What Blogs Can Do for Solo & Small Firm Lawyers

2. Overview

Here are the topics that we'll cover in today's presentation:

• What is a web log - or blog (you're looking at one!) and how is it different from a website?
  
• What are the great things that blogs can do for solos and small firm lawyers?
  
• What are some of the pros and cons to consider before starting a blog?
  
• If I decide to blog, how do I get started?
  

3. What's A Blog and What Makes It Different?

What's A Blog?
The term "blog" is short for "web log" which is defined as a website with frequently updated content, which may take the form of short articles, stream of conscious ramblings or minimal text, with referral links to news items or sites of interest. A blog that deals with law related topics is known as a blawg, a term coined by Denise Howell of the blawg Bag and Baggage (www.bgbg.blogspot.com).

What Makes a Blog Different from A Website?

1. Static vs. Fluid
   A website is a static medium, like a brochure or a book. A weblog is an organic, almost living body of work that is constantly replenished by the addition of new content.

   
   

2. Monologue vs. Dialogue
   A website is a monologue - an announcement or proclamation which neither solicits nor elicits feedback. By contrast, blogs have the potential to be interactive because most blog software allow users to post comments which can then be viewed immediately by readers. To that end, blogging has been described as a conversation.

   
   

3. Complex vs. Simple
   Irrespective of whether you're a guru on HTML (the computer language for web documents) or only seek to make a minor correction on your website, creating and updating a web log is far easier every single time. Creating a basic weblog with the more user-friendly software is no more difficult than registering for an e-commerce site and updating a blog is virtually the same as sending an email. In fact, the similarities between sending email and updating a blog likely explain the informal and often chatty tone characteristic of many blogs.
   

4. Why Do Blogs Have Marketing Potential?

These reasons for the potential offered by blogs are identified and discussed in Jerry Lawson's Ernie the Attorney article posted at LLRX and distributed today as a handout. They include:

Ease of Use and Low Cost
most of the software which can be used to run blogs is extremely easy to master (as demonstrated here by my use of typepad after just 30 minutes prep time). The software ranges in price from free to low cost (my blogger account is free, while typepad is $4.95/month and both services host the weblog.

Wide Audience Reached Through RSS and News Aggregators
Aggregators compile news headlines formatted in RSS, making it possible to just skim headlines from many, many blogs. Law related aggregators such as Daily Whirl and detod.com allow you to select those blogs you want to follow and will compile headlines for you.

Search Engine Visibility
Web logs can enhance visibility in search engines - see Jerry Lawson's Ernie the Attorney article for explanation.

5. A Baker's Dozen Great Things You Can Do With A Blog

Now that you know a little bit about blogs and their potential, let's talk about what really matters - what you can do with them and what they can do for you. I've divided the benefits of blogging into two separate categories - Professional Development and Marketing - and listed the specific benefits under each heading. We'll go through each one, and I'll give some real life examples of solos and small firms who have realized those benefits. And now, the list:

Professional Development Uses for Blogs

1. Inexpensive Knowlege Management Tools
   
2. CLE (keeping current on issues by blogging)
   
3. Source of Free and Plentiful Legal Research and Expertise
   
4. Tool for Improving Legal Writing and Analytical Skills
   
5. Combat Isolation of Solo and Small Firm Practice
   
6. A Potential Replacement for Powerpoint? (you be the judge)
   

Marketing Uses for Blogs

1. Offers An Inexpensive and Attractive Law Firm Website
   
2. Format for Responding to FAQ's or Provide Generic Advice to Prospective/Existing Clients
   
3. A Newsletter Alternative
   
4. Public Service to Other Attorneys and Consumers (also consistent with ethics obligations)
   
5. Establish Expertise and Credibility in A Given Field
   
6. Gain Exposure in Search Engines and Conventional Press
   
7. Star Power, Celebrity and Ego
   

6. Blogs As Knowledge Management Tools

Let's say you're surfing the Internet and come across a case or an article with information that may prove useful in your practice area at some future time. Sure, you could write down the URL on a yellow sticky or even mark it for entry in your overflowing and likely disorganized bookmark file. But will you recognize that URL in the future and remember why you jotted it down? And to complicate the hypothetical, what if you happened to mention that article to a colleague or co-worker who asks for the reference link. You could simply avoid following up, but that's no way to make an impression. So, now you've got to spend billable time foraging through your bookmark files or yellow sticky pile, find the article and email the link - do that several times a week and you're talking about some serious time loss.

"Knowledge management" is the fancy term for being able to organize and locate all of that information that you know you have...somewhere. Many large institutions such as biglaw firms and corporations spend millions of dollars on database systems for knowlege managements. But for solo and small firm lawyers, blogs offer the same concept for pennies. Laywers can simply set up a blog which allows for the creation of "categories" (typepad and moveabletype offer these features as well as the more complex slashcode) and the next time you come across a link you want to save for posterity, just enter it into your blog. Then, when that colleague calls about the article you mentioned, you can just zap him over to your web log in seconds.

