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

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start a blog?

Tad Lunger: I’ve been following a number of blogs for years. In my practice you have to be an information junkie to survive. Blogging is a great forum to exchange ideas and information, and blogging allows you to be more actively involved in these pursuits, rather than being passively involved as merely a reader of other blogs. Clearly, it also makes your ideas and thoughts more visible to a broader community of people and interests.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been the response to your blog, and from whom?

Tim Hughes: The reaction to the blog has been exciting. A great example is last weekend meeting a lawyer from a large international law firm. He heard my name and immediately said, “Ah, you are blogger, I follow your blog.” It is a wonderful direct confirmation that the inchoate buzz factor is starting to develop from our efforts.

The even better thing has been developing relationships with other voices in this space. I have really enjoyed sharing ideas, commentary and friendship with folks like Matthew DeVries of Best Practices Construction and Jay O’Keeffe of De Novo. I became friendly with Victoria Pynchon before I realized she was another Lex Blogger. I recently had a great lunch meeting with Scott Johnson and Angela Frank of Virginia Business Law Update. Shari Shapiro of the Green Building Law Blog is not only a great talent, but was very generous with helping me shape our firm’s efforts to craft and adopt its sustainability policy. Chris Cheatham of Green Building Law Update and I are friends and he helped us pick LexBlog and has been a huge source of advice. Last but definitely not least, Chris Hill of Construction Law Musings is not on the LexBlog network, but has been tremendously supportive of our blog and helping me getting established on Twitter.

The real story is about using the platform of a voice to develop relationships. I am speaking at the Green Legal Matters conference in New Orleans in April with Shari Shapiro and Chris Hill. Chris Cheatham was pivotal in the invite. All of this has developed in a few months which is a testament to the type of energized relationship building that is possible by actively blogging and cultivating relationships.

Lisa Kennelly: The construction law blogosphere seems to be a particularly active and engaged one. Why do you think this is?

Tad Lunger: I think our blog provides a forum for communication of ideas for an industry that everyone is always talking about but nobody ever hears from publicly. It provides a microphone for the individual architect, developer, or county attorney, etc. to say “Hey – this is how I am actually affected by this issue – has anyone ever thought of this before?” Most of my clients and the consultants I work with are extremely capable, passionate and opinionated people who don’t get enough opportunities to be heard.

Heidi Meinzer: There is no doubt that the market and the economy is turning everything on its head right now. We are very fortunate that Northern Virginia has not been hit as hard as other geographical regions and is still generating plenty of development and transactional work. However, even the areas that have been hard hit by the economy have been hot beds for litigation. In addition, due to political turns, tax issues – and particularly business tax issues – have come to the forefront.

Lisa Kennelly: How do you come up with blog post ideas, and how do you avoid "writer's block"?

Tim Hughes: One of the biggest benefits to blogging is the need to constantly find topics. This has forced me to scour information sources, articles, statutory and case updates, and blogs, demanding that I aggressively keep on top of the law daily. I use the “starring” function in my Google Reader to help sort through interesting blog topics. Finally, I use Evernote to clip web page topics for various categories and blog topics. It is rare that I really struggle searching for something to write about, and on those occasions I generally turn a large databank of previously published articles to talk about basic legal concepts that we may not have touched on previously.

Lisa Kennelly: What advice would you give to someone thinking about starting a blog?

Heidi Meinzer: Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Think through exactly what you can offer to the blogosphere and don’t overpromise or oversell yourself. Try not to be redundant with what is already floating around on the blogosphere, and really let your true area of expertise shine. Stay current, but don’t feel like posting solely to post – better to have fewer well written posts than lots of fluff.

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

• Patrick Lamb of In Search of Perfect Client Service [2.23.10]
• Brian Galbraith of Ontario Family Law Blog [2.19.10]
• Jay O'Keeffe of De Novo: A Virginia Appellate Law Blog [1.26,10]
• Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow of Technola [1.7.10]
  

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Briefly, describe your practice and the type of clients with which you work.

Patrick Lamb: Valorem’s is a business litigation practice, and our clients run the gamut of start-up entrepreneurial companies with bet-the-company problems to Fortune 500 companies with everyday business disputes.

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you first decide to start a blog?

Patrick Lamb: I decided to blog after hearing Kevin speak at an event Matt Homann hosted in April 2005 called LexThink here in Chicago. There were a number of bloggers who showed how easy it was to blog mechanically. I had been thinking about the client service topic for years and was happy to find an outlet for my ideas.

