Dec. 6, 2023 – Twenty-five years ago, in the days of dial-up internet connections and single-monitor workstations, Kevin O’Keefe left a La Crosse law firm and hung out his shingle. He had enough work to get him through a few months.

“Then, it dawned on me: what am I going to do when that’s gone?” O’Keefe said. “How am I going to get work?”

O’Keefe, who practiced personal injury law, didn’t have the money to blanket the airwaves and billboards with advertising. And he didn’t have much taste for Rotary luncheons, golf outings, and networking events.

Then, O’Keefe discovered AOL, one of the first widely popular websites on the internet. In what he describes as a “leap of faith,” O’Keefe began sharing his knowledge in posts to law-related AOL message boards.

“I knew that if I got on the internet and started answering people’s questions, they’d want me to represent them,” O’Keefe said.

O’Keefe built a successful practice largely through his message board posts, an early form of blogging. It was a match made in heaven.

“I could sit in the living room while the kids are asleep and do marketing,” O’Keefe said.

“Internet blogging democratized the ability of lawyers to build a name.” – Kevin O’Keefe, CEO, LexBlog, Inc.

‘More Than He Could Have Imagined’

O’Keefe went on to found LexBlog, Inc., a Seattle-based blog platform that offers design, web hosting, and support services.

“Internet blogging democratized the ability of lawyers to build a name,” O’Keefe said.

That’s especially true for lawyers with niche practices. O’Keefe cites as an example a lawyer in the U.S. who specializes in issues surrounding international service of process.

O’Keefe said that attorney’s blog posts consistently result in lucrative billable work.

“His blog has done more for him than he could have imagined,” O’Keefe said “You’re the only person in the country that’s out there providing insight and commentary on how to do international service of process? How can you not get work? And the work you’re getting is from some of the biggest firms in the country because they need a specialist for this.”

Attorneys with broader practice areas can benefit from blogging too, O’Keefe said.

“There’s a whole group of lawyers who’ve built their reputations by sharing their insight,” O’Keefe said.

An employment attorney from Connecticut recently told O’Keefe that blogging had been a lifesaver for his family.

“He told me, ‘I don’t know what we would have done without that blog when we had three kids in college at once.’”

Another example is Hilary Bricken, now a partner at Husch Blackwell.

“She had barely gotten out of law school, and before anyone else she started to blog about cannabis law,” O’Keefe said. “Now, she’s one of the best-known people in the country on it, and in the world.”

‘You Could Never Do That Without a Blog’

According to O’Keefe, legal blogging has the potential to benefit society by helping populate so-called “legal deserts” with attorneys.

For example, O’Keefe said, an attorney living in Minocqua could blog about Social Security disability benefits issues, attracting clients from across the country and making a good living.

“That lawyer doesn’t have to go anywhere, and you could never do that without a blog,” O’Keefe said.

The attorney could also represent clients in the community.

“If that lawyer walked into the local diner or supper club, people would know that they have a local lawyer,” O’Keefe said.

“Talking about serious topics and taking the work seriously but not always taking yourself seriously is a big part of how I roll.” – Stacie Rosenzweig, Halling and Cayo

Free to Be Herself

A good legal blog requires succinct and conversational writing, free of the legalese and citations found in a memo or an appellate brief.

Some attorneys find it hard to abandon the jargon and polysyllabic lexicon that have for centuries larded legal writing. Others, like Stacie Rosenzweig, find it refreshing.

Rosenzweig, whose law practice includes legal ethics and professional responsibility law, as well as professional license defense, laces her blog posts with pop-culture references and subtle snark. She said it’s a good fit with her personality.

“Talking about serious topics and taking the work seriously but not always taking yourself seriously is a big part of how I roll,” said Rosenzweig, a shareholder at Halling & Cayo S.C., based in Milwaukee.

The less formal tone that Rosenzweig uses for her blog posts makes them more readable.

“Ethics can be super boring and dry, but it’s part of our obligation to know what these rules say and to abide by them, so my goal is to make it more accessible,” Rosenzweig said.

It also allows her to be more authentic.

“The briefing in my disciplinary cases is straightforward and appropriate, but I’m freer to by my weird self in a format like the blog,” Rosenzweig.

Writing as Thinking

For Rosenzweig, writing blog posts for lay readers helps her think through the issues she typically faces in her ethics practice.

“It forces me to be nimble when I write,” Rosenzweig said. “So, in some ways, it helps me with my own understanding of these ethical rules, because I see something on the TV or the internet and I write about it …it’s an issue spotting exercise too.”

