There’s a certain sense of “dog bites man” news that you get when you read Feedmelegal’s recent post on the lack of blogging by large law firms. Add it to the list of tech innovations large law firms aren’t using.
You may remember how astonished I was with the stories from AmLaw Tech about what the top 100 law firms were doing in 2004 and some were, incredibly, focused like a laser on setting up delivery of faxes on laptop computers! I’m sure that you remember the client surveys where the #1 answer to the question, “what innovation did your law firm bring you?” was “none.”
When you are thinking about faxes, you ain’t thinking about blogs.
The name of the game big firms should be playing is RSS – properly understood, blogs are a side show, and I say that as someone who really enjoys blogging.
Here’s the reason large law firms don’t get blogging (let alone RSS). They’re talking to the wrong people. Check this out: one large law firm, Preston Gates, has become known for blogging. I spent some time on the phone today talking with the same person Preston Gates talks to – Kevin “LexBlog” O’Keefe.
In my 2004 Blawggie awards, I listed the four people whose opinions I legal blogging I put the most stock in. Kevin was one of them. OK, OK, I named myself as another one, but, darn it, I really get this stuff. I’m into my tenth year of having a website and I’ve never been more excited about anything on the Internet than the RSS/newsfeed technologies.
The fact is that it is the clients of firms who don’t blog and use RSS who are hurt more by the failure of their large law firms to deliver useful information in these ways more than so the law firms are hurt. Check the profits per partner of large law firms this year.
I’m about to announce formally some RSS and blog consulting packages and services I’ll be offering in 2005. In the same way that my own interest is in “client-driven technology,” I plan to focus more on helping traditional law firm clients get what they should expect for the money they pay their law firms. I’ll also offer seminars and speaking on these topics.
Of course, I’ll help large law firms if they want, or any other law firms, but if you are concentrating on fax in 2005, we simply aren’t speaking the same language.