Lisa Kennelly: What has the response been like to your blog from other attorneys, clients, or anyone else?

Patrick Lamb: People like my candor and irreverence, and while they might not always agree with me, they tell me they find my views provocative. I love it when people tell me I made them think.

Some responses include:

• Called The man, the firm and the blog to watch in 2009 by the blog What About Paris?
• From Rob Millard's blog, Adventure of Strategy, Patrick Lamb comments on my 'Convergence' article
• From Gerry Riskin's Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices, Law Firm Leadership Eye Openers

[Recently], I received an email from Professor Ron Thisted, Chair of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago, discussing my post on wisdom.

Professor Thisted was kind enough to compliment my blog, saying: "I greatly enjoy your blog. I think of it as reflections on maximizing (net) value (to our clients, ourselves, our colleagues, and our world), which can pretty much apply to everybody, whether they think they are in a client-service business or not."

He then went on to refer me to his project on wisdom at the University of Chicago.

I find myself getting emails or comments from a wide range of people choosing to share their thoughts or asking for my views on client service, all of which start with a blog post.

Lisa Kennelly: What are your strategies for regular blogging? How do you combat writer's block or make time in your schedule to post to the blog?

Patrick Lamb: The only time I don’t blog is when I am in trial, which isn’t often enough these days. Otherwise, I try to use the early mornings, evenings or weekends. But if something just jumps my head while I’m working, I’ll frequently just take a few minutes right then and write a post. Because my blog is more about ideas rather than reporting events, I can’t be as predictable or regular as I would like. Inspiration is sporadic!

Lisa Kennelly: What has been most rewarding about blogging? What has been most challenging?

Patrick Lamb: Blogging makes me feel accountable for thinking through my ideas on client service, which makes my thinking crisper and better. Being part of the broader blogging community is a source of great inspiration, since so many people have so many interesting and thought-provoking things to say. So I learn way more from the blog world than I contribute to it. As far as challenges go, my greatest challenge was the technical stuff associated with blogging. All those worries ended when I signed up with LexBlog, so I don’t really see any challenges.

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

• Brian Galbraith of Ontario Family Law Blog [2.19.10]
• Jay O'Keeffe of De Novo: A Virginia Appellate Law Blog [1.26,10]
• Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow of Technola [1.7.10]
• Jerry Kalish of Retirement Plan Blog [1.5.10]

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Briefly, describe your practice area and your clientele.

Brian Galbraith: I practice family law in Barrie, Ontario. We do divorces, separations, custody and access disputes, property division, support, prenuptial agreements and other assorted issues related to separation. Our clients come from all walks of life and stages of life because divorce can come at any time. This is one of the interesting aspects of the practice: we meet seniors who have been married for 40 years who are going through a divorce and young people married only a few months facing a divorce. Rich, poor, healthy, sick, religious, not religious… divorce can enter anyone’s life at any time. We help everyone.

Lisa Kennelly: What is most rewarding about being a family lawyer? What is most challenging?

Brian Galbraith: I wrote a blog post about why I practice family law. I enjoy helping clients get through a very difficult stage in their life. We have a saying in our firm: “When one door closes, another one opens, but it is hell in the hallway!” Going through a divorce is being in the hallway. It is a time of uncertainty, changing identity and an emotional roller coaster. We help our clients by empowering them with information and support so they can make the best decisions for themselves and their family and we do it in the most cost effective way possible. We feel we are really helping them. Of course, we can’t help everyone, which is the biggest challenge. Some clients are so determined to achieve vengeance that we cannot pull them up from the gutter of their despair. In such cases, we feel helpless.

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start a blog?

Brian Galbraith: In the past, marketing of law firms was done by promoting your credentials. Now it is about providing the public with information and answers to their questions so they know, from having some indirect experience with you, that you are an expert and someone to be trusted. A blog is a perfect venue for this purpose. Having invited three new associates to join my firm in past three years, I wanted to increase the flow of clients to the firm. I saw the blog as the perfect forum.

Lisa Kennelly: How do you feel a blog can be of value to a family lawyer (or any lawyer)?

