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

1. Rob La Gatta: As a former chairman of TechShow, how do you think it’s going this year?

Jim Calloway: Well, I’m pretty excited with a number of changes about TechShow.

I think I first came to TechShow in ’99, and have been to every TechShow from ’99 forward. This year they’ve tried to do several things to make it a more interesting experience for the attendees: having one sit-down, plated luncheon where they gave out the first Jim Keane award for e-lawyering was a nice touch. And then, of course, we’re just in a new venue...and the Hilton is certainly – in my view – more upscale than the Sheraton Towers was.

2. Rob La Gatta: I also saw they’re starting to incorporate things like a Twitter feed, a del.icio.us tag, etc. How are those working out so far?

Jim Calloway: I was talking to Tom very late last night, and [he said] there were only a dozen or so on the Twitter. I think the blog feed has been fairly well-utilized, and the nice thing about that is that it's going to be an archive for people’s contemporaneous comments, which others can go back weeks or months later to read.

The major difference between ABA TechShow and pretty much every other legal technology conference I’ve ever attended is that this is really more of an educational conference, where the vendors are invited to participate. And in other types of conferences – I don’t necessarily want to name any – you feel like the vendors are often driving the show, and there’s talk about, “Does a big enough sponsorship get you a place at the podium?” [But] this event is really put on by the American Bar Associations’ law practice management session as an educational enterprise.

3. Rob La Gatta: For your blog, what keeps you going and makes you want to come back each day to write?

Jim Calloway: A little tongue in cheek: I’d say if you’re the kind of person whose friends always complain about how frequent and long your e-mails are, then you may be a good candidate for blogging.

I think I’ve carved out a space that I’m comfortable with, that complements my job. I’m able to use my blog to share bite-sized bits of information with my members (because I’m employed by the Oklahoma Bar Association), but I’m also able to let the rest of the net-using lawyer public in on it at no additional cost or effort. So it’s a great adjunct to my job, and a great service for the public as well.

4. Rob La Gatta: Overall, do you see blogs as a viable marketing tool for practicing lawyers?

Jim Calloway: I definitely think that they are a marketing tool, and I know LexBlog has long been a proponent of lawyers using blogs as a marketing tool. But I think it requires a certain dedication, personality and mind-set, and so it’s not necessarily for everyone. The overcrowded, overworked lawyer who is having trouble maintaining all their personal and business items may have to take a look at themselves as to whether they really have time to support a blog.

Having made that slight disclaimer, I would say that blogs are an incredible tool, because of the relative inexpense and the ease of use...particularly if you can limit the blogs somewhat in your subject matter. You should either you take a very narrow subject of the law and you go national with it, to try to become the national authority in this very narrow area. I’ve also seen a lot of people that have set up things like the Kansas Family Law Blog or something like that, where they limit it both geographically and by topic.

The fact that the search engines still seem to love the blog content, the fact that somebody can easily update their blog in about the same amount of time it would take to draft an e-mail…these things make blogs a potential great marketing tool (for the right people).

5. Rob La Gatta: With technology and the law continuing to become intertwined, where do you see this all going in the future?

Jim Calloway: That’s a great question, because there are several aspects to it.

Number one, in terms of the practicing lawyer: what we do as lawyers is in a large part based on receiving, processing and communicating information. Many lawyers who thought technology just meant that you had a computer as a glorified word processor in the office are now understanding that there are lots of different aspects to the way it is changing legal practice.

I think we’re going to continue to see lawyers change the way they do business. I just attended a session at TechShow on online collaboration and collaboration tools, and I think we’re going to see more of that kind of architecture: clients and lawyers having internet shared presences, so that they are working together more cooperatively and  looking at things in a process, instead of the lawyer just presenting the client with an end product.

So I see that change, but I also see the way technology is changing our world: you go out on the street now and you see kids text messaging, you see how many gifts under the tree last Christmas were based on technology advances...as technology changes society, we’re going to see a whole lot more of interesting issues in everything from intellectual property to privacy rights. For those lawyers who want to be on the cutting edge in that area, we’re going to see a lot of interesting decisions where the old rules that made a lot of sense don’t quite make as much sense anymore.

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.