Should the managing partner of a law firm publish a blog?

How realistic is it for a law firm managing partner to publish a blog? Maybe a better question to ask is “How would a managing partner’s blog better serve the law firm’s clients, or not?” Too dangerous? Too time consuming? What for?

I recently sent out a Tweet and queried my networks seeking examples of law firm managing partners who blog and was disappointed by the response. Zero.  Maybe it’s my network or maybe there aren’t any. I know a number of small firm and solo lawyers rely heavily on blogging as a tool for broad exposure. Ironically, I often hear that fact used as a reason for larger firm leaders not to be blogging. “It’s fine for boutique and solo practices but it doesn’t fit in the corporate law firm model.”

Do you agree? Is it possible there is a place for a managing partner to blog? How would that tip the scales in a positive direction?

If you were (or are) a managing partner, how do you think blogging might fit in your role managing your law firm? What sort of blog would it be? Topical, special interest stuff?  Would you write for your management colleagues, clients, corporate counsel, prospects or whom? Would you be afraid of transparency? Why would you want to share your thoughts and insights? What would you fear most; the competition or your clients learning more about you and your firm?

Here’s a list from the NewPRWiki.com of corporate leaders in the U.S. that are blogging. There are many more on the list from around the world, but by far the U.S. takes the lead. I haven’t had time to check each one. But of those I browsed, it made me think…there is a place for law firm leaders in the public blogsphere, outside of walled-garden peer-to-peer networking blogs. Do you? What are your ideas? Should a managing partner stick out their neck and buck the status quo?

