Happy Anniversary! Reflecting On A Year Of Writing For Above The Law

It has been a real pleasure writing for Above the Law, and I hope to be a columnist for years to come.

Happy anniversary!  I began writing for Above the Law about one year ago, and this is the 52nd consecutive weekly article I have published on the website.  Writing for Above the Law has been an extremely enriching experience for me, and it has been great sharing my thoughts on this website over the past year.  For my column this week, I wanted take a break from discussing student loans and the legal profession, and rather reflect on my experiences writing for Above the Law.

Many people have asked me over the past year how I connected with Above the Law and began writing for the website.  I started reading Above the Law regularly about a decade or so ago, when the website rose to prominence covering the Great Recession and its impact on the legal community.  I first attended events sponsored by Above the Law in 2012, when I moved back to the New York City area to begin working at my first job after graduating from law school.

As many might remember, 2012 was a good year for Above the Law events, and I had a great time meeting the editors at various parties sponsored by the website.  One of the most amazing events hosted by Above the Law around that time was a bar crawl that included a venue near every law school in Manhattan.  Above the Law rented a party bus to drive the crew around to each bar, and I was honored to be invited on the bus.  I only made it to the bars near Fordham Law, Cardozo, and NYU Law before I had to go home or risk being the subject of an Above the Law piece!

After I started my website Student Debt Diaries last year, I thought that writing for Above the Law could publicize my own blog and provide me with an outlet to express opinions about the legal profession.  Although I hadn’t been to Above the Law events for a few years, the editors remembered me when I reached out to them.  Maybe this was because I am 6’9’’ and hard to forget, or maybe it was because of the shots I bought everyone on the bar crawl!  In any case, Above the Law published my first piece about a year ago, and this is the 52nd article I have published on the website.

My experience writing for Above the Law has been extremely positive.  For instance, publishing  articles on the website has shown me how multifarious the legal community really is.  I originally thought I would simply receive emails from lawyers who read Above the Law, but I regularly communicate with parents, prospective law students, paralegals, attorneys in all stages of their careers, judges, and a number of other individuals.  I also connect regularly with many doctors, dentists, and other professionals.  My conversations with these individuals has shown me that many of the financial issues involving the legal industry that I write about are also applicable to people who work in other professions.

One of the things that surprised me originally about writing for Above the Law is the trolling that I and other writers on the website receive.  I did not write for Above the Law when the website allowed comments, but I vividly remember how crazy comments on the site used to be.  Since Above the Law justifiably disabled comments, the only ways I get trolled are on social media and if someone emails me through the contact form on Student Debt Diaries.

Thankfully, I have pretty thick skin, and I actually look forward to trolling!  I usually get a good kick out of the negative comments others write, and I share the comments with my brothers and coworkers, who also get a good laugh out of them.  In addition, if one of my articles attracts trolls, I know the piece is being read widely, since the more people who read an article, the more likely someone will actually post negative comments about it.  I am also convinced that trolling helps creates buzz around an article, since people are talking about it, so I actually have trolling to thank for popularizing some of my pieces!

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The most interesting trolling I get is on social media, since most people use their real profiles, and I can see who wrote the comments.  This lack of anonymity usually constricts how crazy comments can be, but sometimes, individuals say some insane stuff even though anyone can directly attribute comments to them.

There are many ways to deal with trolls, and my initial reaction is to troll back.  However this is not constructive, so I usually just show good humor and try to reach a positive outcome with the trolls.  I have had some great back and forth with many of my trolls, and I look forward to this part of publishing content online.

Another realization I have after publishing content on Above the Law for around a year is that it is insanely hard to predict when an article will go viral.  Unlike my boss Elie Mystal, who goes viral just about every week, I only published one piece that really took off, and a handful of other articles that were read tens of thousands of times.

I never expected that any of the articles that were widely read would be so popular, and I have written articles that I thought would be popular that ended up not being read much at all.  I have given up trying to write pieces that will go viral, since it is very hard to predict how popular an article will be.

All told, it has been a real pleasure writing for Above the Law, and I hope to be a columnist for years to come.  I originally thought it would be difficult to think of article ideas each week for this column and my own website, but it is usually easy to write my pieces.  The legal industry is such a multi-faceted community, and I enjoy discussing my experiences practicing law and paying off student debt.

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Jordan Rothman is the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a personal finance website discussing how he paid off all $197,890.20 of his college and law school student loans over 46 months of his late 20s. You can reach him at Jordan@studentdebtdiaries.com.