The email thanked Kevin for the time he took talking with them, and read in part, '...[Y]ou truly are an upstanding professional in a field where such traits are essential.' Full disclosure, the professional services firm decided to go in another direction than LexBlog in their communications strategy, but we made a friend and a business relationship, things that last a lifetime.

Yesterday Mark Meranda, President of Smart Marketing which provides marketing for law firms and financial professionals, explained his company's dilemna when finding itself in competitive selling situations with FindLaw, a company owned by the huge Thompson Reuters conglomerate (2007 revenues: 12.4 billion).

After hearing us tell [potential clients] how you build search engine ranking with a quality website and by adding significant content over time, potential clients will come back at us with: "FindLaw says they can get me to number one on Google in two weeks!"

Mark then goes to explain one of the reasons FindLaw was able to make such a claim, FindLaw was selling links from FindLaw's website to law firm websites.

Each link is a "vote" that your site is interesting and valuable. Buying or selling links, like buying or selling votes, is a big no-no. FindLaw is apparently offering to do exactly that, selling links to other law sites for $1,000 a month.

Mark wouldn't get involved in such a scheme of buying links or advise his clients to do so. It's wrong, gets you penalized by Google, and is considered unethical in the SEO industry. The reputation of Mark and his company, is their life blood. How could Mark expect someone in the legal profession to trust him if Mark was doing something that was wrong?

I can remember starting LexBlog out of my garage (literally) 5 years ago. I had faith law blogs would work for lawyers looking to enhance that reputation. But when you're getting one lead every 2 weeks and doing 7 blogs in the first year, you can feel like the farmer with a horse and plow doing one furrow at a time. Your faith in yourself and your service gets shaken every now and again.

Tim Stanley, the co-founder of FindLaw and who sold FindLaw to Thomson 7 years ago and who's now the CEO of Justia, told me to hang in there. Tim said we're different than the big boys like Thomson FindLaw and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. 'We care,' Tim said, 'That makes a big difference in the long run. Lawyers want to work with people who really care about the service being provided to them, and the lawyers themselves.'

Tim's the same as Mark. Same as a lot of companies whose leaders I have come to know. They do the best they can in helping lawyers and law firms, but are not going to step across the line and do something that's questionable.

In deciding what's stepping over the line, my guess is employees at good companies are guided by these types of questions:

• Have I considered and identified other options or alternatives?
• Is the action ethical?
• How will my decision affect others, including our customers, shareholders, employees and the community?
• How will my decision look to others?
• How would I feel if my decision were made public?
• Could the decision be honestly explained and defended?
• Would I be happy if my conduct were described on the front page of my hometown newspaper or online news source?

Want to know the irony here? Those questions were pulled from 'Thomson Reuter's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics.' (pdf) Yes, Thomson Reuters, the parent company of Findlaw, who pulled a rock by gaming Google and failing to disclose same to their lawyer customers.

'When you're faced with a decision or situation and you're not clear as to what action you should take, ask yourself the following questions,' the Thomson Reuters code says.

You can almost hear CEO of Thomson Reuters, Tom Glocer, saying that after reading his intro to the Code in which he says, 'As our reputation is critical to our success, Thomson Reuters will maintain the highest ethical standards in our relationships with customers, suppliers, each other and the communities in which we do business.'

I speak at a lot of conferences and am invited to do a lot of presentations on Internet legal marketing. As much as I have been impressed with Tom Glocer through his blog and his ideas on new media, it will be a long time before I could pull myself to use reputable business practices and Findlaw in the same sentence.

That's especially true with FindLaw ducking their selling links fiacso for over a week in the face of growing criticism from bloggers and lawyers across the net. Maybe that's because Findlaw knows their conduct cannot be 'honestly explained and defended.'

That's a shame when lawyers and law firms selecting a legal marketing strategic partner are looking for people who care and whom will act with integrity at moments of choice.

Related Posts:

• FindLaw gaming Google, and possibly scamming lawyer customers?
• FindLaw SEO misconduct : Suggested course of conduct
  

• Increases firm’s brand recognition in the right places with the desired audience: executives, thought leaders, journalists, etc. (70% of business executives and in-house counsel research lawyers online during the hiring process).    
• Results in new client acquisition (nearly 70% of people research online before selecting a service or product) and greater retention (higher affinity).
• Viral—leads to more referrals from other firms and influencers (blog posts regularly cited by amplifiers—bloggers and reporters).

• Enables firm to showcase law talent and specialized legal capabilities.
• Blog posts, resources and links are easily searchable by readers, in contrast to the intellectual capital buried deep within static websites.
• Regular posts and RSS feeds offer dynamic exposure helping clients and influencers appreciate the firm’s broad, deep knowledge and responsiveness by giving lawyers a prompt way to publish in response to legal developments.

