Trends in the contract attorney market – Part 2: going solo/freelancing, and building a website/blog

In Part 1 of our Trends series (click here) we provided some brief observations on trends we see in the contract attorney market and e-discovery market based on our conversations and meetings over the last few weeks. 

Here in Part 2 we concentrate on going solo/freelancing,  and building a website/blog.  In Part 3 this afternoon, we discuss how to get published and market yourself. 

Our earlier posts have addressed the changing legal landscape and new paradigm as outlined by such writers as Richard Susskind (click here) and Jordan Furlong (click here) we have touched upon how/what contract attorneys can do/need to do to stay employed and what type of “exit strategy” they can employ to improve their lot.  For all our posts on the subject click here.

But let’s discuss some of these “exit strategies” in more detail,  with a focus on “going solo” and doing a blog.

Note:  we are going to mention a number of lawyers, vendors and web sites below.  The Posse List receives no compensation or referral fees for these suggestions.  These are sources we have discovered via LegalTech and ABATech and by conversations we have had via Twitter and other social media venues, as well as personal contacts.  We provide links and other information so you can contact these sources directly and do your own due diligence.  

Going Solo in a New Economy – where do you start?

As Jordan Furlong says in his most recent post (click here)  the legal profession is going to go through a crisis, one triggered by a growing buildup of law school graduates who can’t find work with legal talent demand narrowing to lawyers with proven skills and/or experience.  

Like many other industries, the legal profession is being forced to make changes in a 21st century economy. Since 2008, law firms shed 10,000 associates, and these jobs aren’t likely to ever return.

For contract attorneys, besides the fall off in work, the technology keeps getting better and better (an issue we covered here) and as a result project teams are getting smaller and reviews shorter.  A few law firms told us they are dealing with smaller litigation budgets,  the “lopping off” of potential litigation issues that law firms and clients were initially willing to examine, and assumptions that early case assessment will find most of what they need to focus on.  

So, while there is an uptick in work due to regulation and compliance projects, most of these jobs aren’t coming back.  This dynamic has proved true in past recessions as well, with fading industries pushed to the brink during downturns before others emerged to create jobs when economic growth inevitably resumed. Why should it be any different for the law industry?  But with job losses so enormous over such a short period of time, the latest crisis challenges the traditional American response to hard times.  And the next decade was always going to be difficult.  As retirement beckons for the middle-aged “bulge” in many national populations, governments have been facing an expensive demographic transformation.  The economic crisis makes the outlook only worse.

Whether you’re a contract lawyer, a new grad or a laid-off associate you’ve got to take charge of your legal career.  And even if you are currently employed, shouldn’t you have a “Plan B” at the ready?   Granted, hanging your own shingle is a risky option but it is one that many of us simply may have to take.

So where do you start?  Luckily enough, you start tomorrow.  Two of the “gurus” in the how-to-go-solo business are Carolyn Elefant (click here)  and Susan Carter Liebel, founder of Solo Practice University and author of the Building A Solo Practice blog (click here) lead a free teleseminar tomorrow (June 9^th) at 12 noon titled “Going Solo in a New Economy” and will talk about: why starting a law firm doesn’t have to be your first career choice but maybe your only career choice;  why you don’t need a years worth of savings to start a law firm, nor may you have the luxury of a years worth of savings, etc.  For full registration details click here. 

Look, no one said it’s easy and we know many Posse List members have a boatload of debt and other issues.  But don’t buy into the many myths associated with starting a practice and ignore the positives.  Think about a “Plan B”.

And if you can’t do the seminar take a look at Carolyn Elefant’s book Solo by Choice  and or another excellent book  by Jay Foonberg titled How to Start and Build a Law Practice.

And coming up June 24 Carolyn teams up again with Julie Tower-Pierce, author of Staying at Home, Staying in the Law for their second workshop PinkSlips, Detours and Re-Entries.  We’ll have more on this later today in Part 3 when we discuss how you can get published and “brand” yourself.

