Murray Trachtenberg the blogger?
www.ptlaw.mb.ca; mtrachtenberg@ptlaw.mb.ca
Our recommendation? Have a look at what some Winnipeg legal firms have produced online Mr. Trachtenberg. Use a little of those thousands and thousands and thousand and thousands - in taxpayer dollars - MMF President David Chartrand and his Board of Directors have paid you over the years to invest in an upgrade. And most of all start blogging - now -you'll love it!
Since you're such a nice fellow, here's what we're prepared to do to help get you started. Readers, if you have any suggestions for improving the Posner & Trachtenberg site, please send them along and we'll post your recommendations for Mr. Trachtenberg to see. He should also visit http://metisonline.ca and www.derrylsanderson.blogspot.com the Election 2010 campaign sites for Team Godon and The Singing Blogger, respectively, for additional ideas.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
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Tentative steps into the blogsphere
Blogging about the law isn't new, but law firms engaging in the practice is. It carries some risks, but can be a potent marketing tool
Ogilvy Renault associate Jeremy started his blog - which does not have Ogilvy's official sanction - after consulting with management (DELLA ROLLINS FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
Karim Bardeesy and Tara Perkins
Globe and Mail
Published: Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Like many participants in the online world, lawyer Jeremy Grushcow launched his blog out of frustration.
“There's no daily single source on Canadian biotech at all,” says the Toronto-based Ogilvy Renault LLP associate, who specializes in technology-related issues, including life sciences and clean technologies.
Mr. Grushcow, 37, co-founded the “Cross-Border Biotech Blog” last year, and says he has already seen some benefits.
“I write about U.S. regulatory trends that are relevant to Canadians. I went to a [venture capital event] and it was part of how I introduced myself. I got a call from someone a month later who was starting a company, and asked to become a client.”
Blogging about the law is not new, but the engagement of law firms in the practice is – whether passively accepting blogs initiated by staff, or actively developing firm-sponsored blogs.
It carries some professional risks, but it can also be a potent tool to market law practices.
Richard Susskind, the British author of The End of Lawyers? says that in an era of proliferating information, law firms need to promote their expertise more aggressively, and that blogs are a prime vehicle. “Neither marketing nor thought leadership, which increase spontaneous awareness of a firm's capabilities, can or should be conducted covertly,” he said in an e-mail interview.
Law blogs have largely been the purview of academics and sole or small practitioners. Mr. Grushcow started his blog – which does not have Ogilvy Renault's official sanction – after consulting with the firm's management.
Unlike Ogilvy, some large Canadian law firms run blogs linked directly from their own websites. Perhaps the most active is Vancouver-based Davis LLP, which runs a network with six separate blogs. Davis partner Chris Bennett was a pioneer, launching a niche blog on video game law early in the decade.
“One of our clients pointed out we were doing all this cutting-edge legal work, but not communicating with the world the way people in the industry do. We got a lot of publicity and clients from it,” Mr. Bennett says.
David Fraser, an associate at McInnes Cooper in Halifax, started a privacy blog on January 1, 2004 – the day on which new federal privacy legislation came into force. Almost two-thirds of his practice is privacy related, and Mr. Fraser says the blog, which is not formally associated with the firm, has been a vital tool.
“A number of U.S. clients looking for privacy advice in Canada can find me readily using search engines, and review a form of my product through the blog,” says Mr. Fraser, adding that he has not advertised his blog. “The increase in business “has been a happy consequences. It wasn't my primary reason early on, but it keeps me motivated to do it.”
Blogging about the law has a function of instilling self-discipline, practitioners say. “The blog is a tool that helps me focus, filter the volume of reading I do, and communicate [to potential clients],” Mr. Grushcow says.
The decision to start a legal blog is a careful one. Mr. Fraser and Mr. Grushcow both experimented by writing postings without publishing them for weeks or months before they launched their blogs online. But recognition in the online world can come quickly: both men were runners-up in the 2009 Canadian Law Blog Awards.
Legal blogging is not without potential risks, which is likely one reason that firms have been careful about authorizing them. For example, blog entries must respect the lawyer-client relationship.
“I would not blog about anything I had confidential information about, as a result of client representation, without speaking to the client first,” Mr. Fraser says.
Another risk for legal blogs is that they might take on a life of their own, and start providing the kind of information that clients would normally pay for.
“The content of blogs need not, and arguably should not, be legal advice,” Mr. Susskind says. “Instead, blogs might more usefully be interesting insight – about new developments, industry trends, market sentiment, best practice.”
Many postings on legal blogs, therefore, steer clear of deep analysis. They typically include discussions of issues, news updates on legislative and regulatory changes or court decisions, and comments on items in the news that have a legal dimension.
The risks associated with legal blogging may be why online readers looking for the vibrant give-and-take in the blogosphere are often disappointed by law blogs. Most blogs on legal issues, either by firms or single practitioners, retain some of the chatty, informal tone of the online world, but generally lack the aggressive debate characteristic of blogs on politics and celebrity culture.
Otherwise, the ramifications can be severe. For example, a public defender in Illinois lost her job, and a Florida lawyer was fined, after they slagged judges on their blogs.
“It would only take one good, snarky opinionated rant for a client to call up the head of the firm,” Mr. Grushcow says.
Managers of legal firm blogs, in particular, need to be aware of some of the tools typically associated with blogging.
At Davis LLP, for example, the commenting function was disabled because it was too difficult for the firm to manage.
The main barrier to a proliferation of law blogs may be simpler: the amount of time involved. Most blogs need a ready stream of posts, and it can be difficult for lawyers to feed them while maintaining a practice with billable hours.
And at some firms, conservatism may prove to be a structural barrier. “A colleague at another firm has been trying to start a blog,” Mr. Grushcow says. “She said they'd had meetings for months.”
Editorial Note: Had to smile. Is that a copy of the Globe and Mail strategically placed on the desk beside your computer Mr. Grushcow?
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 11:02 AM
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