For more resource on blogs as knowledge management tools see How I Learned to Love the Blog", Rick Klau, Law Tech News (11/07/02) and Jerry Lawson's www.netlawblog.com/categories/km, which is a fine example of how a blog is used for knowledge management of resources on...knowledge management.

7. Blogs As the New CLE

Staying Up to Date By Producing a Blog
For solo and small firm lawyers, writing a blog offers a great way to stay current with new practice developments. Janell Grenier, a solo practitioner who specializes in ERISA and benefits law and writes both the benefitsblog.com and erisablog.com says that because of her blogs, " I have found that when I have a meeting with a prospective client, I know all of the latest changes in the law." Stuart Levine, the Maryland attorney of "http://www.taxbiz.blogspot.com">taxbiz.blogspot.com uoted in the sidebar of Jerry Lawson's handout also recognizes the importance of blogs to keeping up to date on new developments.

Staying Up to Date By Tracking Blogs
Lawyers can also keep up to date on new blogs not just by writing them - but also by reading them. But with so many blogs out there, isn't it difficult adn time consuming to follow all those of interest? Not really, if you use aggregators like dailywhirl.com or detod.com, which are news aggregators that you can customize to allow you to capture headlines or snippets of news from blogs you want to follow.

Could Blogs Be the New CLE?
With so many jurisdictions (not Maryland...yet) implementing some kind of CLE requirements, perhaps the bars should also consider blogging as a way to satisfy CLE requirements. With some of the better blogs, there's far more substance than might ever be offered in a CLE course, plus the information is always updated and current. Sounds crazy - and it would put many of the CLE program-mills out of business - but as more lawyers start reading and writing blogs, it may be an idea worth considering.

8. Blogs As A Source for Research and Expertise

A Cornucopia of Information
Blogs offer a wealth of information on a range of law related subject areas. Used to be that much of this current information and expert commentary could only be found in pricy reporter services - but blogs have given attorneys a simple way to share what they know. Moreover, because blogs are free, there's an opportunity to dabble in areas completely outside your practice area. I often find myself following topics such as ERISA law , tech law or Daubert expert issues not because I practice in those fields regularly but because those blogs offer such expert coverage that they're a joy to track.

Finding Blogs That Are Right For You
There are so many law related blogs - with more emerging each day - that it's impossible to make any recommendations. The best place to find blogs by topic is www.blawg.org. You could also search a topic on Google in combination with the term "blog" to find blogs on topics of interest.

9. Blogs As A Way to Improve Legal Writing and Analytical Skills

Blogs Can Improve Legal Writing and Analysis
It's generally recommended that you have a love of and some talent for writing before starting a blog. Maybe so. But blogs also enable lawyers to develop and improve those skills because of the regularity involved in upkeeping the blog. Moreover, with pressure to report new events quickly to keep blogs current and attract readers, blogs also force lawyers to analyze and summarize the high points of judicial decisions with care and speed.

Is Informality So Bad?
Some have criticized the informality of blogs - as noted in this post at Ernie the Attorney's blog. So what? Informality, combined with a healthy dose of passion or wit - which is a characteristic of most blog-style writing - could help make legal briefs or memoranda more engaging and persuasive.

Catchy Headlines
Blogs also teach the art of the catch phrase - since a catchy headline will more likely draw attention in a news aggregator. The ability to write a catchy and compelling headings can pep up a dull appellate brief or make a letter to a client more readable.

10. Blogs As A Tool to Combat Isolation of Solo/Small Firm Practice

Blogging Breeds Community
Many solos, even those with "lone wolf" personalities, occasionally bemoan the absence of cameraderie and isolation of solo practice. Joining the blawg-o-sphere isn't a substitute for human contact, but it still offers a sense of community which alleviates some of the isolation of solo practice. As proprietor of myshingle.com, I'll often receive comments and questions from readers (mostly on how to start a solo practice) or from other bloggers interested in a solo's perspective on one issue or another. But blogging has also been an avenue for meeting other attorneys in different fields - in fact, blogging eventually lead me to this collaboration with Jerry Lawson.

Blogging Is Surprisingly Collegial and Non-Competitive
In the dotcom days, websites were highly competitive - websites were advised against linking to external sites which would could drive traffic to another location and might even charge a fee for a listing to a related site. By contrast, bloggers willingly cite to one another, conscientiously identify other blogs which may have been the source of a post or article, congratulate each other on blog-oversaries or recognition in the press. Dissent and disagreement is generally expressed respectfully and politely - far more so than in the common legal brief. Right now, at least, the blog world is one big happy family that welcomes solos and large fim lawyers alike - it's far more democratic and welcoming to solos than many other sorts of bar activities.

11. Will Blogs Replace Power Point?

Are you as sick of Power Point presentations as I am? Do blogs offer a viable substitute - you be the judge.