Brian Galbraith: Family law is often a hot issue in the media. I have blogged about hot topics such as “Why did Tiger Woods do it?” As a family law lawyer, I can give a particular perspective on the issue not often dealt with in other media. For example, during the H1N1 crisis, I wrote on the need to discuss decisions with your ex-spouse before proceeding, especially if you share joint custody. You don’t hear that voice in other media. It can be a challenge to find that “hot topic” each week but reading other blogs helps. Blogging raises my profile within the legal community, the media community and to potential clients.

Lisa Kennelly: Do you feel there is a distinct Canadian law blog community, and if so how is it different from U.S. law bloggers?

Brian Galbraith: There are very few Canadian blogs so there is a terrific opportunity for lawyers now. The Canadian public is very internet-savvy and so will embrace blogs if we start doing them. Of course, the Canadian blogs express the Canadian experience and perspective on legal issues so they are unique. We have a different legal system and different culture. Our blogs reflect our own unique identity.

Lisa Kennelly: What have you learned so far about blogging that was surprising or unexpected?

Brian Galbraith: The biggest surprise is that I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned to drill down within myself to really consider issues on a personal and deeper level. I share a lot about my own experience of divorce both personally and as a lawyer for over twenty years. I speak from the heart as a lawyer and man. I did not expect it to be such an emotionally cathartic experience for myself personally. I have enjoyed being able to share my experience, both practical and personal, through the blog. It’s hard work but worth the effort. The reception from others has been encouraging and supportive. I am enjoying the experience.

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

• Jay O'Keeffe of De Novo: A Virginia Appellate Law Blog [1.26,10]
• Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow of Technola [1.7.10]
• Jerry Kalish of Retirement Plan Blog [1.5.10]
• A.J. De Bartolomeo of Yaz on Trial [12.22.09]

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Briefly, describe your practice and the type of clients with whom you work.

Jay O'Keeffe: That’s easier said than done. I split my time between business and appellate litigation. At Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, our core client group is made up of closely held companies and medium-to-high net worth individuals. On the business litigation side, I help those folks out with commercial disputes. When I joke about my “day job” on the blog, that’s what I’m talking about.

The other half of my practice deals with appeals, and they come from almost anywhere. This is the work that I really love, and I am very, very lucky—the way our firm is set up, I’m like a kid in a candy store when it comes to appellate work.

Much of our appellate group’s work comes from in house, either defending or challenging trial court judgments. On those appeals, our clients reflect Gentry Locke’s overall client base. Our firm has a plaintiff’s practice that tries a high number of cases, so many of our appeals come from them. We also accept cases on appeal that were handled below by trial lawyers outside the firm. These cases cover a huge variety of subject areas. They are generally sent our way by very good trial lawyers in our referral network who work at smaller firms. The referring lawyers generally are not interested in handling their own appeals and/or don’t have the time or dedicated in-house capability to do so.

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start a blog?

Jay O'Keeffe: Our firm has been working with Cordell Parvin, a professional development coach. He suggested blogging to me. As Cordell explained it, blogging would help me build the visibility of my practice, while forcing me to keep up on appellate developments and giving me loads of writing practice. That all turned out to be true. What he didn’t mention—though I quickly learned—is that it’s also really a lot of fun.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been the reaction to your blog from lawyers, clients or anyone else?

Jay O'Keeffe: Overwhelmingly positive. Here are some of the highlights:

• The blog’s site design looks great. I get LexBlog gets a lot of compliments on the optics, and first impressions count.
• Because of the nature of appellate work, a lot of my “clients” and referral sources are other lawyers. Writing De Novo has put me in touch with lawyers across the state who I wouldn’t have met otherwise, and it allows me to keep in touch with classmates and colleagues from my old firm.
• Blogging also has put me in touch or solidified my relationships with “influencers” like Peter Vieth at Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly, and Steve Emmert, who maintains a website called Virginia Appellate News and Analysis. My potential clients and referral sources follow those sources closely. Blogging has let me join the conversation, but at my own speed.
• I am starting to get business from the blog—not exactly a deluge (yet), but I really did not expect to generate much of anything for at least another 6-12 months.
• Finally, blogging has taught me to use other social media more effectively. This has definitely helped my networking efforts. I’ve also become the social media guinea pig at our firm, and I’ve been trying to get more of my colleagues on board.

My biggest disappointment with blogging is only that I haven’t been able to convince more of my colleagues to get involved.

Lisa Kennelly: You mentioned meeting people you wouldn't otherwise have because of the blog - what kind of people, and do you have any anecdotes about that?