To sum up this section, we have a very good article on The Posse Ranch written by Susan Cartier Liebel and she takes you through all the reasons why “going solo” is doable.  For the article click here.

An explosive combination:  blogging and social media for solos and freelance attorneysBlogging and social media: scores of Posse List members are utilizing them and doing great.  We have received As a solo or freelance attorney, it can be a  powerful marketing tool.  As the experts say “ignore blogging at your peril; blog poorly and you’ll pay for it.  Do it well and the results might shock you”.

Ok, so much for the marketing pitch.   But it’s true. Now, if you have a lot of time on your hands (and sometimes we do) and you scan the web you’ll find that that to increase the power of your blog to reach clients and peers by at least a factor of ten, stir social media into the mix.  And by “social media” we are using a catch catch-all term that refers to a host of different kinds of web services with a strong social interaction component.

In these services, you identify people as friends of yours, and they do the same for you (sometimes they’re called friends, sometimes they’re called followers, depending). And then, you do what friends do: you be social, you share stuff:

• On YouTube you share videos 
• On Facebook  you share pictures, updates, vieos, etc.
• On Twitter you share “tweets” which are short updates and chats
• On  LinkedIn you share business and career stuff
• On  Delicious you share web pages you like
• On Scribd you share documents
• On Slideshare you share slide shows.
• On Blip.fm you share music

Serendipity and word-of-mouth are both powerful events that happen on the web all the time. The more possible ways there are for someone to come across you online, the more likely it is they’ll end up on your blog. If they’re reading your blog, it’s more likely you’ll get even more links and traffic. It’s also more likely you’ll get more clients and have a higher status among your peers.

Why is this? Because traffic and links confer authority. They are a silent endorsement. Google understands this. That’s why they measure a web page’s authority based in part on how many other authoritative web pages link to it (this is called PageRank). A high amount of authority and PageRank means your blog will rank higher in a search.   Rank higher in a search means you’re more likely to get traffic, and the circle is complete.

When you have a dozen social media profiles in addition to your blog, do you know what the search page at Google looks like when someone searches on your name? The entire page is filled with links to you! Every one of those links eventually leads back to your blog… and that’s the idea.

Each social media interaction, each social media profile page, is a signpost pointing back to your blog. Those signposts guide people to you in a way nothing else can, because they’re essentially word-of-mouth marketing. If you weren’t participating in social media, those signposts wouldn’t exist.

Paid advertising simply cannot compete with this, because no matter how much you spend, paid advertising can never achieve the level of trust inherent in a link someone posts for their friends on Facebook saying, “you HAVE to read this!”

Your blog is like a hub in the center of a wheel. Social media profiles, links, shared content, and other activities creates spokes which radiate back to the hub, leading to it.  Without those spokes, your hub has very few paths pointing to it.

You don’t want your blog to be an isolated island with no bridges leading to it. You want it to be like Grand Central Station with people coming at it from everywhere.  A strong social media presence makes this far more likely in a much shorter time.

If all the social media possibilities seem overwhelmingly endless, don’t worry. The point of entry is where ever you happend to start.  I would suggest Twitter and LinkedIn to start.

But if you really want to learn the specifics about successful blogging and social media for lawyers, then you have to check out with these guys: Blawging Lawyers.  The whole purpose of Blawging Lawyers is to show you exactly how to do this, step by step.  If you need help designing and building your blog check out G2 Web Media which is a blog consulting, coaching and design group headed by Grant Griffiths.  We have scanned and chatted with scores of “blog mavens” on the web and these guys are the best. 

Note: these vendors and others will be offering  special events and special packages to members of The Posse Ranch which has a separate mailimg list.  To join go to The Posse Ranch (click here) and get on the mailing list via the link in the upper right hand corner. 

Coming up in Part 3:  how to raise your profile, “brand” yourself, market yourself and get published.

Gregory P. Bufithis, Esq.   Founder and Chairman, The Posse List