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This week, we’ve been listing all the large law firms that we could find that publicize the fact that they have attorney written blogs. We broke it down into those that were proud of their blogs vs. those that seem to be luke-warm to the fact that these blogs exists.  There are a few more categories we could also cover, such as those firms that would ban blogging by their attorneys, or attorneys that have stealth blogs that either haven’t been discovered by their firms Marketing Department or Senior Partners, or are just plain ignored by the firm’s upper echelon. These would be interesting (but difficult) lists to compile, but what interests me the most is the attorneys that have blogs, but don’t necessarily want the firm to have anything to do with them.

There were a few comments on the previous posts that said that they actually wanted to keep their personal blogs, well… “personal.” And, they had a number of reasons to keep the firm from taking ownership of the blog:
  1. Personal blogs do not have to be “screened” by anyone in the firm before being posted. This allows for attorneys to post quickly to breaking news, or just whenever the mood hits them.
  2. If I move to another firm, I can take my personal blog with me. It would tragic to have to leave something that you feel is your own and turn it over to others to manage (or destroy) when you move on to another firm.
I’ve also been thinking of what are the benefits of having your firm taking ownership (or at least promoting and supporting) a blog.  So, I came up with this list:
  1. I have a multi-million dollar organization with thousands of clients and a global (or at least national) reach supporting my efforts.
  2. Others in my firm can team with me to work on a specific legal topic blog.  Spread the effort of maintaining an up-to-date blog across the Practice Group, thus making the blog more diverse and current.
  3. I feel somewhat less guilty if I blog between the hours of 8-5.  Hey, it’s for the Firm!!
  4. Hopefully there is someone in Marketing that can help promote the blog.  A kind of built in Search Engine Optimizer and editor right on staff.
  5. My blog can lead to me being asked to speak at conferences on specific topics and the firm will see it as professional development, not just personal gratification.
I’m sure there’s more, but I thought I’d leave a little something for all of you to leave in the comments section below.
To spruce this post up a little bit, I thought it would be interesting to survey the readership to see what they think about the relationship between a law firm and their attorney blogs.

What Type of Relationship Would You Want Between Your Blog and Your Firm?