Jay O'Keeffe: This summer, I had a good result in construction appeal, Dunn Construction Co. v. Cloney. The blog put me in touch with construction lawyers, like Tim Hughes in Northern Virginia who runs the Virginia Real Estate, Land Use & Construction Law Blog and Chris Hill in Richmond who does Construction Law Musings. They’re great guys. I probably never would have met them without the blog. Now I read their blogs on RSS and follow them on Twitter, and they drop by De Novo and comment on my posts. Chris even gave me the opportunity to do a guest post on Musings. I can’t wait to get a chance to work with them.

Lisa Kennelly: You mentioned convincing some others at your team to get more involved in social media. What has been your "pitch" about social media, and what has been the response of those at your firm?

Jay O'Keeffe: My “pitch” definitely needs some work. I basically try to lure people into my office and show them what I am doing on the blog, iGoogle (including Google reader and Google Alerts), and Twitter, then suggest that they check it out. Social media provides a tremendously valuable and efficient information source; I check Google Reader and tweet about interesting stuff almost every morning.

On social media generally, our firm has been receptive but cautious—and understandably so. I’ve received wonderful support for De Novo, and the firm has provided in-house training on using LinkedIn. Institutionally, we are very sensitive to the potential ethical issues involved in social media. I think we have to be at the moment, given the absence of definitive guidance from the state bar.

Right now, the Roanoke market is at a stage where our most of clients (or their decision-makers) may not necessarily be using social media, but I’m pretty sure that their direct reports and other influencers are. 

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

• Matthew Burnett & Kate Bladow of Technola [1.7.10]
• Jerry Kalish of Retirement Plan Blog [1.5.10]
• A.J. De Bartolomeo of Yaz on Trial [12.22.09]
• Jim Walker of Cruise Law News [12.18.09]

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Describe how Technola came about and what your goals were in starting the blog.

MB & KB: Technola began primarily as a place for us to share resources and information about the effective use of technology in the nonprofit legal sector. Like private law firms, public interest law firms are interested in how technology can make their services more efficient and effective. There are also a lot of great examples of innovative technology being developed and implemented in the nonprofit legal sector that help to increase access to justice for those that can't afford a lawyer, such as LiveHelp, LawHelp Interactive, and The Findability Project. We’re both huge fans of collaboration and information sharing, and we were already trying to share this information in other ways, so creating a blog seemed like a good opportunity to put our heads together to create something that we thought would be of value to the public interest legal community.

Lisa Kennelly: How has the blog evolved over time? What one thing (or few things) have you learned through the experience of blogging?

MB & KB: We both read a lot of other blogs about legal and nonprofit technology and have tried out ideas presented by others. For example, we do a round up each month of our best posts, which we started after reading a post by Beth Kanter, a prominent nonprofit blogger, where she reviewed PostRank. This seems to be a natural way for blogs and bloggers to evolve -- learning more about what others have found successful and experimenting to see if the idea works for you, your blog, and your readers.

One unexpected way that Technola has evolved is our readership. A lot of our readers are legal aid and public interest advocates, but we also have solo and small firm attorneys who are reading Technola regularly, which makes sense given the similarities between under-resourced legal aid offices and struggling solo and small firm attorneys.  

Blogging has been a great source of continuing education for us. Frequently, the topics that we cover are applicable to our professional lives or help solve a problem we encounter at a later date. It's also a great excuse to learn something new. For example, this year we started a project on Twitter, @accesstojustice, which we use to share news and information on access to justice issues in the U.S. and abroad. It’s amazing that with very little effort we’re able connect with a community of over sixteen hundred people, mostly lawyers, who care about the plight of those who can’t afford legal representation. At the same time, we're able to blog about what we learn and help demonstrate the value of social networking to the public interest community. We've found that blogging opens the door to opportunities and relationships in ways that few other tools, technology-based or otherwise, can. It also cements existing relationships and builds credibility and trust, which are now more important than ever.  

Lisa Kennelly: You both have "real" jobs in addition - how do you make time for this blog, or does the blog dovetail easily with your regular work?

MB & KB: We both work at Pro Bono Net, a national nonprofit that partners with legal aid organizations, pro bono programs, courts, and others to increase access to justice through collaboration, volunteerism, and technology. Pro Bono Net has been incredibly supportive of our blog, although we do most of our blogging on personal time—at night and on the weekends. Fortunately, we enjoy our work, and we enjoy sharing what we do through blogging. Technola is a place for us to download things that we hear and do every day.

