Tim Titolo of the Brain & Spine Injury Law Blog [LexBlog Q & A]
Earlier this week, we got a chance to chat with Las Vegas-based brain & spine injury lawyer Tim Titolo, a LexBlog client who runs the Brain & Spine Injury Law Blog.
The result of that phone conversation is what you are about to read: our most recent LexBlog Q & A. During our discussion, Tim spoke of the value he sees in blogs, how he uses his blog at the conventions he attends, and more.
1. Rob La Gatta: Regarding your practice areas: what was it that first drew you to where the law and traumatic brain injury intersect?
Tim Titolo: Two things. One was that I just happened to get a case in the early ‘90s, and it was a brain injury case – a mild-to-moderate brain injury case. I worked it, and I worked it, and I worked it, and got a substantial verdict after a 6 week trial. That kind of said to me, “This is what you’re supposed to do, and if you keep doing it and you do it well, you’ll be successful at it.” So basically, brain injury found me.
The second reason was that [brain injury law] is something that is very specialized. And in the world as we know it, if you’re not going to specialize in something, you’re going to have more difficulties succeeding…that’s just a function of how the law profession – and life in general – has progressed in America.
2. Rob La Gatta: I notice you’ve authored posts mentioning the various conferences you’ve attended. Are people at these conferences, by and large, aware of your blog?
Tim Titolo: Well, I’ve only had my blog now for four or five months. But I will tell you that whenever I go to these conferences, I usually start it off with my blog page and then I switch it over to my web page, just to show [the audience] that I’m online and that they can contact me that way.
Are they coming to these conferences because of my blog? I wouldn’t say that they are…I think they’re coming because of who the sponsors are: the Brain Injury Association of America, the North American Brain Injury Society, those kind of groups.
3. Rob La Gatta: When you showcase your blog in these situations, do people show any interest that you’re bringing a new medium in to your practice?
Tim Titolo: I’ve been doing this now fairly regularly, and what I’m finding is, when people find out you have a blog, they’re more like, “Well that’s interesting, you must really spend a lot of time on the area that you’re covering in your blog.” So I think people are impressed that I have the blog.
I think its kind of like if you were a football player, and you had a Heisman Trophy: people would just assume things about how well you do at football because you have that trophy. That’s what I do with my blog.
4. Rob La Gatta: What is the most personally rewarding element of blogging? What keeps you going at it each day?
Tim Titolo: There a couple of things that I like about the blog.
Number 1, it lets my clients know and reinforces for them that this is what I do, and that my interests are very specific to the injuries they’re suffering from (99% of my clients have a brain injury).
The other thing is, I like to write and I like to express myself. If I’m in the right mood – in the morning, over a cup of coffee – I enjoy reviewing information that I get over various feeds, and being able to forward those on with my own comments. I also do a little thing called Brainy Reviews, because I read a lot of books: if I read a book, and it has to do with brain injury, I’ll throw it on the blog. I just like to be able to do that.
Third, when I go to a conference – and I don’t know how appropriate this is or isn’t – you always get a list of the attendees and the faculty, with their email information. What I’ll typically do is add them to my subscriptions…after I send out a new post, there will be 5 or 6 that come back saying that they don’t want to be on the list anymore, and I’ll remove them. But in the meantime, I feel like I’m growing the knowledge of my blog by including more people in my subscriptions list.
5. Rob La Gatta: You’ve been doing this for a while now. What have you learned about the art of blogging that you wish you’d known getting started?
Tim Titolo: Well, in my particular situation, I was very intimidated to the point of almost wanting to give up. I would do a couple of posts and Stacey Merrick [LexBlog’s director of client services] would write and give me constructive criticism. And I just felt like giving up, because it was so strenuous – I felt like was never going to be able to do this right.
The point is, I don’t think there is a “right” and “wrong” way to do a blog…you just do it. And then lo and behold, over the course of several weeks and months, if I’m talking to somebody, all of a sudden I’ll hear, “Thanks for sending me that stuff on your blog, that’s very interesting.” And I’m thinking, “Oh…I didn’t even realize that you were reading my blog.” But people come back and tell me that, and I appreciate it.
I would recommend for myself and for anyone else to get involved in some kind of a blog – whether its Kevin’s blog or something else – where new ideas are coming out as technology changes, and to not be afraid to do that (frankly I should do it more myself, I just haven’t). But I don’t want to just keep doing the same old postings all the time – I want to dress them up and make them better.
For instance, I got into the habit of posting a lot of pictures on my blog, and that looks a whole lot better than just text. But I’d like to do even more: okay, now there’s pictures, that’s good. But there’s probably more that I could do that I just haven’t done because I don’t have time to sit and figure it out. It’s got to be interesting for people that are looking at it.
Interested in hearing more? Recent LexBlog Q & A posts:
- Eugene Volokh [1.23.08]
- Dan Clement [1.22.08]
- Eric Goldman [1.17.08]
- Tom Kane [1.16.08]
- Shel Israel [1.15.08]
Or, see our full list of legal blog interviews.