The internet has become one of the most important technological advances of the past century, especially in the business and education sectors of the country. The internet allows people to stay connected with family and friends, find information for work or school, find prospective jobs or acquire new clients based on internet marketing and advertising. One way that law firms have taken advantage of the internet is the blogosphere. The blogosphere is used by companies to create and manage blogs for various reasons. Those reasons include updating company news, posting new deals, profiling lawyers within the firm and much more.
Verrill Dana, one of the largest and oldest firms in the New England region of the United States, began blogging back in 2010. The firm’s first blog was about energy law and its second blog centered on employee benefits. One of the most recent blogs published by the firm revolves around banking law, with a maritime blog and a human resources blog to follow as well. Verrill Dana is using these blogs as part of its social media campaign to keep current and future clients in the know about the laws regarding their specific industries.
Verrill Dana’s marketing director, Gretchen Johnson, had the following to say about the blogs:
“We were producing a lot of content, a lot of valuable information, which we were sending out to clients — like client alerts and presentation materials — but we found we were only reaching people who already knew us,” she says. “We wanted to broaden…our audience and our access.”
The marketing director for Preti Flaherty’s law firm had the following to say about legal blogging by law firms:
“Lawyers have always traditionally put forth their expertise in newsletters,” Meyers says. “And we’re seeing a gradual move away from those formats to a blog format. It’s a quicker turnaround. You’ll see some of the more traditional activities blend into blogs.”
Misti Munster is an associate at Verrill Dana and she says blogging has been extremely helpful:
“It’s helpful for me. I’m a relatively junior attorney, and it gives me an excuse and an opportunity to look at a set of regulations [and] learn them, and write a piece about them. It’s self-educational, if you will.”
Pierce Atwood blogger Catherine Connors, had the following to say about blogging on legal topics:
“That’s the key — you can’t do this if you’re going to do it for client development. You have to like it to spend a couple hours a week, once or twice a week, writing an entry,” she says. “I have to keep abreast of what’s going on anyway, and now I have to be more religious about it. When people are asking for my bona fides, I can say, ‘Hey, look at my blog, you can see what I’ve written for the last three years.'”