Using MySpace to market your law practice

Anicia Ogonosky and I have at least one thing in common: we both graduated from Loyola Law School here in New Orleans.  I didn't know this until I found out (by reading Kevin O'Keefe's post) that she has started a MySpace site called LegallyBlondePA.  She has gotten some bankruptcy work from her site, and has a nice radio interview posted there.  The site and the radio interview reveal that she's just a regular person, and not some unapproachable stuffy lawyer. 

Who knew that you could market to potential clients by revealing your human side?  I thought you had to buy ad time on daytime TV and blare your message like a carnival barker.  After blogging for over 4 years I'm starting to get the sense that people want to see more of the human side of lawyers.  But not everyone likes this notion, which is why the NY Bar is trying to clamping down on this dangerous trend.  I love it when professional organizations try to restrict new, and supposedly harmful, activity before getting a sense of how the public feels about this new thing, or without doing empirical studies to see if there really is a potential harm. 

Is that what people mean when they say professional organizations have a 'Guild mentality?"

Comments

[Ed Poll]

It's too bad that there isn't more of a "guild mentality." But, guild in the sense of trade union to HELP lawyers develop their practice and be more effective.

Today, bar associations tend to be nothing more than licensing agencies with a notion that they have to "protect the public," whatever that means ... and so, they enact restrict communication rules that impinge on advertising and other tactics designed to tell clients what lawyers do ...and rules about malpractice insurance disclosure that no one in the public will really understand ...

Too bad that most of these rules are made by large firm lawyers who have no sense about the real practice of law for folks who have a difficult time paying for what they need from lawyers.

[Anthony Reeves]

It's interesting because I have a feeling that once more and more attorneys realize that blogging is an awesome tool, the various state bars will do everything in their power to clamp down it. Hopefully, the more computer saavy attorneys in the varous bars will demonstrate that this is just another useful tool for expanding our industry.

A. Ray Reeves
http://www.anthonyreeves.com
http://legalbeat.anthonyreeves.com