, why not publish directly to enhance the reputation of your law firm's lawyers and trusted and reliable authorities?

What brands might serve as at least food for thought for law firms?

• NET-A-PORTER.COM, owned by Richemont, is the world's premier online luxury fashion retailer. Rather a typical e-commerce website, it presents its products in the style of a fashion magazine which is viewed by over 2.5 million women each month.
• The Gilt Groupe, a bargain hunter's paradise for the luxury-minded, is adding editorial elements every day and watching visitors spend more and more time there.
• Best Buy has been watching its in-store sales shrink under pressure from the Web and has responded with On, a digital mag-a-log with editorial content and advertisements from other brands.
• One Kings Lane, an e-commerce company that sells designer home décor and furnishings, just acquired Helicopter, the hotshot design firm that helped start the well-crafted and much-missed Domino magazine, as well as doing work for mainstream publishers like The Wall Street Journal, Hachette, Time Inc. and Hearst.

I'm not suggesting that large law firms become a media company. But self publishing in ways that the Internet, especially mobile, enables, is a golden opportunity for law firms to leverage their existing brand.

Lawyers are the ones who get hired, not the law firm itself. But being part of a major law firm with a well known brand, enhances the lawyer's reputation and can make the lawyer more attractive.

It can be the same for publishing. Publishing with a major brand behind you (think Baker & McKenzie, DLA Piper, Jones Day, White & Case) is a leg up for lawyers and reporters who may be blogging or doing stories on a publication backed/branded by the law firm.

How might it be done?

• Blogs are a start. Some large law firms have north of 20 blogs already. The number of large law firms with 10, 15, 20, or more blogs is going to grow significantly.
• Law firm networks with a magazine like presence showcasing their lawyers who are blogging and micro-blogging. Micro-blogging via Twitter will serve as a legal information network of news and information being shared as well as a means for users to discover lawyers to follow.
• Magazine like sites dedicated to a niche or industry with both original reporting supported by the firm and feeds from blogs and Twitter. Look at Food Safety News published by Seattle's Marler Clark, the nation's foremost food poisoning law firm.
• Flipboard sections aggregating, under the law firm brand, specific blog, Twitter, Facebook, and Google Reeder feeds.

Law firms have a leg up over fashion ware or consumer electronic companies when it comes to publishing. As Adam Lavelle, the chief strategy office of iCrossing, the digital marketing agency owned by Hearst, told Carr, "....[B]rands that are authentic, not shameless or opportunistic, have a chance to create content that people will pay attention to."

With large law firms paying millions of dollars each on advertising, PR, and communications, it's only a matter of time until we see law firms creating their own online media outlets. Doing so will save money and leverage their brand.

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How many of you have connected with friends from college and high school through Facebook in the last year? What are the chances you would have connected with those same people through college or high school directories?

How excited would you be if a company putting your high school directory together contacted you to get your updated biographical information? Who's your spouse? Where do you live? How many kids? Pictures? What if they wanted you to buy a high school directory for $100?

We connect via social networks today. Whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or blogging. Past friendships or common interests bring us together and let us connect in a more inviting and meaningful way than a directory.

Networking by you as a lawyer that connects you with others is likely headed the same way. Whether it be social or common professional interests, networks will connect you with others -- including your target audience for client development.

Is Martindale-Hubbell headed up or down over the next few years? How about Chambers? Or Super Lawyers?

Sure, those organizations are crafting ideas to hang on to what they have. A 'Connected' community at Martindale. And awards, rankings, and publications at Chambers and Super Lawyers.

Those directories also benefit from a lack of understanding of the power of social networks by law firm leadership and in-house counsel. It's easier to sell legal directory services to professionals on both sides of the equation - law firms and corporate consumers of legal services - when they have yet to experience the power and value of social networks.

The investment community is betting on networks. TechCrunch picked up this morning on the opportunity that Union Square Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in Twitter, Zynga, Tumblr, Foursquare, and Disqus, sees in networks. Union Square is putting together a $200 Million fund for continued investment in networks.

From Fred Wilson, a partner with Union Square:

Since 2004, the opportunity to invest in networks has evolved. In 2004 the entire market capitalization of the social media sector was probably less than $100M. Today a single company in that sector is valued at over $50B. The amount of venture capital focused on the sector has exploded. Networks that did not exist in 2004 now consume a huge chunk of users’ time and attention, making the launch of new networks more challenging.

