Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Law Blogs, Blawgs, Law Firm Marketing

1. Rob La Gatta: Why are you at TechShow?

Aviva Cuyler: I’m at TechShow to let people know about JD Supra and what we’re doing, and also to connect with people I know who are in the ABA and who come to these events from other parts of the country.

2. Rob La Gatta: Can you provide a little information as to how JD Supra got off the ground, and what prompted the idea for it in the first place?

Aviva Cuyler: I had spent about 12 years working in business litigation, primarily doing writing. I was working on pre-trial motions for a case that was keeping me up late many nights in a row, and I realized that other lawyers had briefed [on these] issues already, and there was no need for me to be starting at square one with every brief…if I only could have access to my colleagues’ work. So I got the idea to create a resource where lawyers could share their work with each other, and have it open for everybody.

4. Rob La Gatta: You have a blog that goes along with the JD Supra website. Do you see blogs as being an important marketing tool? Would you have gone ahead without a blog, or do you think it’s necessary?

Aviva Cuyler: In this day and age, I think it was necessary. It’s really essential to have a place to further the mission of the website, to promote good work in the law – “great work in the law and the people behind it”, that's the tagline for the blog. We also wanted it to respond to questions and things that people are saying about the website.

5. Rob La Gatta: Where do you see this all going, with free legal information online? Do you think that eventually everything is going to be much more transparent for the general public, allowing them to feel more at ease with the law?

Aviva Cuyler: I do. And I think they will not only feel more at ease with the law, but have a much greater understanding about the daily work that lawyers do. Which I think in turn can help cut out some of the negative perceptions about lawyers.

1. Rob La Gatta: Why are you at TechShow?

Ed Poll: I am at TechShow because it is one of the leading technology shows in the country, if not the leading show. It’s a place where vendors put on exhibits of their wares, and I’m able as a result to stay abreast of what is new in the legal profession and the legal industry. In addition, I get to meet great people like Kevin, and renew my friendships.

2. Rob La Gatta: Is there anybody who you haven’t met before who you’re looking forward to meeting, or who you were looking forward to before you came and got a chance to talk to?

Ed Poll: I think the answer to that question probably is yes and yes.

I’ve met some people I didn’t meet before, and they were able to teach me something that I didn’t know. I’ve also made connections that I would not have made but for being here. And I’ve been able to renew relationships with folks that I knew but don’t see in between the sessions.

Also, I was able to meet with a couple editors of mine and moved my new book on law firm fees and compensation closer to completion. I am expecting to go to press in about 3 weeks. So that was pretty good.

3. Rob La Gatta: Beyond the benefit of picking up tips from the panels, do you see a strong networking potential as well at TechShow?

Ed Poll: Oh, there is networking. When you meet people – both people you know as well as new people you haven’t met before – there’s a tremendous opportunity to network and continue that after the show.

4. Rob La Gatta: And have you seen any panels so far at TechShow that you have enjoyed?

Ed Poll: Yeah, there were a couple of panels I’ve enjoyed; one of them was on technology in the new law practice, by Carolyn Elefant and David Masters. But I do most of my learning on the exhibit floor, rather than in the sessions.

5. Rob La Gatta: In terms of what you’re doing with LawBiz: how much is technology playing into it? Does it shape the way you run your business, and do you expect it to in the future?

Ed Poll: I can’t tell you quite what’s going to be going on in the future...I’m not that omniscient. But it clearly has impacted my business, in several ways. By staying alert to the technology, I’m able to help my clients become more efficient in what they do as well.

When I started in 1990, because of the computer I was able to do work on my own without a secretary; literally, I was able to be solo. Within a matter of months, I was able to grow enough to be able to bring somebody in. I thought part time...but between the time she accepted my offer and the time she began work, I found all kinds of new projects for her to do, so she came on full-time. 

I think that technology has enabled me to stay with an assistant without putting on a lot of extra people, and in effect to be a virtual consultant: when there was a need for me to expand into a team, I was able to do that. And then when the assignment was over, I was able to walk away while the other folks went their separate ways as well.

