Kevin O’Keefe points to Julie Hilden on the issue of why lawyer blogs should be exempt from attorney advertising regulations.
Here’s what Julie has to say about the importance of lawyer blogs for the marketing of a lawyer’s services:
With most people still stuck relying on personal referrals to find a lawyer, states should be welcoming – not threatening to crack down on – lawyer blogs.
Before blogs, all one could glean about a lawyer – beyond information from informal gossip networks and personal recommendations – would typically be which schools the lawyer attended, which clerkships he had, and the like.
Blogs allow a potential client to, in effect, listen to his potential lawyer think legal issues out. It’s hard to conceive of a more substantive, less elitist way to choose an attorney than this: Not on credentials or connections, but on sheer merit in one of the skills that matters most.
For clients to actually, in a sense, overhear lawyers think provides them with an invaluable opportunity. Indeed, for those who still cling to the idea that law is somehow “above trade,” it shows off the only aspect of the profession that really does, arguably, make it special: The law’s ideal is to let the best thinkers, and the best arguments, win.
If we want the best arguments to win in court, why shouldn’t we let the best bloggers win clients, too?
Of course, this applies to energy consultants too.