LexBlog is working with a client that is a large legal network, whose present Internet presence is dominated by a lawyer directory. Rather than re-investing in a directory as our client looks to upgrade its Internet presence, we have advised our client to invest in the future and lead with the power of an online social network.

Harness the power of aggregated blog feeds, Twitter feeds, LinkedIn groups, Facebook, and mobile applications. That's today for many. That's the future for everyone.

A directory for a network of lawyers -- and even arguably for a law firm's listings of lawyers on its website is the past.

This process of moving from directories of lawyers to networks seems inevitable as lawyers who understand the power of networks move into leadership positions with law firms and corporations and those in leadership positions today become more network savvy.

Am I wrong? What do you think?

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Almost 30% of senior management in American companies champion the use of social media. That per a report from SmartBrief Inc. and Summus Limited. (PDF Summary)

Does the senior management in your law firm champion the use of social media? From what I am seeing and hearing, probably not.

Social media as a client development tool ought to come naturally to senior management in law firms. Relationships and word of mouth reputations are at the heart of successful client development in law firms. Relationships begun and nurtured with networking with a targeted group of clients, prospective clients, referral sources, and their influencers.

The Internet has not changed this. The Internet, and the concept of social media it brought with it, is just another way to build and nurture relationships. Another way to conduct effective client development for law firms.

But why the disconnect? Why isn't law firm management in looking for cost effective client development strategies championing the use of social media?

Because they don't understand social media. It's as simple as that.

I don't point the finger solely at law firm management. The reason law firms leaders don't understand social media is many faceted.

• Law firm management itself. With discussion of social media all around them, few law firm leaders take it upon themselves to find out what social media is really all about. Though managing partners and executive committee members have sat in on meetings I have instigated and responded to my emails, I have yet to receive a personal email or phone call from a managing partner or executive committee member saying they would like to talk.
• Law firm marketing departments. Rarely does a legal marketing professional demand that law firm senior leadership learn what social media is and how social media may be harnessed by the firm. In that social media is more about networking and nurturing relationships (the stuff management understands) than marketing, as most firms see marketing, failing to demand senior management's leadership here is a big mistake.
• Social media pundits. The noise created by so called social media experts with suspect credentials drowns out the message of what social media is all about. Rather than good information and good conferences, social media is over-hyped and the information provided is much more granular than that needed or desired by senior management.
• Industry leadership. Whether bar associations, legal publishers, legal vendors selling Internet marketing solutions, or legal conference coordinators, the knowledge on social media for client development is sorely lacking. Look no further than the American Bar Association, state bar associations, Thomson-Reuters, and LexisNexis. Whether it be conflicting interests, lack of leadership, or ineptitude, this group's knowledge on social media is limited and they have largely chosen not to participate in social media in a meaningful way. Thus the information on social media shared by these groups is limited and often misguided.

What's the answer? Education.

I enjoy sitting down to discuss blogging and other social media strategy with chief marketing officers, managing partners, and executive committee members. In less than a half hour, they have a paradigm shift.

"No one told us that's what social media is all about. We thought it was about Internet marketing and garnering website traffic. We didn't understand that social media was about nurturing relationships and building new ones through strategic networking. Establishing a word of mouth reputation as a trusted advisor in that fashion makes a lot of sense."

Rather than acting as an impediment to social media at the law firm, real or perceived, senior management then encourages the use of social media for client development. Rather than incorrectly measuring the ROI of social media in web stats, senior management will be looking at the relationships enhanced and the word of mouth reputations being grown.

Are you in law firm senior management? Take the time to learn what social media is all about. Are you a legal marketing professional charged with social media at your law firm? Tactfully demand senior management's meaningful participation - smart senior management wants strong leadership from within.

Much to be gained here. It begins with education.

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123, or 62%, of the 2010 AmLaw 200 law firms are now blogging. This number is up from 39 firms, representing a 115% increase, since August 2007 when LexBlog released its first State of the AmLaw Blogosphere.

The number of blogs published by the AmLaw 200 law firms has grown nearly 420% in that same time frame, from 74 to 387.

