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US Legal, Inc. – Spring 2008 Newsletter

Spring 2008 Issue

The Rise of Legal Blogs

A blog is short for the term web log, which is an online journal kept on a web site. A decade ago, there were only a handful of blogs whose function was primarily to serve as a personal diary, but soon the phenomenon began to take off. In recent years, businesses and corporations including law firms have recognized the effectiveness of blogs to provide commentary and information on particular subjects of interest.

Legal blogs or "blawgs" are typically published by an individual attorney or law firm. Legal publishers, journalists, marketing professionals, law professors, law students, and others also maintain legal blogs.

To learn more about the art of legal bloging, USLegal PR Director Carrie Criado interviewed two leading industry experts. Kevin O' Keefe is a former trial lawyer and President of LexBlog, Inc., a company which provides attorneys with turn-key solutions for law blog development, and J. Craig Williams is an attorney and prominent legal blogger who has won numerous awards for his blog, MayItPleaseTheCourt.com.

USLegal Q: What components go into a blog?

O'Keefe: Good blogs should have, among other things:

1) Content archived by categories and subcategories with a full search.
2) Separate categories, preferably in separate navigation area for who the blogger is, what they do/who they do it for (their services), and complete contact info. (address, phone, email) and possibly a contact form. Important for obvious reasons in event someone wants to contact you, but just as important to display that blogger is a credible source. Blogs work as a networking and reputation enhancement tool because they are cited by other niche bloggers and by the media. People citing a blogger want to easily determine the credibility of the blogger they are citing.
3) Proper RSS management so full text RSS feed is reaching subscribers and blog aggregators such as Google Blog Search and Technorati.
4) Proper software architecture set up for good rankings on search engines, speed in publishing and reading, filtering of spam comments and trackbacks, and ease of use.
5) Good design to complement the law firm's other collateral. Studies have demonstrated that a blog site look and feel effects how people judge you. Lawyers can not afford to be unprofessional.
6) Offer value - what's your take on something you've read or a new legal development? What's the answer to a commonly asked question?
7) Ethical safeguards - disclaimer, comment moderation

Williams: There's typically a masthead (like a newspaper), contact or identification information about the blogger, a blogroll (a list of other blogs the author reads), a list of the latest blogs and sometimes advertisements.

Blogs are updated frequently (in most instances daily, in some cases they're minute-by-minute, but others only occasionally). They typically contain various technical features like a calendar of posts, permalinks that allow readers to identify the URL (Uniform Resource Locator or web address) for each individual post, RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds to allow remote syndication through aggregator programs like FeedBurner. RSS feeds allow you to download updated posts from your favorite blogs right on your desktop within a program rather than having to go to each individual web log.

Legal blogs are all about content. They usually cover a lawyer's particular practice area and showcase that lawyer's knowledge.

USLegal Q: What difference has blogging made to the legal profession?

O'Keefe: Significant effects include the following:

*Advancement of legal discussion and developments via discussion between thought leaders by blogging and referencing other thought leaders blogs.
*Ability for individual lawyer with passion and expertise to elevate themselves to level of leading author whether it be locally or nationally.
*Enhancement of reputation and growth of business without huge costs or taking years.
*Becoming better lawyer by staying abreast of news and legal developments in your field and commenting on same.

USLegal Q: How can individual attorneys and law firms benefit most from establishing a blog?

Williams: First and foremost, writing a highly regarded blog will establish you as an expert in your field. It has the additional benefit of causing your blog (and your name) to show up much higher in Internet search results, which makes it easier for potential clients to find you and once they've read your writing and been impressed with it, hire you.

USLegal Q: Advice for would be bloggers?

Williams: If you're going to start a blog, don't stop. Find an area of law that you're passionate about and will continue to inspire you to write. Pick a narrow topic and keep your focus on that topic. Write with your own voice, and don't write through a committee. Keep the design of your page consistent with your law firm's website.

USLegal Q: Where do you see legal blogging headed in the future?

O'Keefe: The majority of good lawyers will be blogging in some form. If they do not, they will be conspicuous in their absence from the conversation among thought leaders in their field. As consumers of legal services become more sophisticated in their hiring of a lawyer, just like they are getting more sophisticated in how they buy anything (view what others write about an appliance before buying it or writing about a hotel before stay there), people will look at who is citing and what a lawyer is writing - are they being seen as a thought leader? Do they appear to be an expert? Those cited in blogs, those quoted in the media, those speaking at conferences, those doing the good work for the good clients - all will become apparent to prospective clients through lawyer blogging.

Visit these noteworthy legal blogs:

Kevin O'Keefe's Real Lawyers Have Blogs is a leading source of information and commentary on the use of legal blogs and can be found at http://kevin.lexblog.com/.

J. Craig Williams' award-winning blog, MayItPleaseTheCourt.com, provides legal news and observations and can be found at http://www.mayitpleasethecourt.com/.

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In Brief

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Visit the USLegal Blog at http://blog.uslegal.com/ for insights on current legal issues.

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Attorney Feedback

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