Blogging regularly is never easy, whether it is part of your job or not. Working together helps. In fact, at this point it’s hard to imagine either of us having done it alone. Advice that we often give to folks who are interested in starting a blog is to find others interested in the same issue to partner with. Blogging with others distributes the work and helps to ensure a diversity of topics, expertise, and perspectives.

Lisa Kennelly: What kind of feedback have you received as a result of the blog, and from whom?

MB & KB: We've received very positive feedback from both the access to justice community and the wider legal blogging community. Most frequently, this feedback comes in the form of suggestions for posts. Readers will send us questions, ideas for posts, or links that they think that our readers would be interested in. This is extremely valuable and helps us to understand what people are interested in reading about. To a lesser extent, readers also comment on posts. We love getting comments and always enjoy responding to them on the blog.

Lisa Kennelly: How do you feel a blog can particularly benefit a non-profit or public interest group? 

MB & KB: Blogs benefit nonprofits in many of the same ways that they benefit private attorneys and law firms. They are tools that people and organizations can use to build community and engage in conversation. As a blog develops, an individual or organization builds a presence in their community, and as more legal aid and pro bono organizations start blogging, the profile of access to justice issues will increase as well.

Several nonprofit legal services organizations are already blogging and successfully using their blogs to achieve these goals. For example:

• The Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law uses The Shriver Brief, also hosted by LexBlog, to educate lawyers and the public about issues affecting low-income communities.
• Making Justice Real, a blog from the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia, highlights local and national issues affecting local low-income communities as well as their organization's work on behalf of these communities.
• Legal Services of Northern California (LSNC), an organization that has been blogging since at least 2003, publishes the LSNC Advocate Feed, which covers information, tools, and issues of importance to LSNC and other legal aid advocates.

These are just three examples of how organizations have opted to use blogs. For a more complete list, see technola's blogroll.

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

• Jerry Kalish of Retirement Plan Blog [1.5.10]
• A.J. De Bartolomeo of Yaz on Trial [12.22.09]
• Jim Walker of Cruise Law News [12.18.09]
• Daniel Clement of New York Divorce Report [12.16.09]

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Briefly, describe your practice and the clientele you work with.

Jerry Kalish: We are one of the growing number of non-attorney LexBlog clients. National Benefit Services, which I founded in 1978, is in the business of designing and administering retirement plans for both profit and non-profit organizations. But that’s the functional description of what we do which can be said of any other firm that provides the same types of services. We “uncommoditize” ourselves in two ways.

1. Our Defining Statement: We work with business owners who want to put more money away for retirement and/or employers who want a state-of-the-art retirement plan for their employees
2. Our Vision Statement: We are an independent employee benefit consulting and administration firm based in Chicago, Illinois, that aims to have our clients justifiably enjoy the highest possible confidence that their employee benefit objectives will be met by:

a. Direct contact with one or more of the firm’s mature, experienced professionals;

b. Assistance with defining client needs and evaluating alternatives for meeting them;

c. Individualized employee benefit program or engagement development;

d. Skillful implementation of the chosen programs or engagement;

e. Continuing client education through reports, client conferences and other tools for evaluating results and revising objectives when necessary, and where the employer has discretion, for making informed decisions; and

f. Committed attention to all aspects of plan sponsor responsibility.

Lisa Kennelly: What do you find most rewarding about your work? What is most challenging?

Jerry Kalish: The most important aspect of our work is that we can help employers provide better opportunities for plan participants to meet their retirement income objectives. The most challenging is communicating complicated technical and tax rules and concepts in a manner that can be understood by employers and employees across all industries and socio-economic classes.

Lisa Kennelly: Your blog is practically ancient in Internet years (which is a good thing) - why did you first decide to start it, and how have you seen blogging changed since you first started?

Jerry Kalish: I started our blog in 2004 under the name of Benefit Plan Blog but quickly learned that the more specific name of Retirement Plan Blog got the message across better. We were one of the first non-attorney clients of LexBlog. Very simply, the purpose was to grow our business by using technology to reach our target audience: retirement plan sponsors, i.e., employers, and potential referral sources such as lawyers, accountants, investment and insurance consultants, advisors and brokers. In fact, the blog was the culmination of waiting for the technology to catch up with those objectives, e.g., to bypass using the mail for quarterly newsletters and the Bulletin Board System (BBS) we had in the 80s. For those youngsters out there, a BBS was the primary kind of online community through the 1980s and early 1990s, before the Internet and a graphical user interface (GUI) became prevalent.

