The Roots of LexBlog : Helping People By Empowering Caring Lawyers

Nearly thirty years into bridging publishing and technology to connect people with trusted legal information and caring lawyers, it’s important for LexBlog to reflect on where it all began.

By doing so, we stay grounded in our ‘why,’ driven by our mission, and ensure that those we serve understand the purpose behind what we do.

At LexBlog, our work is about more than providing a turnkey blog publishing solution—it’s about helping people. We do that by empowering caring lawyers to share their knowledge and expertise in ways that make the law more accessible and understandable for the public and businesses. 

Helping people has always been at the heart of what we do. The platform is the means, not the end.

LexBlog’s roots trace back to 1996, when I started my own law firm. I practiced as a trial lawyer in personal injury, workers’ compensation, medical malpractice, and plaintiff’s employment law. 

Recognizing the potential of the Internet to reach and help more people, I started answering legal questions on AOL’s message boards.

While LexisNexis was the lead advertiser and supporter of these boards, it was a small-town lawyer who became AOL’s legal community leader (me) and other caring lawyers who personally committed to making them work by engaging directly with the people who needed help.

My law office team archived the questions and answers that I answered, organizing them into a website, which evolved into a company named Prairielaw.com—a community where people and lawyers could come together to share knowledge and support. 

Prairielaw.com expanded beyond AOL into its own platform, hosting over 30 message boards and multiple listservs. Lawyers from across the country answered questions and engaged in discussions to help people.

My work answering questions not only helped people but also established trust. Many of the people who I helped online, sought out our representation or the name of a good lawyer in their area.

When Prairielaw.com was sold to LexisNexis, the foundation was set for what would come next. 

In 2004, I launched LexBlog to build on the same mission: connecting lawyers and the public, now through blogging.

Blogs offered a more dynamic, personal, and lasting way for lawyers to share their knowledge, build trust, and help people at scale. Business development took off for the blogging lawyer. 

Unlike social networks like AOL and lawyers.com (which later incorporated Prairielaw.com), lawyers retained full ownership of their blogs. These blogs were archived like books in a library—accessible to the public and businesses, forever.

Understanding this foundation—that our purpose is to help people by empowering caring lawyers—guides everything we do at LexBlog. 

Looking back on LexBlog’s roots, almost thirty years ago, you can see the importance of what we do in helping the public and businesses. It’s a reflection of the values that have guided us from the start.

With our focus on helping people, including publishing lawyers, we can move onward with clarity and purpose.