• Blog platform is a superior delivery mechanism for sharing and extending reach of firm’s intellectual capital (legal alerts, email newsletters, etc.) when compared to a static website.
• Blogging professionally leaves positive impressions with clients and influencers that the firm is fresh and innovative.
• Ability to leverage the firm’s intellectual capital enhances information sharing among clients and staff in a timelier fashion increasing communication and satisfaction.

• The dynamic nature of blogs creates a solid Internet presence that enhances the firm’s brand recognition and reputation. Clients are seeing their content being syndicated to Forbes, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Harvard Business publications via RSS feeds.  
• Focused blogs enable firm to enter a new legal market quickly and monitor a legal niche more easily.
• Blog helps the firm maintain influence and status as thought leader (best of breed). 75% of journalists use blogs and RSS to locate experts and to obtain story ideas. Reporters monitor keywords and phrases from RSS aggregators such as Google Blog Search and Technorati.

• Effective blogging results in more clients and referrals over time.
• LexBlog’s turnkey blog solution is an insignificant marketing cost compared to the benefits returned.
• At a minimum, re-purposing email newsletters and legal alerts lowers costs and improves return on marketing dollars spent.

 “Although the revenue generated from my blog exceeds my investment in my blog, the most meaningful ROI may be that which is less readily measured. For example, the relationships with experts in my field, and the positive feedback from lawyers and clients around the country that were made possible through my blog, as well as the format allowing for an organized way to summarize cases and have them available via search terms, would make it worthwhile, for me, even if it did not generate any revenue.”

 “The cost of blogging is an insignificant marketing cost compared to the benefits we are realizing over time.”

 “I would ask what is the ROI for a law firm's website or for their distribution of client alerts? What’s the baseline? Is there ROI for conferences and speaking engagements? Client communications?  All of this requires attorney time.”

• 49% growth in larger law firm blogs in the last 6 months.
• 4 to 5 new law blogs launching each day.

Why? Conservatively:

• The busiest business people (potential large law clients) read blogs via RSS.
• 21% of senior executives read business-related blogs at least once a week.
• 96% of Fortune 1000 senior executives are familiar with blogs.
• 30% of executives have a thorough understanding of the term "blog" and its impact.
• Blogs are being cited by mass media daily (see WSJ, Business Week, Forbes, NYT, trade journals, etc.)
• 75% of reporters use blogs/RSS to locate experts (e.g. lawyers) for interviews, insight on stories and ideas. See Insurance Coverage Law Blog and Connecticut Employment Law Blog for two client examples.

Against this backdrop, consider:

• Large law firm competitors are blogging and developing an edge (full disclosure: some are LexBlog clients).
• Blogs take less time and expense than other forms of marketing but return more (LexBlog clients will confirm).
• Similarly situated firms do not have a problem maintaining a blog. (LexBlog clients will confirm).
• Dynamic blogs are better marketing tools than email newsletters/PDF articles buried in static websites.
• Blogs drive traffic to firm websites but websites don't necessarily drive traffic to blogs.

Large law firm websites talk about "innovation" and "...cutting-edge technologies to serve clients..." Philosophically, given this landscape, how can such a law firm afford not to make the time and commitment to blogging?

Kevin's addition to LexBlog last fall has been a great fit. He's got a large law background (including the mandatory judicial clerkship) followed by almost two decades of work in business development with emerging technology businesses. This allows LexBlog to be more empathetic and responsive to the needs and concerns of large law firms.

At the risk of this post becoming a LexBlog ad (which you'll find dam few of on here), if you're working in a large law firm and considering blogs, drop Kevin an email.

Good guy that's not going to try and sell you anything. For him, it's all about building long term relationships and making sure your law firm and LexBlog are a good fit for each other.

Kevin spends about 90% of his time educating and helping large law firm personnel navigate through the logistical, legal, and political obstacles associated with blogs in the large firm.

It's an honor to announce McKeown's joining LexBlog as its EVP of Client Development. Like me, he's also an attorney-though today, he's more businessman than lawyer.

After graduating law school, clerking for a judge, and working for a large law firm his curiosity with the world got the best of him. He ended up joining Mitsubishi International Corporation doing overseas business development. That led to lots of travel and other positions developing markets for emergent technologies. He's now going to use that 22-year career to help LexBlog grow. He says 'it's nice not having an office in the sky.'

Just missed getting Kevin to join me at Prairielaw.com when I first moved to Seattle. Was impressed with his combination of Pittsburgh blue collar work ethic and a drive to do the right thing by people. If he doesn't honestly believe he can help a business partner, in this case a client of LexBlog's, he's not going to do the deal.

Drop him an email, give him a call (206 388 3625), or connect with him at LinkedIn. He's looking forward to meeting all of you.