Pollyanna goes to business school: Lawyernomics 2013

Photo:  Kevin O'Keefe and I at the conference.

Back when I was an  defense lawyer, this is how the firm got business.  The partners golfed with, rubbed shoulders at clubs with, went golfing and to four star dinners with insurance and corporate key persons.  The firm maintained these relationships and periodically was able to build a new relationship with yet another company.  These relationships could last for decades.

Marketing is a kind of dirty word for plaintiff attorneys who represent “the little people.”  We don’t want to do it (or at least most of us don’t want to).  But we need to let the public know who we are.  Otherwise, they’ll simply call the lawyers who bark the loudest.  Through tv ads.  Or billboards.  Or even in some gross cases – by direct mail when there’s been a disaster.

Fly down to Vegas  to go see what Lawyernomics has to say.  Expect to be surrounded by rabid marketers.  Instead, am rather pleasantly surprised.   Because for every two super aggressive widget counters, there is someone who simply wants to figure out how to shine their light.  Plus the speakers are really good.

Visit with Kevin and Colin O’Keefe – their company Lexblog.com houses this blog.  Chat with Mark Britton and the folk from Aavo – lawyers ignore this consumer focused site at their own risk.  Listen to Sam Glover of Lawyerist.com give my favorite talk of the conference.  Since he reads it, here it is:

http://lawyerist.com/why-your-blog-sucks-and-what-to-do-about-it-lawyernomics/

But wait.  It’s not quite over.  The woman in the front row gruffly warns people not to believe Sam.  She doesn’t like the recommendation that a blog be separate from a law firm website.  She charges:  I did it your way. But after seeing hardly any result, I moved it back to my website and it zoomed up Google rankings.

Sam blinks and says:  I don’t care.

Yeah.  That’s the right response.

Because most lawyers who write blogs are doing it to get business.  The focus is on moving up google, or getting clicks.

Not in writing something that people actually may want to read.

So why waste your breath.