Blogger Wonders Why the Most Profitable Law Firms Don’t Blog
U.S. law firms earning the most profits per partner apparently don’t have the time or the inclination for blogging.
Blogger Mark Herrmann, a partner at Jones Day in Chicago, made the observation in a post at the Drug and Device Law blog. He looked at a survey that at first glance shows blogs are alive and well in BigLaw. Published by Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs, the survey shows that 82 of American’s top 200 law firms are blogging, more than double the number since August 2007.
Herrmann looked at the 10 U.S. law firms with the most profits per partner, and concluded that only one—Kirkland & Ellis—has a blog. But it hardly counts, Herrmann says. The blog on sports law was founded by a Kirkland associate, but the contributors are law professors or guest writers who have no connection to the law firm.
Since the initial post, Herrmann has heard lots of speculation about why the biggest firms aren’t blogging. Perhaps they believe blogging doesn’t provide a good return on their investment, some have suggested, or maybe they don’t have the time, Herrmann and co-blogger Jim Beck of Dechert write in a new post.
The Am Law Daily went further, calling the nine firms to find out why they don’t have blogs. “The conversations we had centered on a general theme: The firms just don’t see the point,” the Am Law Daily says. “They are already successful, so they don’t feel the need to market themselves or prove their grasp of a particular subject matter in the limited spare time they have.”
Legal Blog Watch covered Herrmann’s observation and his blog’s summary of six possible reasons why the most profitable firms don’t blog.
Corrected at 11:45 a.m. to note that the initial blogger was Mark Herrmann.