In the seven months since LexBlog released its fifth State of the AmLaw 200 Blogosphere in March of 2010, the number of AmLaw 200 law firms blogging has grown 27%.

For large law firms looking to brand their law firm blogs, The LexBlog Network remains the network of choice, with 62% of the AmLaw 200 law firm branded blogs running on the The LexBlog Network and publishing platform.

Growth highlights:

• 62% of AmLaw 200 law firms have blogs.
• 27% growth in last 7 months in the number of AmLaw 200 law firms publishing blogs.
• 29% growth in last 7 months in total number of blogs being published by AmLaw 200 law firms (some firms have more than one blog).

And in the numbers:

• 123 of the 2010 AmLaw 200 firms are blogging.
• Those 123 firms are responsible for a total of 387 blogs.
• 317 of the 387 blogs are firm branded; the remaining 70 blogs are not branded. 'Firm branded' blogs are those where the firm's name and/or logo are prominently displayed, indicating that the blog is more a product of the firm than of the individual author writing it.
• Of the 317 firm branded blogs, 70 firms use one of the major publishing platforms: 45 firms use The LexBlog Network and platform; 7 firms use Typepad; 4 firms use Blogger; 16 firms use WordPress; and 1 firm uses Justia. Some firms use more than one publishing platform.
  

For your convenience, attached is a PDF copy of the report.

See a list of all the blogging AmLaw200 law firms, with links to their individual blogs, after the jump.

Continue Reading...

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Above The Law's Elie Mystal asked in a blog post this morning, 'Does Hiring Smart People Hurt Law Firms?'

Mystal picked up on an article in National Jurist by Bill Henderson, a professor at Indiana University's Maurer School of Law, who believes law firms blindly hiring lawyers from the best law schools may be hurting law firms. (article summarized in ABA Journal online)

Lawyers need to be personable, collaborative, entrepreneurial, service oriented, and interested in contributing to the collective welfare of the law firm. Being smart isn't really all it's cracked up to be when it comes to making money. Processing information quickly and logically is great fun, but it doesn't pay any bills. You need business skills to make it work in a professional legal environment.

Henderson cited a study by Marjorie Shultz and Shelton Zedeck of the University of California at Berkeley that for law students, undergraduate GPA was negatively correlated with practical judgment, ability to see the world through the eyes of others, and developing relationships.

A chief marketing officer for a large law firm confided in me this summer that he advised firm management that the firm ought to hire some law grads from second tier law schools. The reason being that such students were hungrier. They had to fight for what they had. They were less likely to have had things handed to them. And they often had a history of working jobs since high school.

Frustrated with lawyers who didn't want to work on client development, he wanted some real scrappers. I call them PHD's. Poor, hungry, and driven.

Client development revolves around relationships, being personable, and seeing the world through the eyes of the client. It also doesn't hurt to have an entrepreneurial bent and to be a bit of battler. Traits not limited to the smartest. Heck, I'm proof of that.

I've met some lawyers who are naturals at client development who did graduate from tier one law schools. But with large law firms adapting to a new world, even one where social media plays a role, hiring a few scrapers from non tier one law schools may be worth some thought.

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LexBlog is getting inquires from large law firms asking if it would be worthwhile to move their blogs from being independent sites onto their law firm website. The question appears to be driven by the desire for search engine performance.

The firm or someone advising the firm believes by moving independent blogs onto the firm's website, the search engine performance of the website would be improved. Based on how well large law firm blogs are performing on Google that sure seems terribly misguided.

Look at the search engine performance of a few large law firm blogs.

Chicago Attorney, Dave Donaghue, a partner with Holland & Knight, blogs on Northern District of Illinois IP Cases on his Chicago IP Litigation Blog. The blog holds two out of the first five results on Google for a search on - Chicago IP.

And the second result on a Google search for - Chicago IP lawyer - even beating lawyer directories such as lawyers.com and Avvo, which work hard to perform high for such a search.

Sheppard Mullin blogs on legal issues facing the fashion, apparel, and beauty industry on its Fashion and Apparel Law Blog. The blog ranks number two for a Google search on - fashion law.

Maryland Attorney, Brian Higgins, an associate with Blank Rome, blogs on IP issues at the Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog. The blog holds the first three search results for a Google search for - Maryland IP.

And the top five search results on Google search for - Maryland IP Lawyer.

