Making rain

I’m sitting in the back of my local coffee shop this morning. It’s a good place to work on the weekend. No one talks of matters that make up my time in the office or traveling. This morning though the next table is abuzz of SEO, analytics, and keywords related to a law practice. I do a nice job of working on my own stuff, but terms like slick analytic dashboards, charting, traffic, trend lines, no calls despite an increase in traffic, Google changes effecting everyone, and click to call. It’s an SEO and Internet marketing mosh pit. I recognized the lawyer’s face as he has a twitter account which followed me a couple months ago and retweets things I share. I reached out to ‘him’ on Twitter, and said ‘Hey, I know you from coaching your kid.’ I got the response, “No, I’m not him, I just tweet for him, great to connect with you, I’ll pass your message along.” No surprise I’ve heard nothing. Sitting here, I couldn’t help but think of the early scene in the John Grisham book, Rainmaker, where the young lawyer meets the hack lawyer in a small dark Memphis office (believe it is). The young lawyer, despite what he thought the law was about from law school is now going to learn that being a lawyer means scheming how to get the next personal injury case. It’s all a game. I know lawyers want cases. We need cases to do what we do (obtain justice), and earn the fees that allow us to support our families. But when did the practice of law get reduced to a numbers crunching game, a game with nebulous rules and a game being sold to unknowing lawyers by SEO schemers? (I am not painting all SEO professionals as schemers) Isn’t it possible the Internet could be used for the greater good, including lawyers and the people who need our help? Couldn’t the Internet be used by lawyers in a way to give lawyers a good name? Couldn’t the net be used by lawyers in a way that helps folks, builds trust, and enhances a lawyer’s reputation? I’ll accept the Rainmaker scene in a movie. It’s funny and pathetic all at the same time. Grisham’s written the most moving books I’ve ever read. But in real life, we all deserve better.