1. Rob La Gatta: What compelled you to attend TechShow? Would you be here if you weren’t presenting?

Laura Calloway: Oh, sure. I attended my first TechShow in 1998, when I was a brand new director of the Alabama State Bar’s Practice Management Assistance Program. This was when Windows 95 was just coming into fashion, and I did not know enough about law office technology to be able to advise our lawyers about it. So, I decided I’d better go somewhere and find out something about it.

This is my 11th consecutive TechShow. I've found that there is such a wealth of information here that it satisfies my needs to keep current with legal technology.

2. Rob La Gatta: Have you seen any panels so far that you’ve enjoyed?

Laura Calloway:  I didn’t speak yesterday, so I saw several that I enjoyed [then]. And we have a particularly interesting one going on right now: it’s called Electronic Data Discovery Jeopardy, where we’re actually having a Jeopardy game with all sorts of questions and answers about the latest cases and technology for electronic data discovery. That was quite well attended...there was a whole lot laughter, but also a lot of learning going on at the same time.

3. Rob La Gatta: What have you been speaking and presenting on?

Laura Calloway: This morning, Catherine Sanders Reach, Bob Moss and I talked about the pros and cons of using an online backup system for your small law firm's files and data. Then, after lunch, Dan Pinnington and I will be talking about using spreadsheets in the law office.

4. Rob La Gatta: I see some state bars have established advertising rules that encompass blogs and what can be done with them. Has Alabama given specific instructions as to what can be done with blogs as an advertising tool?

Laura Calloway: I don’t think we have addressed blogs specifically, but we do have rules that differentiate what is advertising and what is not advertising. [Those] rules would apply to anything that would be construed as advertising,whether it’s a print ad, a radio ad, a TV ad, an Internet presence...those types of things.

For example, if you have a website: there is a disclaimer required in all advertising, and that disclaimer must be on every page of a website. Consequently, I would think that if you had a blog, you would need to put the disclaimer on it (a disclaimer that you’re not making a representation that the legal advice you offered is better than the legal advice offered by any other lawyer in the state of Alabama).

5. Rob La Gatta: How do you see technology playing into how the law is practiced in coming years? Do you have any predictions as to where it’s going to go?

Laura Calloway: Well, I wouldn’t make predictions on any specific technology. But I do see that technology is becoming so much a part of the fabric of our lives that a lawyer who is not interested in keeping up with technology is a lawyer who’s going to be left behind.

Thomas Friedman’s “The World is Flat” is beginning to apply to law firms as well as to manufacturing and other areas of business. People are looking on the Internet for the best lawyer at the best price. And if lawyers don’t develop a web presence and a way to let people know about their services, they’re going to be left behind.

1. Rob La Gatta: Why are you at TechShow? What prompted you to come?

David Cowen: I hit all of the major conferences during the year: Legal Tech, Legal Tech West, as well as ILSA and some of the smaller conferences. This is the first time I’ve come out to the ABA TechShow.

Primarily, I’m looking to hear the voice of the the small/mid-sized law firms throughout the United States. What are their challenges? What does the leadership look and sound like? Because my primary job is a talent scout and a headhunter. I’m constantly looking to see who the leaders are in the industry, so that when a client comes to me and says, “hey, we’re looking for a senior director or a senior partner or a senior manager, can you help us find one?”, I actually know who the best and the brightest are in the market. This is as much information gathering as it is talent scouting on who is up-and-coming in the market.

2. Rob La Gatta: For talent scouting, can blogs serve any purpose? Has their proliferation changed the way you do your job?

David Cowen: In this particular market (the small/mid-sized firms) I’m not finding a lot of savvy bloggers. But for me, it’s important...this is information that I want to blog about. I want to share my thoughts on what I’m seeing here.

Blogging for me is about sharing my thoughts on the market, whether it’s the space itself – the law firm space, the vendor space, the corporate space – or about careers in that space....careers within those silos, if you will. There are certainly people here from the corporate space and the vendor space, and I just came away from probably the best presentation I’ve seen in a long time.

2a: Rob La Gatta: What was it?

