Thursday, February 06, 2003 7:16 PM
Generally speaking, the legal vertical can be accurately defined as a slow-adopter of technology. The reasons behind this slow adoption are many, but key factors include: the lack of a sustained mandate to improve efficiencies; a dearth of senior decision makers (both from law firms and in-house counsel) who are active users of (or believers in) technology; court systems which have been slow to implement new technologies (thus allowing lawyers to continue with business as usual in court filings, etcetera); the belief that there is no return on investment with emerging technologies; and, critically, the reality that most firms are partnerships with many voices, an organizational structure which rarely lends itself to quick action.
With these factors in mind, the widespread use of blawgs to assist in gaining new clients remains distant. That being said, however, my sense is that the first movers will continue to push the envelope, explore the medium and fine-tune the blawg “business model.” And, of course, the very definition of a “blawg” will likely morph over time as new ideas enter the marketplace. Interestingly, and as I will highlight in part three of this article, some law firms (whether they realize it or not) are already embracing a blawg morph in the regulatory feed concepts they employ every day on the web right now.
A common refrain I hear from lawyers is that clients don't utilize the web to hire a lawyer. I am not sure I totally agree with this (and I know of examples that prove otherwise), but at the present time there remains a lot of truth to this statement, especially for big companies seeking legal counsel. Many corporate decision makers are not active web users beyond remote e-mail and perhaps logging into the corporate extranet or intranet. Moreover, any content (including blawgs) faces significant competition from the sheer volume of magazines, newsletters and other marketing materials sent, in both digital and paper format, to corporate decision makers on a monthly basis. Finally, the age-old techniques of gaining new clients via networking, in-person seminars and entertaining, still pay dividends. For rainmakers, the question may simply by that if the age-old approaches to new business still work, why fix what is not broken?
Ultimately, of course, these age-old techniques will change. A visitor to a law school today will see a generation of students brought up with technology. In many places, the idea of taking notes by hand has already become passé. Top law schools have network plug-ins at every desk and student access to the internet is a given. Today’s “tech-friendly” students will become tomorrow’s corporate counsels. Indeed, the idea that these students will ignore technology and revert to paper-driven processes becomes the increasingly ridiculous conclusion. More specifically to the blawg concept and its derivatives, these decision makers of tomorrow may also immediately think of the web as a logical place to start looking for a lawyer.
In summary, using blawg content to gain new clients in the legal vertical can best be assessed as in the very early stages of a formative transition. As a vertical that wholeheartedly embraces the cattle approach to technology decision making, once word starts to spread of a new clients gained in part utilizing blawg-related technologies, expect the stampede to begin.
Purpose 3: Supporting Existing Clients
Bookmarks: Intro | Research | Gaining New Clients | Supporting Existing Clients | Marketing Lawyer Expertise
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