It’s regularly said that people and businesses hire lawyers, not law firms.
This played today in an interview by Practical Law The Journal: Litigation of Linda Lu, Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel at TransUnion.
TransUnion’s Legal & Compliance department has approximately 200 associate lawyers. Lu is Senior Vice President and Deputy General Counsel.
Lu was asked, “What three things does a law firm need to do to impress you?“
Lu said she wasn’t looking at the law firm, she’s looking at individual lawyers.
“To impress me, a lawyer should:
- Provide practical legal and business-oriented advice.
- Be a trusted advisor who my company and I can rely on to have our backs and who makes my life easier (including by appreciating how my success is measured and the limits of my time and resources).
- Communicate articulately and succinctly.”
Provide practical advice, be trusted a advisor and communicate articulately and succinctly.
Talk to the good legal bloggers, the ones who have generated millions of dollars in legal work from corporations. These three points made by Lu are exactly what they do in their blogging.
Most blogging lawyers who achieve business success through blogging do it on their own blog, as opposed to a group blog.
Makes sense, only one lawyer can go up in front of a trade association to give a talk or talk one to one at a social event afterwards. It’s all about trust and relationships.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some excellent group legal blogs published by law firms that generate significant business. In addition, lawyers may not get certain work if they don’t have a strong firm behind them.
But even in group blogs it helps big time if there is a blogging champion or two. Lawyers who establish themselves as trusted advisors by communicating in a personal, yet professional, way and provide practical advice, regularly.
Corporations do tend to hire the individual blogging lawyers, not a group of blogging lawyers.
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