David Cowen: This was a presentation by a fellow by the name of Bryan Melchionda. He’s a client services manager at EED [Electronic Evidence Discovery, Inc.] in New York, and he gave a presentation on project management/process methodology, and how you really need to look at e-discovery and litigation support from a project management, process methodology standpoint.

He really had it nailed down: he talked about what you need to do to get through this process, and how a project manager really needs to sit in the middle of the law firm, the client and the vendor...and how that’s not really happening. I agree with him. I think that’s a level of sophistication that’s missing in the marketplace today.

3. Rob La Gatta: Overall, would you say that blogs have taken hold in the e-discovery realm?

David Cowen:I would say that in the e-discovery space, blogs are there...but people don’t have enough time to read them as they should.

People in the e-discovery space are doing 12,14,16 hour days. And even with RSS feeds and newsreaders and summaries, I don’t find a lot of people are really plugged into that. Now, some of the thought leaders are beginning to write and blog. Mark Reichenbach from MetaLINCS comes to mind, and of course there are others. But I don’t find a lot of non-vendors and non-lawyers reading and writing blogs.

In other words, the guys that are actually in the ED lit support space – managers, directors, analysts, supervisors, coordinators, specialists in lit support – I find on the listservs, very interested in “how do I solve this problem?” [But] I don’t find the majority of the market plugged into the blogosphere.

I think that needs to change, by the way; I think that if you want to continue to drive your career forward, if you want to continue to have career progression, you need to read more and more. You need to read about what’s going on. Not the technology read; the process read, the business read, the legal read. And I think that content comes from a number of the really terrific blogs out there.

4. Rob La Gatta: Aside from the knowledge potential, do you see there to be strong networking possibilities with blogs? If so, do you see that as being valuable?

David Cowen: I certainly see it being valuable; but I don’t think you have enough middle manager talent developed yet in the e-discovery space where they value it yet. Is there value? Yes. Does the space value it? Not yet, because it’s not mature enough.

Your technical guys are not going to blog and network that way. What do I see? I see them using LinkedIn a lot. They want the immediacy of a network, an immediate network that yields business contacts and business sales and commerce, not necessarily knowledge for knowledge sake. Knowledge for knowledge sake and knowledge for career sake is really more along the lines of a middle/upper level management question. And I don’t see the majority of the people that are in that analyst role doing it.

5. Rob La Gatta: Going back to TechShow; are there any panelists you’re looking forward to seeing or folks you’re looking forward to meeting?

David Cowen: I’ve got a list of people that I have not yet met that are on my radar screen.

• I’m looking forward to meeting Dennis Kennedy, he’s speaking tomorrow at 1:00...
  
• ...Browning Marean from DLA Piper, their e-discovery director...
• ...and I’d really like to meet David Cohen from K & L Gates. He’s their e-discovery chairman, and I’m very interested to know what K & L Gates is doing around e-discovery litigation support – from a process standpoint, from a staffing standpoint – and what his view is from the inside. He’s one of the few senior-level partners here at the show, and I’m very interested to hear his take on where he thinks things are going. K & L Gates is certainly a market leader; they’re one of the top 10 law firms in the country, and they’re building out an e-discovery litigation support capability. My clients (Sullivan & Cromwell, Davis Polk, Sherman & Sterling to name a few) have built this out as well. But I don’t know what K & L Gates has done, and I’m very interested to hear his thoughts.

1. Rob La Gatta: What are you doing at TechShow? Why did you decide to come?

Brian Ritchey: I came here, number one, to learn a little bit more about what’s going on with the industry and to sit in on some of the presentations. I’m also speaking on benchmarking and key performance metrics that affect profitability in law firms on Friday, and going over our 2007 Law Firm Economic Survey.

2. Rob La Gatta: What are your impressions of TechShow so far? Today is the first day of actual events, correct?

Brian Ritchey: Yes, and actually – in comparison to New York’s LegalTech – I’ve found that it’s just as busy; there are a lot of things going on. However, I’m noticing that the frenzied atmosphere that was going on with LegalTech is not nearly as bad here. It seems like it’s a lot easier to sit down and talk to people at TechShow.