United States of America

• Joe Agliozzo, CEO, BetterPPC – blogging since May 10, 2004
• Paul Allen, Founding Partner, Infobase Ventures – blogging since May 2004
• Robert Amberg, Cushman/Amberg Communications, Vice President – blogging since April 17, 2006
• Scott Anderson, Director of shared content, Tribune Publishing and Interactive – blogging since April 28, 2004
• David Armano, Creative VP, Digitas
• Marc Babej, President, Reason Inc. – blogging since July 28, 2005
• John Bailey, President, John Bailey & Associates, Inc.
• Jeff Barson, CEO, Surface Medical Spas – http://www.medicalspasonline.com/
• Randy Baseler, VP of Marketing, Boeing Commercial Airplanes – blogging since January 17, 2005
• Tiger Beaudoin, Vice President, Coalition Marketing, The Business Improvement Company – blogging since [[May 15, 2005]]
• Tom Berquist, CFO, Ingres
• Brock J. Blake, CEO, FundingUniverse.com
• Philip Blumberg, founder and CEO, American Ventures
• Matt Blumberg, CEO, Return Path – blogging since May 10, 2004
• Carole Brown, Chair, Chicago Transit Board – blogging since [[April 15, 2005]]
• Buzz Bruggeman, Founder, ActiveWords – blogging since January 10, 2002
• Harold Burson, Founding Chairman, Burson-Marsteller – blogging since February 15, 2006
• Jason McCabe Calacanis, Co-Founder & Chairman, Weblogs, Inc.
• Mark Carlson, CEO, SimpleFeed – blogging since September 24, 2004
• Brian Carroll, CEO, InTouch – blogging since Oct 31, 2003
• Jonathan Carson, CEO, BuzzMetrics – blogging since May 13, 2005
• Beth N. Carvin, Founder and CEO of Nobscot, blogging since August 23, 2002
• Karen Christensen, CEO, Berkshire Publishing Group – blogging since December 15, 2004
• David Churbuck, VP, Global Web Marketing, Lenovo – blogging since October 12, 2004
• Jeff Clavier, Managing Partner, SoftTech VC – blogging since July 22, 2004
• George F. Colony, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Forrester Research
• Henry Copeland, Founder, BlogAds – blogging since September 05, 2001
• Bob Cramer, President & CEO, LiveVault – blogging since June 3, 2005
• Colin Crawford, VP/Online, International Data Group – blogging since March 1, 2005
• Mike Critelli, Executive Chairman, Pitney Bowes, Inc. – blogging since June 12, 2007
• Michael M. Crow, Arizona State University President: The President’s Post – blogging since December 1, 2005
• Steve Cody, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Peppercom – blogging since July 11, 2005
• Marc Cuban, HDNET & Dallas Mavericks – blogging since March 12, 2004
• Dave Dargo, CTO, SVP, Ingres Corporation – blogging since March 31, 2006
• Ross Dawson, CEO, Advanced Human Technologies – blogging since October 5, 2002
• Brian Dear, Founder & CEO, EVDB, Inc. – blogging since February 1, 2002
• Joseph DePalma, CEO, Vertora, Inc. – blogging since February 17, 2005
• Chad Dickerson, CTO, InfoWorld – blogging since January 25, 2003
• Ed Dodds, Founder & CEO, <e-dodds.communications/> – blogging { in a manner of speaking } since December 23, 1996
• Scott Dow, founder, The Empower Network, blogging since September 14, 2004
• John Dragoon, Chief Marketing Officer, Novell
• Michael Dunn, VP, Hearst Interactive Media – blogging since January 19, 2002
• Tim Dyson, CEO, Next Fifteen, blogging since November 11, 2004
• Richard Edelman, President & CEO, Edelman – blogging since September 29, 2004
• Demian Entrekin, CEO, Project Arena – blogging since july 20, 2005
• John Estafanous, President, Estco Medical – blogging since December 16, 2004
• Brad Feld, Mobius Venture Capital – blogging since May 4, 2004
• Bill Flitter, CEO of Pheedo – blogging since February 29, 2004
• John S Flowers, Founder, nCircle Network Security & kozoru, Inc. – blogging since Feb 1, 2003
• Gil Friend, CEO, Natural Logic – blogging since June 11, 2002
• Leslie Gaines-Ross, Chief Reputation Strategist, Weber Shandwick
  • reputationXchange – blogging since May 20, 2006
  • reputation*watch (November 18, 2005–May 20, 2006)
• Scott Gatz, Senior Director of Personalization Products, Yahoo! – blogging since October 1, 2005
• Bahar Gidwani, CEO, Index Stock Imagery – blogging since June 24, 2004
• Frank Gilbane, President and CEO, Bluebill Advisors, Inc. – blogging since January 8, 2005
• Kathleen Gilroy, CEO, The Otter Group – blogging since February 20, 2004
• David Geller, CEO, WhatCounts, blogging since February 15, 2005
• Frank Gens, Senior Vice President – Research, IDC
• Terry Gold, CEO, Gold Systems – blogging since November 12, 2004
• Steve Goldstein, CEO, Alacra – blogging since March 23, 2004
• Dave Gray, Founder & CEO, XPLANE – blogging since August 21, 2005
• Diane Greene, President, VMware, Inc. – blogging since April 2, 2006
• Rex Hammock, President of Hammock Publishing, Inc. – blogging since August 28, 2000
• Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs – MarketingProfs Daily Fix
• Christopher Hannegan, SVP, U.S. Director of Employee Engagement, Edelman – blogging since May 18, 2005
• Dick Hardt, Founder & CEO, Sxip Networks – blogging since May 1, 2004