Rosenzweig’s blogging has led to writing a regular ethics column in Wisconsin Lawyer magazine. It’s also won her business.

“My practice is very word-of-mouth – people don’t Google for ethics lawyers or Office of Lawyer Regulation defense,” Rosenzweig said. “They either ask their colleagues or their insurance carrier or they get referred. So, when they Google my name after hearing about me, my blog will pop up.”

“It’s got to be short and interesting, there has to be a lead, all of the things that as a journalist you would look for in an article.” – Peter Albrecht, Godfrey and Kahn

Intellectually Stimulating

Peter Albrecht, who practices labor and employment law at Godfrey & Kahn in Madison, has gotten some attention for his personal blog posts from Lexology.

“There’s name recognition among your peers as an emerging go-to person for a certain area of law,” said Albrecht.

But Albrecht, who also writes posts for the Godfrey & Kahn blog, blogs as much for the mental stimulation as the exposure.

“We all complain about the work we do but really, secretly, I think a lot of us find it intellectually interesting,” Albrecht said.

Albrecht, who’s sub-specialty is representing union employers, often blogs about matters before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

“There’s been a lot of activity at the Board,” Albrecht said. “I think it’s fascinating, all the inner workings and the political agendas.”

Like Rosenzweig, Albrecht approaches blog writing differently than legal writing.

“To me, it’s a cross of a marketing piece and a legal piece,” Albrecht said. “It’s got to be short and interesting, there has to be a lead, all of the things that as a journalist you would look for in an article.”

“There’s value in having your firm’s website be a resource for practitioners.” – Caleb Gerbitz, Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols SC

Benefits for Firms Too

Caleb Gerbitz, an associate at Meissner Tierney Fisher & Nichols S.C. in Milwaukee, uses his experience as a former clerk to Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Brian Hagedorn in a blog he writes about Wisconsin appellate courts.

“I kind of naturally kept an eye on what was happening, and I realized it wasn’t that much more effort to, after reading a case or a brief, to write a quick blurb about it,” Gerbitz said. “My firm was gracious enough to allow me to post these things to the firm website, and then developed a web page devoted to the Wisconsin Supreme Court updates that I do.”

Gerbitz said the blog has benefitted him in at least two ways.

“One, I know what’s going on in the courts, so if someone at my firm has a question about ‘Is there a case coming up through the courts on this or that topic,’ they’ll ask me,” Gerbitz said. “Or, if someone wants to know whether a particular case has been decided, I can be a resource on those things, because I’m neck-deep in it. It keeps me sharp on the subject.

“Two, if I’m out at social events, routinely someone will say to me, ‘I read your take on this particular case,’ so it’s a great conversation starter in that sense too,” Gerbitz said.

The blog benefits his firm too.

“There’s value in having your firm’s website be a resource for practitioners,” Gerbitz said. “If you firm’s website has valuable information and people come there to look at it, then your firm is more relevant in the legal community and you’re more likely to get referrals.”

The Future of Legal Blogging

O’Keefe said that the advent of AI will transform blogging by allowing bloggers to be more productive.

O’Keefe would rarely write two blog posts in a day before AI. Now, with AI, it’s the norm.

“If you read some good stuff on other blogs that you’d like to summarize in your blog, you can give it to AI, tell it to summarize it in your voice, and boom – it’s back in a minute,” O’Keefe said.

That speed allows O’Keefe to finish a blog post in 20 minutes instead of an hour.

“So, my influence is growing, and my ability to help people is growing,” O’Keefe said.

But, like any sophisticated digital tool, attorneys need to spend time practicing with AI.

“The use of AI is an art,” O’Keefe said. “It’s not a substitute for what you do. It amplifies a blog’s insight or commentary, so it makes it better.”

O’Keefe said the time spent learning to use AI in blogging is well worth it.

“It will become easier to build influence and a name using AI in your blogging, which will open up the door to more lawyers blogging,” O’Keefe said.

The increasing role social media plays in the blogosphere is another important change O’Keefe has marked in over the last few years.

“LinkedIn used to be looked at just as a directory where people went to steal other company’s employees,” O’Keefe said. “Now, there’s a lot of content there.”

Blogging is About Community

At it’s best, legal blogging is about community.

O’Keefe said that WisLawNOW, the State Bar of Wisconsin’s legal blogging site, is a prime example.

“I point to Wisconsin as a real hero in this space,” O’Keefe said.

Legal Blogs on WisLawNOW