3. Rob La Gatta: What prompted you to start blogging at MorePartnerIncome in the first place?

Brian Ritchey: Well actually, it wasn’t mine to start with: MorePartnerIncome was started by Tom Collins, who was the founder of Juris. He started [it] because he had been a part of the industry for over 30 years, and decided – as he was nearing retirement – to start sharing some of the information he’s learned over the years...to give that information to law firms to help them improve their performance, as well as to help them deal with issues such as staffing and profitability and things of that nature. I was just fortunate enough to be able to pick up on it and be able to carry it on after Tom had retired.

4. Rob La Gatta: You recently went from Regional Vice President at Juris to a member of the Practice Management Division at LexisNexis. How was that change, and what do you plan to do with the new position in the coming year?

Brian Ritchey: It was very lucky for me. When I was at [Juris], I was working more with products, doing some consulting work (but not nearly to the extent that I’d have liked to). The opportunity came once we were acquired by LexisNexis to spend more time working with other attorneys, and to do things that I believe allow me more leeway in [areas] that are of much more broad interest: being able to speak on profitability, being able to keep up with current trends and things of that nature. Before, I was very product-centric in the scope of what I was able to do.

As far as the future is concerned: we’re about to start the 2008 Law Firm Economic Survey. I believe we’re going to start it next week. And we’re broadening its scope. This year, we want to bring more attention to client development activities, as well as marketing and such, so that we can find out some of the things that law firms are doing to help them stay competitive in the marketplace, and to keep and retain their clients.

Our survey is focused on what we consider the five key performance drivers that affect law firm income, and those were developed by David Maister over 20 years ago. If you track these five metrics, we believe it’s going to affect partner income. And that’s the focus of the survey. But we also want to expand the reach of it to also look into regional pricing (and hopefully even at the state level, depending on how many respondents we get).

5. Rob La Gatta: With blogging taking off as it has, do you see it’s feasible that in the future, law bloggers will become the reporters, rendering legal publications and news magazines unnecessary?

Brian Ritchey: It’s funny that you mention that. I just talked to Kevin about the fact that I believe the evolution of blogging, at least in the context of those that are in the consulting aspect, [is going to make us] more like reporters. We’re scouring the Internet, looking at other people, writing about stuff. And then we’re reporting it to readers of our blog, where it has allowed law firms and other readers to not have to scour the Internet to get information.

Hopefully the standard news organizations will adapt as well, and find ways to be able to retain their readership. I do believe that the role of bloggers, as with other social networking sites, has a tremendous impact and add value to all professions…not just the law.

1. Rob La Gatta: When it comes to proving yourself knowledgeable on e-discovery issues, do you see the blog as being important for your consulting business?

Brett Burney: Yes, definitely.

Number one, it helps to convince clients that I am staying abreast of the current topics and the important events in the marketplace. I think that always helps clients to have a little more a comfort level with who they’re talking to. Because a lot of times I’m talking to attorneys, and as much as you want to have them believe that you know what you’re talking about, they like to see proof. To me, the blog helps that.

Number two, it forces me to keep on top of the important issues. I don’t get a chance to blog as often as I wanted to when I first started, but when I see something big or an important trend going on, it forces me to focus my thoughts about that trend and put it into a blog post that I can [use to] get my word out. It’s more like a soapbox, which is what I think a blog should be.

The important thing, though, is that I’m finding I have to walk a fine line between what I can post as an independent consultant, and making sure that I don’t cross the line. For example, I would never blog on a current matter that I’m working on. But even some of the general topics that I might be talking about could potentially weave their way back to the client. So I just have to be cognizant about that. It doesn’t necessarily color what I do, because I’m an independent consultant, but it’s something that you have to keep in mind.

2. Rob La Gatta: From your experience working with lawyers at a large firm, do you think that they are - as an industry - utilizing new technology as much as they should be?

Brett Burney: Short answer? No. I feel like attorneys can certainly be trained on “click here to do this, click there to do that.” And they can certainly grow into a comfort level with using something like Word or Outlook. But what I like to try to do, even in my own consulting practice, is help lawyers try to better understand how to use technology to become even more productive or more efficient.

