Blogging, Small Law Firms

Should Lawyers Blog?

Lawyers who find success or enjoyment out of blogging are those who enjoy writing, but what are the benefits of doing it?

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Keith Lee

Keith Lee

I usually leave talk of blogging to Kevin O’Keefe — it’s his gig. But I’m going to talk about it a bit due to spending a couple of days centered around blogging.

On Monday, I was on a panel discussing legal blogs with Mark Bennett, Scott Greenfield, and Brian Tannebaum at GSU College of Law.

It was a bit of an impromptu event. As Tannebaum described the talk:

scott greenfield keith lee brian tannebaum mark bennett lawyers 1

Despite us talking out of our asses, it provided more concrete, empirical information on blogging than most CLEs you’ll ever get from some “social media guru” lawyer you’ve never heard of.

The night before the talk, we had dinner at Bones with a handful of other lawyers, including Brunswick criminal-defense lawyer Jason Clark and Savannah criminal-defense lawyer Cris Schneider, Bennett’s local counsel on a case. Andrew Fleischman, Jon Rapping, Scott Key, Alan Begner, and Nick Lotito were there as well.

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lawyer dinner

As can be expected when you get a dozen lawyers together at a steakhouse, with food and wine flowing, the conversation was… lively.

But dinner and the panel were secondary to the real reason we were all there — to support and watch Mark Bennett argue before the Georgia Supreme Court. Bennett was there to argue that a Georgia statute was overbroad and restricted the right to free speech. (You can watch oral arguments here.)

On Twitter, fellow First Amendment lawyer Marc Randazza highlighted a key point to Bennett’s argument:

mark bennet lawyer

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After the arguments, we parted. Eventually, the “blog guys” got back together for a final dinner at Portofino, along with Andrew Fleischman. We were also graced by the presence of Esther Panitch, who put up with us being a bunch of yahoos. Another night of wine and food capped off an excellent 48 hours with friends.

What does this narrative account have to do with blogging?

Nothing? Everything.

Many lawyers get into blogging for “marketing.” They use it to try and snag clients or, even worse, “develop leads.”

They’ll do it for a bit, limping along, but not really enjoying it. The thing about blogging, despite whatever anyone says, is that it’s work. It takes time and effort to regularly sit down in front of a blank screen and churn out 1,000 words. You have to enjoy writing or you’re not going to do it.

Lawyers who find success or enjoyment out of blogging are those who enjoy writing. They’re blogging whether or not they get any tangible ROI. Their ROI is that they get to express their thoughts publicly and some few people enjoy reading them.

As was said more than once at the panel, blogging is a pie-eating contest, and the prize is more pie.

There may be other benefits. Of the four of us on the panel, we had all gotten clients from blogging. Bennett was arguing in front of the Georgia Supreme Court because local counsel had read about a similar law he had beaten in Texas on his blog. Tannebaum and I got book deals because of our blogs. We had all been appointed to committees or boards and the like. All because of blogging.

But the biggest take away, the most important thing (to me at least), was the relationships that I have developed over years of going back and forth with these other assholes.

Despite different ages, practice areas, and states, we all came together to support a friend and cement our bonds of friendship.

Sounds like just about the right reason to start a blog to me.

Keith Lee practices law at Hamer Law Group, LLC in Birmingham, Alabama. He writes about professional development, the law, the universe, and everything at Associate’s Mind. He is also the author of The Marble and The Sculptor: From Law School To Law Practice (affiliate link), published by the ABA. You can reach him at keith.lee@hamerlawgroup.com or on Twitter at @associatesmind.

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