Legal blog on niche topic brings solo practitioner national attention
Received an email this morning from my friend Jon Alper, an Orlando sole practitioner who specializes in asset protection work. Jon wanted to let me know he was quoted in the The New York Times this morning as an expert on Florida asset protection law.
The Times reporter needed to talk to an expert about a story that Florida’s liberal exemption laws would not protect the $17 million Palm Beach home of the former chairman of WorldCom. The Times reporter found Jon’s Florida Asset Protection Blog and called him.
The result, Jon is quoted in length in 1,676,885 copies of this morning’s Times along side Sean Coffey, a partner at the Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossman (BLB&G) law firm in New York and the lead trial counsel in the shareholders’ suit against WorldCom.
The wild thing is that BLB&G ranks first among the top 50 plaintiffs law firms in securities claims settlements and in 2003 recovered nearly $1 billion for investors. I’ll bet they have a marketing and public relations department to match.
Jon is a solo practitioner. He has a part-time marketing and public relations person who practices law full-time – his name is Jon Alper. Jon tells me he laughs at other debtor-creditor lawyers in his area spending huge sums of money on advertising while he publishes helpful information on his blog so as to bring in a few new clients from around the country each week.
Jon, an excellent lawyer, attributes his exposure directly to his blog:
I have been practicing law for over 28 years and have never been quoted by any publication as an authority in my field. Today, less than one year after starting my blog on asset protection, I was quoted as an authority in the business section of the NY Times by a reported who called me from my blog. (last year I was contacted by NBC News for background on a dateline story). I’m sure this is not a unique experience…
Jon called me before I started LexBlog inquiring how these goofy things called blogs could bring in legal work. He asked if he should publish personal information about his daily goings on and his personal interests. He could not see who that sort of stuff he saw on other lawyer blogs could bring in any new clients.
I told him that sort of stuff would not showcase his legal expertise and grow his business. I advised publishing information that would help people looking for information on Florida’s asset protection laws.
Rather than publishing long articles, I said make note of the questions you get each week and post answers to the questions. In time I figured he’d have a heck of body of work on asset protection work to enhance his reputation as an expert.
Well Jon, you did it. You have literally written the book on Florida asset protection law. And it could not happen to a nicer guy. One of these days I’ll get done to Orlando to meet you in person for that cocktail at your place.