In other words, how does it fit in their workflow? Technology is just a tool; I’m not the first one to say that (a lot of my peers and people that I look up to in the legal technology industry say the same thing). If an attorney is already bad at time management, just simply going out and buying Abacus isn’t going to immediately make them better at time management or interacting with their clients. They have to understand where the real problem comes from, and fix it at its root level...then the technology can help them devise a better and new workflow.

It’s not just always about buying the latest and greatest technology, or the shiniest new gadget...it’s about helping the attorney understand where that gadget can help make them more productive. Because otherwise you’re just wasting money.

3. Rob La Gatta: Your panel, "60 Tips in 60 Minutes": what is it? Why do you think it is one of TechShow’s best attended and highest rated panels each year?

Brett Burney: Well, there’s "60 Tips," which is at the end on Friday. And then the show to end the show is  "60 Sites in 60 Minutes," which is the last thing to happen on Saturday. Both of them are not to be missed.

I am very honored to be participating in "60 Tips." I think the greatest thing about [these panels] is that you hit upon products, services and websites that most people just don’t come across in their normal mode of business.

The other thing I like about [these panels] is what I see from attendees that like to be there: they don’t have to sit through a long, boring presentation. We get to the point immediately...we literally have a tip a minute. You can really walk away with several good nuggets of information, whereas at a regular presentation you might have written down two or three little pieces of information that you caught in between your daydreaming.

4. Rob La Gatta: Are there any panels or panelists that you are particularly looking forward to seeing, or that you would recommend to other attendees?

Brett Burney: Personally, I am very excited about the Mac Track. I’ve written a couple of articles for an ABA magazine and for Law.com on using Macs in the practice of law. Through that I’ve gotten involved in the Mac-using legal area, and there are several great attorneys out there. Ben Stevens, who writes The Mac Lawyer, is a great speaker and shares a lot of good information about how he uses the Mac in all aspects of his family law practice in South Carolina.

Last year, I did the Taste of TechShow dinners, which is something that was started by Adriana and the planning board. I headed up the dinner that was for Mac using attorneys, and it was an awesome experience. I’m thrilled to see that TechShow is recognizing that, "Okay, not everyone uses Windows." There’s a very small percentage of Mac users, but they are out there.

After the Mac Track, I’m more biased towards e-discovery stuff:

• I never miss a presentation by Craig Ball;
  
• Judge Herbert Dixon is on the planning board, and he is an excellent presenter…I was thrilled with him last year;
  
• Browning Marean, who’s from DLA Piper;
  
• and Judge John Facciola.

Then, [there are] two more panels I’m very excited about:

• David Ries and John Simek, doing law firm data breach. I’ve been talking to David for a while as he’s been getting ready for that panel;
  
• and Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell just wrote a new book on attorney collaboration. They’re launching [it] at TechShow and giving a presentation either late Friday or Saturday.

5. Rob La Gatta: Ultimately, what do you hope to come away from TechShow with?

Brett Burney: The best part for me is two-fold.

Number one, catching up with old friends in the industry (an industry that has been fantastic to me). And number two, interacting with attendees in a way that most other shows don’t allow you to do.

Obviously, where I’m coming from, I’m not going to hesitate to give my business card to somebody. But what I like about TechShow is that there’s always this kind of camaraderie, this sense of intermingling between the so-called experts and the attendees, who relish the opportunity to get more information or to learn more about the technology that they’re using. I just don’t get that any other conference that I go to.

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

• TechShow Q & A: Dominic Jaar, counsel at Bell Canada and author of the blog Wines and Information Management [3.11.08]
• TechShow Q & A: Toby Brown, e-discovery marketing manager at Fulbright & Jaworski [3.10.08]
• TechShow Q & A: Adriana Linares, president of LawTech Partners and author of the blog I Heart Tech [3.7.08]
• TechShow Q & A: Reid Trautz, legal consultant and author of Reid My Blog [3.6.08]
• TechShow Q & A: David Bilinsky of Thoughtful Legal Management [3.5.08]

1. Rob La Gatta: Why did you first start blogging?

Dominic Jaar: Funny story: I was in a conference on web 2.0, discussing some tools I was using internally (mainly collaborative tools). The organizer of the conference dared me to start blogging…and I just did it. It was kind of funny, because I had never blogged before. I had written a bunch of articles for magazines and given interviews, but I really enjoyed the feeling of [blogging] about a topic that’s right here, right now.

