Sep
12
Weblogs work for Lawyers Part I: John Day of Branham & Day Lawyers
In part one of a new series of interviews with lawyers who are using blogs we talked to John A. Day from Branham & Day Lawyers in Brentwood, Tennessee.
Q: When and why did you start blogging?
A: We started our first blog, www.dayontorts.com , in late February 2005. We started the blog with a couple thoughts in mind. First, we wanted to share information with fellow lawyers about the law of personal injury and wrongful death in Tennessee. The plaintiff’s bar has a rich tradition of sharing information and I have attempted to follow that tradition during my 24 years of law practice. In the past, that effort has consisted of CLE speeches (over 150 of them), articles in legal publications (15-20), book chapters (2-3), a monthly newsletter of 10+ years duration (Tennessee Tort Law Letter) and a book (Tennessee Law of Comparative Fault). A blog seemed like the next logical step. Second, our business primarily comes from other lawyers, in Tennessee and elsewhere. We do not advertise on TV: we do not even have a Yellow Pages ad. We believe that by helping other lawyers see and resolve issues they confront in their day-to-day practice they will call upon us for assistance when confronted with cases beyond their experience or expertise or cases that will overwhelm their office, either because of the time required to work on those cases or the cost of adequately preparing them. Finally, advances in technology gave us the chance to share information more easily. The "DayonTorts" website was around for years, but it was difficult to update given the limitations of technology at the time. (Or, more precisely, my limitations using available technology.) Updating blogs is easy; I can do it when I am on the road or enjoying a weekend at the lake. I can also leave several draft posts for someone else to publish if I will not have access to an Internet connection.
Q: How you generated additional business directly or indirectly related to your blog?
A: They say that 50% of all marketing dollars are wasted; figure out which 50% are wasted and you can become rich. After less than 5 months of blogging it is difficult to say if we have generated any legal business from the blog. I will add that I find it difficult to say whether my book, newsletter, articles or speeches have resulted in any business – referrals from lawyers don’t necessary work that way. I believe, but cannot prove, that the blog will help our practice by continuing to reinforce our reputation as a law firm that stays current with the law and technology, is willing to share what it knows with fellow lawyers, and has the experience and expertise to handle complicated personal injury and wrongful death cases. In fact, we are so confident with the potential of blogging that we have rolled out three additional blogs in the past couple months. The first, www.tnbusinesslitigation.com , is directed toward general counsel and business lawyers. We have found an increasing number of companies want to hire experienced trial lawyers to handle business litigation; the nature of business litigation is such that many lawyers who do it exclusively lack extensive experience in trial. While we usually will not defend personal injury and wrongful death cases, we do represent individuals and companies is business disputes. The second is www.medmalblog.com. We have done medical negligence work for 24 years and decided that a specialized blog in that field would be a benefit to the Bar. Finally, we are getting ready to launch www.erisaontheweb.com. One of our lawyers has an extensive practice representing professionals and business people who have disability insurance claims. This blog is directed toward claimants and other lawyers who are representing claimants. This is a substantial undertaking. We have divided the work between 5 lawyers and our nurse.
Q: Have any of your peers seen your blog? Do they comment on it? Does the fact that they read it cause you to write differently?
A: Yes, many of our peers have seen our blog and in fact that is our target audience. We have received many positive comments from lawyers (and judges) and in fact a good number of lawyers have told me that they check the blog every day. We do write the blog differently because they read it – they are our target audience. We do get a significant number of comments from consumers so we know that they are reading, but we focus on lawyers. We believe (hope?) that any consumer who reads our site will understand that while our target is other lawyers we represent people and will accept representation directly from a consumer if they choose to call us.
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