Philadelphia Attorney Sean Wajert, a partner with Dechert, blogs on legal issues relating to mass tort and large scale product liability cases on his blog, Mass Tort Defense. The blog holds the top four results for a Google search on - mass tort defense.

As well as the top four results on a search for - mass defense lawyer.

It would be difficult or impossible for the respect law firm websites to achieve such Google rankings if you moved these blogs onto the firms' websites.

It's very possible that putting the blogs on the law firm websites would increase traffic on the law firms' websites. That's by very nature of having more content that could be retrieved on search.

But moving blogs onto law firm websites for better search results on Google seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

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Blogs published by lawyers on relevant topics are becoming increasingly more important in in-house counsel's research of lawyers and law firms for potential hire.

This per Corporate Counsel New Media Engagement Survey (pdf) conducted by strategic communications firm Greentarget, American Lawyer Media and legal consulting firm The Zeughauser Group.

In-house counsel ranked the following activities “most important” for helping them vet and research outside counsel for potential hire:

1. Recommendations from sources you trust - 73%
2. Articles and speeches the lawyer has authored - 38%
3. Bios on the firm’s Web site - 30%
4. Blogs published by lawyers - 27%
5. Rankings and directories -25%
6. Twitter feeds from lawyers - 22%
7. Endorsements and connections on LinkedIn - 18%
8. Quotes by lawyers in relevant media outlets -15%

Whether a lawyer publishes a blog is going to be increasingly more important for the vetting of lawyers by in-house counsel.

• 37 percent of counsel aged 30-39 already rated “blogs published by lawyers” as the second most important activity for helping them to research outside lawyers for potential hire, following “recommendations from sources they trust.”
• Half of in-house counsel agree or somewhat agree that in the future, high-profile blogs authored by firm lawyers will play an important role in influencing clients to hire that law firm.
• 63 percent of counsel aged 30-39 agree or somewhat agree that they envision a future in which a law firm's prominence through a high-profile blog will play an important role in influencing clients to hire that law firm.

With articles and speaking engagements ranking so high in influencing in-house counsel's hiring decisions blogs become all the more important. Ask any lawyer who publishes a good topic centric blog and they'll tell you that their speaking opportunities have increased dramatically with blogging. Blogging lawyers are also likely to tell you of their blog posts being re-published as articles and of increasing requests for them to write articles.

Many lawyers and law firms are still quick to dismiss blogs for business development. "Our corporate clients don't read them." It's going to be awfully hard to hold on to unfounded views of the past with blogs being of such increasing importance to in-house counsel's vetting of law firms for potential hire.

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96, or 48%, of the 2009 AmLaw 200 law firms are now blogging. This number is up from 39 firms, or a 149% increase, since August 2007 when LexBlog released its first State of the AmLaw Blogosphere. The number of blogs being published by these firms has grown nearly 300% in that same timeframe, from 74 to 297.

In the 7 months since LexBlog released its fourth State of the AmLaw Blogosphere in June of 2009, the number of AmLaw law firms blogging has grown 20%.

For large law firms looking to brand their law firm blogs, LexBlog remains the blog publishing platform of choice with 65% of the AmLaw law firm branded blogs running on the the LexBlog publishing platform.

Growth highlights:

• 48% of AmLaw 200 law firms have blogs.
• 20% growth in last 8 months in the number of AmLaw 200 law firms publishing blogs.
• 33% growth in last 8 months in total number of blogs being published by AmLaw 200 law firms (some firms have more than one blog).

And in the numbers:

• 95 of the 2009 AmLaw 200 firms were blogging.
• Those 95 firms were responsible for a total of 297 blogs.
• 245 of the 297 blogs were firm branded; the remaining 52 blogs were not branded. 'Firm branded' blogs are those where the firm's name and/or logo are prominently displayed, indicating that the blog is more a product of the firm than of the individual author writing it.
• Of the 245 firm branded blogs, 57 firms used one of the major publishing platforms: 37 firms were using LexBlog; 5 firms were using Typepad; 4 firms were using Blogger; 11 firms were using WordPress; and 1 firm was using Justia. Some firms used more than one publishing platform.
  

See a list of all the blogging AmLaw200 firms, with links to their individual blogs, after the jump.

Continue Reading...

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