Lisa Kennelly: What has the response been like to your blog, and from whom?

Jerry Kalish: The response has been gratifying not in the terms of ego-massage, but being able to reach the target audience in a very effective and efficient manner. And it has helped us grow our business. My objective – being realized on an increasing basis – was to grow our business – not by attracting clients – but by developing relationships with people I would never have had but for the blog. And it’s from relationships to which value can be added that professional services business grows.

Lisa Kennelly: Do you feel your blog has helped you to be viewed as an authority in your field?

Jerry Kalish: Absolutely, it has helped extend my status as a “thought leader” which has developed into writing for other venues, e.g., Slate’s BizBoxBlog, a special promotion by OPEN from American Express and Employee Benefit News, the leading publication in the benefit industry.

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

• A.J. De Bartolomeo of Yaz on Trial [12.22.09]
• Jim Walker of Cruise Law News [12.18.09]
• Daniel Clement of New York Divorce Report [12.16.09]
• Ellen Simon of Employee Rights Post [12.9.09]
  

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start a blog?

A.J. De Bartolomeo: Earlier this year we were contacted by a mother of 3-year old twins who had suffered a stroke and permanent brain damage after taking the birth control pill Yaz (which incidentally is the top-selling birth control pill sold in the U.S.). We began investigating her claims further and soon learned that she was not alone and that many women had suffered severe health side effects after taking the birth control pills Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella. The injuries ranged from strokes to blood clots to gallbladder disease and many other serious health problems. When we spoke to these women and their families they repeatedly questioned why they hadn't heard about these health risks and wanted to know what was going on with the lawsuits against the makers of Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella.

Based on those conversations, my co-counsel, Mike Danko and I decided to start our blog, Yaz on Trial. We felt that something was needed to get the word out to women and educate people about the health risks associated with these drugs and a blog seemed a great way to do that. We recognize that mass litigation, like the Yaz and Yasmin lawsuits, can be very complicated and difficult to understand, so we wanted to create an outlet for women and their families to get a clear understanding of how the litigation is playing out. One thing led to another and Yaz on Trial was born.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been most rewarding about blogging?

A.J. De Bartolomeo: The most rewarding thing about blogging is having the opportunity to connect to people through the blog itself. We speak to women every day who have questions about the litigation against the makers of Yaz and Yasmin, and we have found that typically when one person has a question, many others have the same question as well. The blog is a great way to help answer some of those questions and keep people informed about the litigation. A good example is our post about the Yasmin and Yaz Multi-District litigation. Several people had questions about what Multi-District Litigation was and found that post very helpful.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been the response from clients, members of your firm, bloggers, other lawyers, or anyone else?

A.J. De Bartolomeo: The response has been very positive so far. Clients have told us that they find it helpful to have a source for up-to-date information about what's happening with the litigation and an easy way to connect with us. Other lawyers have also contacted us through the blog and have found it helpful. Overall, our readers have touted it as a great resource, and we hope to continue to provide useful information and receive such a positive response.

Lisa Kennelly: How do you think blogs like Yaz on Trial can be beneficial to attorneys and clients involved in mass litigation, in general?

A.J. De Bartolomeo: Litigation, particularly mass litigation, can be a confusing and overwhelming process for people who are unfamiliar with it. With so many people involved in the litigation and so many different legal procedures at play, it can become quite a maze, and naturally people have questions. A blog, like Yaz on Trial, can help lend some clarity to this confusing legal process and answer common questions. Our focus at Yaz on Trial is on simplifying the mass litigation process, not only for individuals interested in our case, but for those involved in other mass actions as well. Our readers have responded well to this approach, and have told us that they find our posts focused on mass actions to be informative and helpful.

Lisa Kennelly: What other blogs or online resources do you find most valuable to your own blogging?

A.J. De Bartolomeo: One of our goals is to provide up-to-date information on the status of the Yaz lawsuits, so a favorite of our online resources is PACER. Short for “Public Access to Court Electronic Records,” PACER is an online service run by the Federal Court System that provides access to court dockets, documents filed in a lawsuit, and information on new cases filed. In addition to monitoring the case status, we always keep a close eye on breaking news concerning Yaz and Yasmin via RSS feeds, Google reader etc. I will also admit to occasionally using online medical dictionaries when I come across unfamiliar medical terms.

