Using MySpace for marketing a law practice

See Ernie the Attorney for an interesting comment about marketing. He mentions “guilds” such as the New York Bar and their efforts to restrict lawyer advertising. This is my response to the latter observation:

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 restrictive 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 … among other rules designed to remove lawyers from the day to day commercial activity that we ARE involved with. Law IS a business as well as a profession.

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 by folks who make, on average, less than $100,000 per year, not the huge amounts earned by large firm lawyers mentioned in the public press.  Shame on the bar associations who have little patience or understanding for this group of lawyers.

Categorized in: Marketing