If you’ve ever had to slog through a document written in dense legalese, the old joke “What do you call 500 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean? A good start!” may come to mind. However, several lawyers now are demonstrating, through their weblogs, that they indeed are willing and able to communicate quite well.
Most lawyers who blog do so mainly for marketing reasons. However, blogs can be a great way for potential clients to assess a particular lawyer’s savvy and approach – which is important when what you’re marketing is your expertise. Plus, since the legal business is mostly relationship-based, the ongoing and interactive nature of blogs can help foster and strengthen lawyers’ relationships with clients, potential clients, and colleagues.
For instance…
The weblog of technology law expert Dennis Kennedy regularly offers interesting insight into a wide range of issues. One of my favorite entries here was as this pithy observation on make-your-own-will software, The True Competition for Estate Planning Lawyers:
“I’m having a hard time (and I used to do only estate planning) coming up with an argument as to why NOT to use this for my own will. …Should the cost of standard ‘form’ document preparation drop to zero and document preparation simply be a standard feature of a ‘legal services package?’”
Now THAT’S refreshing and surprising to hear, coming from a lawyer! It’s not only a valuable expert assessment of an affordable tool aimed at the consumer market, but it also undermines the stereotype of the self-interested “priesthood” approach to legal practice.
If you’re a lawyer who wants to blog (or who wants to improve an existing legal blog), the best resource I can recommend is Kevin O’Keefe’s LexBlog. He stays on top of the relevant news and resources, and links to several worthwhile and interesting legal blogs.
MORE RESOURCES
If you’re a writer or editor struggling to rein in ugly legalese, you might check out Eschew, Evade, and/or Eradicate Legalese, by Prof. Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School. This mainly deals with replacing common clunky legalese phrases.
If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having to interpret a legalese document, the Mississippi Bar Association has published an online guide to legalese.
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