But really, the most valuable online resource for us at Yaz on Trial is the online Yaz forums authored by women throughout the country. These forums provide outlets for real women share their stories and personal experiences involving these birth control pills. We find these forums to be so informative, in fact, that we recently dedicated a blog post to them on Yaz on Trial. Hopefully, we will succeed in making Yaz on Trial as good a resource for them as they are to us.

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

• Jim Walker of Cruise Law News [12.18.09]
• Daniel Clement of New York Divorce Report [12.16.09]
• Ellen Simon of Employee Rights Post [12.9.09]
• Matthew DeVries of Best Practices Construction Law [12.3.09]

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start a blog?

Jim Walker: I became a blogger after becoming addicted to Twitter earlier this year. In February, I watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech. The gallery was filled with people twittering away on their Blackberries and iPhones, sending out their own spin on the President’s speech. CNN covered the story and added their own perspective via Twitter. A few days later I registered @CruiseLaw. In March, I started “tweeting.”

I became hooked. A dozen times a day, I tweeted my perspective about crimes on cruise ships, bad shipboard medical care, mysterious disappearances of passengers, and even attacks against cruise ships by pirates! Stuff so unbelievable that I couldn’t make it up. To my surprise, a large number of people in the cruise industry began following me – mostly cruise line manager types, travel agents, and PR people who disagree with anything negative I mentioned about cruising. In the process, a dialogue developed with people on the other-side-of-the-fence so to speak. I enjoyed it. I also found a lot of kindred spirits who share my concerns about the negative environmental impact of cruising – things like cruise ship wastewater discharges, and air emissions of cruise ships which burn bunker fuels. The carbon footprint of the cruise industry is incredible. A lot of “green travelers” like to read my tweets and I like to follow them too.

As you know, “tweeting” is just micro-blogging. My addiction grew beyond the 140 character limit of Twitter. I ran across Kevin’s blog and began following Kevin as well as LexBlog and LexMonitor on Twitter. And this led me to blogging. The LexBlog format fit my plans perfectly.

I wrote a blog post about the experience - Cruise Law Meets Twitter.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been most rewarding about blogging?

Jim Walker: I blog about breaking “cruise news.” I was the only one in the U.S. who reported on the armed robbery of 11 cruise passengers in the Bahamas in October. I explained the legal liability of cruise lines who sell shore excursions but don’t warn their guests about high crime rate in ports of call. Last month, an additional 18 cruise passengers were robbed at gunpoint in the Bahamas after the cruise lines failed to warn the passengers about the first attack. I found a YouTube video of one of the passengers who had just been robbed, and posted the video and photographs on my blog. I broke two stories before any newspaper knew what happened! Soon “Cruise Law News” was being cited in major newspapers as the source of news.

Experiences like this are exciting and rewarding. We warn the public of dangers that the cruise lines like to keep secret. I embed my perspective into the news I write about. I am not a journalist. I am an advocate. And I enjoy reporting on news events with my own unique perspective.

Lisa Kennelly: What has been most challenging?

Jim Walker: There is not enough time to blog, practice law and have a real life. I have a full trial practice with 100 injured clients at any time. I have a family, two growing boys and a spouse (who is also my law partner) plus four dogs. I started my blog a little over three months ago and I have written 100 articles. My articles are too long, too. I can’t help it – I come from a family of story tellers. I feel sometimes like I am making a closing argument and I can’t stop myself. I struggle getting to the point.

Lisa Kennelly: What has the response been to your blog from clients, other attorneys, or anyone else?

Jim Walker: It has been fantastic so far. My blog has 10 times the traffic of my website, CruiseLaw.com, which I started over ten years ago. My biggest disappointment is that few people post comments. I like people to voice their own views, particularly if they disagree with me.

Lisa Kennelly: You and your firm have had a web presence at CruiseLaw.com for an impressive 10 years now. How has the way you use the Internet changed since then.

Jim Walker: I actually created my first web site, called Walker-Law.com, in 1996. I was a defense lawyer. My site was very egocentric. I used my own name in the domain and advertised that I was great at defending cruise lines. But I found that passengers across the U.S. began e-mailing me asking me to sue one of the cruise lines here in Miami because they had been injured or raped. They found my site through the old search engines and didn’t care who I was or even that I defended cruise lines! In 1999, I switched sides and created CruiseLaw.com myself using a Windows FrontPage program. It is amateurish but effective. 100% of the cases we handle are against cruise lines and six of our clients have testified before Congress on cruise safety issues. I have not updated the CruiseLaw site for ten years (but have a much-needed new design coming out the first of next year).

