March 4, 2015 – Legal blogging is no fad. Since the late 1990s, lawyers and law firms increasingly use law blogs to showcase their knowledge and expertise. As numerous law bloggers in Wisconsin will tell you, blogging has both direct and indirect benefits.

The State Bar of Wisconsin has identified 49 active Wisconsin legal blogs. From personal injury and employment law to tax law and bankruptcy issues, lawyers are using blogs to discuss hot topics of interest to existing and potential clients.

For instance, Carol Wessels started the Wessels Elder Law Blog to inform clients about big changes to Medicaid as a result of Wisconsin’s 2013-15 budget. People searching those issues found her blog.

“I have had new clients who mention the blog when they call,” said Wessels, a solo practitioner at Wessels Law Office LLC in Mequon who posts once or twice per month.

“Many clients are referred by other attorneys, and a number of these mention that they read my blog and it was helpful in understanding issues prior to meeting me.”

Milwaukee Attorney Randall Rozek, also a solo practitioner, started the Rozek Law Offices Blog in 2009 to help educate the public and other attorneys about issues involving brain injuries. He also posts a new article once or twice per month.

“Not only have certain blog entries resulted in direct contact from potential clients, attorneys around the country have referred their clients to our office or asked us to co-counsel a case dealing with particular unique issues that have been addressed in the blog,” said Rozek. He said the blog has also led to professional speaking opportunities.

“One of the values of a well-done legal blog is that it puts you out as the authority on whatever particular legal issue you choose as the overall centerpiece of your blog.”

The Emergence of Legal Blogs

Legend has it that the first “legal blog” was born in 1998, when Tennessee immigration attorney Gregory Siskind started an “online diary” to give readers daily legislative updates on an “immigration law crisis” involving H-1B visas. Then in 2002, legal technology commentator and attorney Robert Ambrogi wrote this:

The number of Web logs – called "blogs" or, in the legal field, "blawgs" – has grown dramatically in recent months. Personal Web pages, formatted to resemble online journals, they range in content from introspectively personal to pungently political.

But many bloggers see themselves as a kind of new journalist, reporting and commenting on current events in a single stroke. This is true of many of the lawyers with blogs, some of whom have built up loyal followings of readers who look to them to report current developments in a field and, at the same time, to provide perspective.

In 2003, Ambrogi identified 62 “blawgs.” That number has swelled exponentially since then. The ABA Journal, which runs an annual list of top 100 blawgs, maintains a directory of some 4,000 blawgs, ranging from blawgs in highly specific areas of law or legislation to blawgs on quirky or entertaining stories involving the law or legal issues.

Some lawyers and law firms join legal blogging networks to drive their online presence, leveraging the blogging network’s expertise to maximize the blog’s value. According to studies on how people look for and select attorneys, an online presence is crucial.

Although referrals from friends and family remains a top information source for finding and selecting a lawyer, one survey found that 61 percent of people now begin a lawyer search online, and legal blogs are among the online resources consulted.¹

Thus, ensuring inclusion in the hiring pool may increasingly depend on a lawyer’s online presence, which includes legal blogs, social media, and law firm websites.

Training Blog Writers

Emory Law School in Atlanta is now devoting a full law school course to “public legal writing,” which includes blogging. Emory Law Professor Jennifer Romig, who teaches the course, says potential clients increasingly value bloggers, and law firms know it.

“When I was telling an entrepreneur about this class, he told me he has selected at least half of his lawyers based on looking at their online presence,” said Romig, who wrote a paper on legal blogging and maintains her own blog, Listen Like a Lawyer.

Romig says blogging is a tool for client development, but the personal and practical benefits of public legal writing go beyond marketing. She says lawyers can use blogs as a creative outlet, build their reputations, and impact public perception on legal issues.

She notes a “legal journalism” class that Valparaiso Law Professor Faisal Kutty is teaching to help future lawyers use blog posts, op-eds, and other types of persuasive writing to shape public opinion. Legal blogs, Romig says, grant lawyers the freedom to develop an authentic voice through a discussion of issues they care about.

Although blogs are increasingly part of a lawyer’s marketing arsenal, Romig notes that blogging, which requires a time commitment and practice, isn’t for everyone.

And blindly starting a blog can be disastrous, according to long-time blogger Kevin O’Keefe’s Wisconsin Lawyer article, “Law Blogs: The Great Equalizer.”

Generating ideas, engaging content and style, blogging platform, graphics and images, and ethics rules on advertising – these are all basic components that lawyers must think about before starting a blog. In addition, Romig says lawyers must be patient.

“Building an audience takes time, and the ‘blawgosphere’ can be a critical and even harsh conversation at times,” Romig said. “Legal blogging takes persistence and resilience, as with all of law practice.”

But if a blog isn’t for you, other options exist.

“The good news is that the social media environment offers lawyers a lot of options for sharing their thoughts other than fully committing to a blog,” Romig said. Guest posts, tweeting, and LinkedIn updates can give lawyers an online presence also, she says.

Creating Opportunities, and Value

Wisconsin attorney Brandon Evans, who works at a small firm in Marquette, Mich., started his own blog, That’s My Argument, which covers a range of topics with posts once or twice per month. He says the blog has helped open new doors.

For instance, Evans says he was asked to be an author for the State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE publication, The Law of Damages, and the blog likely played a role.

The blog probably helped in his selection as a “rising star” by Michigan Super Lawyers, he said. And it was a blog p​ost that led to his inclusion in a Wisconsin Lawyer article on rural lawyers. Blogging, he says, helps him make connections in the legal community.

But he recognizes that not every lawyer can make the commitment. “In my opinion, blogging is about the long-term,” Evans said. “To be successful, you have to love to write or have a burning desire to improve your writing because it certainly takes time.”

For Neenah solo practitioner Michael Brown, who started Employee Rights of Wisconsin Blog to help people understand employment issues, blogging has two purposes.

“For me, the selfish value is marketing, and the selfless value is community service,” said Brown. “I find myself writing many articles trying to help people in particular scenarios that would not make for desirable cases. So those posts are just to help.”

“With other posts, I hope to help and get calls from folks in those scenarios. Regardless, there is value in helping people to think about issues they had not considered.”​

For Carol Wessels, her blog is​ a growing library of in​formation that she can consult. “When I need to reach for an easy explanation of a particular issue, I may have already written about it on the blog,” Wessels said. The blog is also a creative outlet.

Wessels said she’s working on blog posts related to her mother’s life with and death from Alzheimer’s. “It is much harder to write about than writing about the law.”

49 Wisconsin Law Blogs

Below is a list of known Wisconsin law blogs identified by the State Bar. Is your blog missing from this list? Email legal writer Joe Forward at jforward@wisbar.org.

Or share your blogging experience by posting comments at the end of this article (login required). Select comments may be published is the Wisconsin Lawyer “Inbox” column.

Author’s Note: Since original publication of this article, the State Bar has added more blogs to this list and will continue to update the list as more active blogs are identified. The list currently contains 68 Wisconsin law blogs.

Endnotes

¹ LexisNexis, How Today’s Consumers Really Search for an Attorney (must register to download).