Blogging: how it can help you increase your legal market (Or: Novel points in the law, part 3: write about what you know)

Blogging can be pivotal in increasing your law practice, it's true!

See this article (via aba journal).

The theory is (and this actually is fairly true) that people searching for answers use the Internet. If you're writing about an area of law that a lot of people in the general public (or other lawyers, even), don't know about, your blog will get "hits" more often, as you're the only source of information available.

This leads to new clients, more information about cases, and more renown! Give it a try!

The way that I have seen this work: use a blogger profile, in connection with a Google plus page. When you publish a blog article, it shows up in Google (because G+ wants to reward its users). It also shows up with a photo pic of the author. And of course, your Blogger page will have the short bio of you and your area of law as well.

So my advice (back to novel points in the practice of law) is to write about what you know! If your practice area is intellectual property, focus on that. It will help increase your own knowledge, and other people - legal professionals and potential clients - will be drawn to that.

Lawyers: When should you decide not to take a case?

Getting more work is part of the work when you're a solo attorney. As if it's not enough to just do a good job on the work you do get, you won't get new work unless you are actively looking for it. And everyone says they want more cases, but what they really want is more good cases.

This article is a short list (from The Lawyerist) of how to evaluate when a case is good (worth taking) or not.

When evaluating clients, I have a list of red flags that generally mean I will not take the case. Like most lawyers, I have talked to potential clients and declined to represent them without hearing much about their potential case. If there is something about a client that does not fit my standard profile at the intake stage, it will become a bigger problem as the case develops.