Legal Blogging Is Part of Being a Lawyer

As of Tuesday, Dave Winer, aptly described by the Guardian as the inventor of the blog, has been publishing his own blog, Scripting News, for 25 years.

Leading up to 25 years, Winer shared,

“There were times I took as much as a couple of weeks off, but I usually blogged when I was traveling. I have observations, things I want to write down, basically all the time. I don’t see the blog as work, to me it’s more like a part of living.”

I don’t see the blog as work, but more like part of living.

The same concept applies to thousands of blogging lawyers. The lawyers don’t see their blog as work, their blog is more like part of being a lawyer.

A blog, as widely defined on the web, is a “regularly updated website, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.“

Winer sees a key element of a blog being the unedited voice of a person.

Blogs were originally called weblogs. The reason being that those maintaining a weblog were logging their reading and observations from the web along with their comments and take on what they read.

What better way than blogging for a lawyer to share their observations and take on what they are reading and observing in their niche.

Seems superior to post-it notes stuck to pages of magazines, journals and CLE outlines laying on one’s credenza. Post-it notes and the credenza may have been replaced by computer and net storage, but their value to a lawyer is close to the same.

Enabling peers, clients and potential clients to see your observations and analysis enables greater learning through engagement and establishes a lawyer’s learning, analytical skill, care and expertise.

In the world of “content marketing,” SEO and web traffic, legal blogging may not be part of being a lawyer. Rather than reading, observations and a brief take, something close to an an article, good or bad, is supposedly needed.

Sure, lawyers may enjoy longer posts and find them rewarding, but legal blogging can be part of being a lawyer, as opposed to hard work.