Many times, I post from my Blackberry on my way to the office in the subway, so I don’t even proofread...after the fact, sometimes people tell me, “What did you mean by that?” I'll realize, re-reading the post, that I was so much in my head that I totally forgot to give background on what I was writing.

I enjoy the format, and the interaction you get as well. When I was writing articles for magazines, rarely would I receive any comments from anyone, besides people that I knew who said, “I read your article, it was interesting.” Now people can react to the ideas you’re putting forward in your blog, so it’s a bit more interactive. But in Canada blogs are not too big, so I don’t have many comments on my own...I end up receiving more emails than getting comments. I think people are afraid, particularly lawyers, to speak their mind and give their opinion out in the open.

2. Rob La Gatta: So do you not think enough Canadian lawyers are blogging, then? Would you say their numbers aren’t on par with the percentage of American lawyers that are blogging?

Dominic Jaar: I think they’re not on par at all. My fingers – and, if there was an extra one that came out lately that I’m not aware of, perhaps my toes – would be enough to count them out.

[But] there is definitely a learning curve: normally in terms of adopting technologies, I’d say Canada is about three to five years behind the U.S. Right now, [blogging] is still a bit obscure...I think many law firms, and even solo practitioners, haven’t seen the marketing benefit of it.

3. Rob La Gatta: Do you expect, both in America and in Canada, more in-house counsels to start blogging in the near future?

Dominic Jaar: Quite frankly, I don’t. And I have to say that I’m not really blogging as an in-house counsel; I’m more blogging as an individual. So perhaps if there’s another individual who is interested in technologies and collaborative tools, they might start blogging...and if they happen to be in-house, that’s fine.

But I doubt anyone would do a professional blog as an in-house. There are too many ethical rules and issues you might run into, in terms of divulging certain type of information, etc. And I suspect the communication department in the company you’re working for would really be looking closely at everything you’re writing, [which] would affect the interest in just saying what you think.

I know, for example, Mike Dillon in the U.S. does [a blog]; but he works in a particular company where [blogging] is totally in their field (in fact, Sun is even encouraging and hosting their employees’ blogs). But I haven’t heard about many other companies that would do similar things. On the contrary: what I’ve seen is many corporations getting blogging policies that are really strict on what can and can’t be said, and I think it definitely affects the positive side of blogging when you’re censored in some sort of way.

4. Rob La Gatta: Switching the focus over to TechShow: I see that one of your panels is on collaboration within law firms. Can you give an example of how this type of collaboration is beneficial?

Dominic Jaar: At Bell Canada, we're working with many law firms, and I find that we are reinventing the wheel over and over again. The same documents are exchanged between parties many times, and I’m trying to force our outside counsel to post their documents on collaborative tools, instead of sending an e-mail with an attached document (and then having me review it and track change, ending up with multiple versions).

If we had collaborative tools, the outside counsel could just post the document and let me know it’s there, and we could either interact simultaneously or whenever we had time, and only have one version of it. 

5. Rob La Gatta: Personally, what do you hope to gain from attending the ABA TechShow?

Dominic Jaar: TechShow is sort of one big family, where you have a bunch of like-minded people, so it’s really the place to exchange information and learn. Even as a speaker, I realize that often people who are attending know some things that you don’t know, and by having a discussion we can all learn from the experience. It’s definitely a matter of meeting people that share the same interests and have a bunch of information that is beneficial to you.

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

• TechShow Q & A: Toby Brown, e-discovery marketing manager at Fulbright & Jaworski [3.10.08]
• TechShow Q & A: Adriana Linares, president of LawTech Partners and author of the blog I Heart Tech [3.7.08]
• TechShow Q & A: Reid Trautz, legal consultant and author of Reid My Blog [3.6.08]
• TechShow Q & A: David Bilinsky of Thoughtful Legal Management [3.5.08]
• Bruce MacEwen, legal consultant and author of the law blog Adam Smith, Esq. [3.3.08]