The Curmudgeon on Big-Firm Blogging: Don’t Do it for Profit

[WSJ Law Blog]

In November, the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan published an opus on blogging, entitled “Why I Blog.” He called blogs — a conflation of Web and log — an evolving literary form that are “generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom,” heralding “a golden era for journalism.”

Today, Mark Hermann — a Jones Day Partner, the author of “The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Practicing Law” and the co-author of the Drug and Device Law blog — writes his version of “Why I Blog.” But rather than addressing the literary or journalistic merits of the form, Hermann homes in on a far more practical question (for lawyers at least): Can big-firm attorneys use blogs to bring in the bucks?

Referring to his blog, Hermann writes: “In our little niche, however, we’re pretty well known. To the extent that a blog of this type can generate business, we would have expected that to have happened during the two years we’ve been at this. . . It really has not.”

Hermann acknowledges that if he were a “Yellow Pages” lawyer rather than a “tall building” lawyer, blogs might be a better way to attract business. “If we blogged about how to draft contracts efficiently for small businesses, we might attract small business clients,” he writes. “But if we blogged about ‘international M&A transactions valued in excess of $5 billion,’ we’d be less likely to succeed. In-house lawyers at sophisticated companies have many ways to select counsel, and going on-line to find bloggers ain’t high on that list.”

“What’s our advice?” he asks in conclusion. “Same as it’s always been: Blog for pleasure; blog to stay abreast of your field of law; blog to influence the public debate; blog to raise both your firm’s and your personal profile in a your legal niche. . . .But, if you’re a big-firm lawyer who typically handles large litigation or corporate matters, don’t blog for profit. For lawyers in practices such as ours, there are other, more effective marketing tools.”