Now every lawyer in Miami calls themselves a cruise line lawyer. Attorneys I have never heard of are are paying for click-throughs on Google. Most of my competitors are where I was ten years ago. Creating ego sites that say they are fantastic without providing any useful information to the consumer and without even attempting to establish a dialogue with the public. The Internet now requires an interactive exchange. So I am trying to use my blog to provide the most current and relevant information in my specialized field of law.

Lisa Kennelly: How do you use your website, your blog, and your Twitter account, both together or individually, to market yourself and your firm?

Jim Walker: My website is like an online resume. Not much real information is on it. Just a description of who we are and what we do. The real marketing now comes from my blog. I still mini-blog on Twitter. I link to the other people who are shaping the daily debate on cruise issues. When I finish my blog, I post a link on Twitter. There are usually a hundred people who will quickly read it to see what I am rambling about. I take a lot of photos of our clients and cruise ships that I sue and post them on my Flickr page. Whenever another cruise passenger goes overboard, people know where to find me.

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

• Daniel Clement of New York Divorce Report [12.16.09]
• Ellen Simon of Employee Rights Post [12.9.09]
• Matthew DeVries of Best Practices Construction Law [12.3.09]
• Dave Rein of Owners, Borrowers & Thieves 2.0 [12.1.09]
  

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.

Lisa Kennelly: Briefly, describe your practice and the type of clients you work with.

Daniel Clement: My practice is limited to Divorce and Family Law in New York and New Jersey. I represent parties going through the pains of divorce, fighting to protect their economic interests and to protect the interests of their children. Lately, I have been representing many parties contemplating marriage and negotiating pre-nuptial agreements.

My clients run the gamut from sophisticate business owners, doctors, lawyers, professional athletes and Wall Street executives to stay-at-home parents. Recently, and directly as a result of some posts I wrote, I have assisted some same-sex litigants' divorce.

Lisa Kennelly: What is most rewarding about being a family lawyer? What is most challenging?

Daniel Clement: Individuals going through divorce are, rightfully so, emotionally distraught. As part of the process, they may be displaced from their home, their economic future is less than certain and their relationships with their children may be at risk. I derive my greatest satisfaction in guiding these clients through the process – educating and advising of them of their rights, advocating and negotiating on their behalf to achieve a fair resolution.

Lisa Kennelly: Why did you decide to start a blog?

Daniel Clement: A large part of my practice involves “educating” my clients of their rights. I was looking for a way of keeping my clients up to date of new developments in the law and while simultaneously reaching out to prospective clients. Blogging allows me to accomplish both goals.

As part of my practice, I always had to keep up the case law and statutory changes. In the social settings, I was often asked my thoughts about the celebrity divorce of the day. It just seemed natural then to put my thoughts, comments, observations and criticisms in a blog.

In The Divorce Report, I comment on recent decisions and changes in the law. I will discuss current events, like same-sex marriage and celebrity divorce. In fact, I find that celebrity divorce often can be quite instructive on how family law really works.

Lisa Kennelly: Do you feel your blog has had an impact on how you are viewed as an authority in your field?

Daniel Clement: The overall feedback has been fantastic. Attorneys against whom I am litigating and whom I respect have complimented me and engaged me in conversation about my blog posts. In some case, litigants in the cases I have written about have emailed me, telling me some of the back-story of the cases. I have enjoyed the conversations in the blogosphere. And, of course, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that I have secured some good cases from readers of the my blog.

Lisa Kennelly: You integrate Facebook and Twitter into your online presence as well — what different benefits do each of these social media tools have?

Daniel Clement: I have a fan page on Facebook, Married in New York which allows me to engage in conversation with my “Fans”. In fact, most of the conversation on the Fan page is not law based. Instead, the goal of the fan page is to have a fun look at the good, bad and the ugly aspects of marriage, and married life in New York. My Twitter feed @danielclement picks up both the conversations on my blog and on my fan page.

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

• Ellen Simon of Employee Rights Post [12.16.09]
• Matthew DeVries of Best Practices Construction Law [12.3.09]
• Dave Rein of Owners, Borrowers & Thieves 2.0 [12.1.09]
• Joseph Rosenbaum of Legal Bytes [11.19.09]
  

Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.