• Peter Himler, President, Publicity Club of New York, Principal, Flatiron Communications, LLC – blogging since June 2004
• Gene Hoffman, Co-founder and CEO, Vindicia – blogging since September 5, 2001
• Bradley Horowitz, Director, Technology Development Group of Yahoo! Search & Marketplace – blogging, since February 16, 2006
• JB Holston, CEO of NewsGator – blogging since June 4, 2003
• John Honovich, CEO/President, MaxPPS (maximum level physical protection systems) – blogging since April 7, 2005
• Michael Hyatt, Thomas Nelson Publishers
  • Working Smart – blogging since April 28, 2004
  • From Where I Sit – since March 29, 2005
• Kingsley Idehen, Founder and CEO, OpenLink Software – blogging since May 5, 2003
• Salim Ismail, Chairman and Co-founder, PubSub – blogging since December 13, 2005
• F. Nicholas Jacobs, President & CEO, Windber Research Institute and Windber Medical Center – http://windberblog.typepad.com/
• Jeff Jaffe, CTO, Novell – blogging since April 3, 2006
• Jeff Jarvis, President & Creative Director of Advance.nett – blogging since September 23, 2001
• Leslie Jump, CEO, Jump Walker International Group – http://www.marketerblog.net/
• Adam Kalsey, VP, thinkSMALL Advertising Network – blogging since March 11, 2000
• Sab Kanaujia, VP, NBC Digital Media group – blogging since December 2, 2006
• Dave Kellogg, President and CEO, Mark Logic Corporation – blogging since August 22, 2005
• Michael Kempner, President/CEO, MWW Group
• Denise Klarquist, VP of Operations, Cheskin – blogging since March 4, 2003
• Eric Kintz, Vice President, Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence, Hewlett-Packard Company – blogging since April 5, 2006
• Joe Kraus, co-founder and CEO, JotSpot, blogging since September 14, 2004
• Pran Kurup, President & CEO, Vitalect Technologies, blogging since July 8, 2004
• Jim Lejeal, CEO, Oxlo Systems – blogging since Sept 1, 2004
• Ted Leonsis, Vice Chairman, America Online, blogging since January 4, 2006
• [1]Paul Levy, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston, MA
• Jamie Lewis, CEO and Research Chair, Burton Group
• Phil Libin, CEO, Corestreet – blogging since February 2, 2004
• Bob Liodice, President and CEO, Association of National Advertisers – blogging since March 18, 2004
• Randy Littleson, VP, Marketing, Kinaxis – blogging since august 2005
• Steven Lubetkin, Managing Partner, Lubetkin & Co. Communications LLC, blogging since February 24, 2005.
• Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman, General Motors Corporation – blogging since January 5, 2005
• Kevin Lynch, Chief Software Architect, Macromedia – blogging since February 2, 2003
• Don MacAskill, CEO and Founder, smugmug – blogging since November, 1994 (entry lost to bitrot )
• Kenneth D. Makovsky, President, Makovsky + Company – blogging since January 9, 2006
• John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market – http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/blogs/jm/
• David Manaster, CEO, ERE Media, Inc – blogging since June 8, 2005
• Pat Matthews, CEO and Co-founder, Excedent Technologies & Webmail.us – blogging since October 7, 2004
• Tom Markiewicz, President & CEO, EvolvePoint, Inc. – http://www.tmarkiewicz.com/
• J. Willard Marriott Jr., CEO, Marriott International – http://www.blogs.marriott.com/
• Ross Mayfield, CEO, Socialtext – blogging since October 14, 2002
• Alan Meckler, CEO, Jupiter Media – blogging since December 6, 2003
• Robert Mendez, CEO, NetHawk Interactive – blogging since April 5, 2004
• Christopher Mengel, Razorwest: http://razorwest.typepad.com/marketing/
• Chris Mercer, CEO, Mercer Capital – blogging since April 2, 2005
• Lisa Meyers Brown, VP for Marketing, American Cancer Society’s Eastern Division, blogging since March 9, 2005
• Greg Milliken, CEO, Alibre, Inc.
• Ryan Money, CEO & Founder, HireVue, blogging since February 11, 2006
• Marty Morrow, CEO and founder, Quovix.com – blogging since 2002
• Vassil Mladjov, founder and CEO, Blogtronix – blogging since May 11, 2004
• Craig Newmark, customer service rep and founder, craigslist.org – blogging since September 11, 2003
• Ray Ozzie, former Founder, Chairman & CEO, Groove Networks – blogging since August 1, 2002; currently Chief Technical Officer of Microsoft, blogging at http://spaces.msn.com/members/rayozzie/Blog/
• Justin Rattner, CTO, Intel
• Tom O’Neill, CEO, Exodus Capital Advisors – blogging since April 25, 2005
• Kirsten Osolind, CEO, re:invention, inc. – blogging since July 11, 2003
• Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO, KDPaine& Partners, LLC – blogging since March 8, 2005
• Greg Papadopoulos, CTO, Sun Microsystems, blogging since February 7, 2005
• Bob Parsons, President, godaddy.com – blogging since December 16, 2004
• John R. Patrick, former Vice president of Internet Technology at IBM, on the boards of many organizations, including Opera Software, Jupiter Media and the Global Internet Project – blogging since August 17, 1997
• Michael Powell, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – blogging since July 7, 2004
  • … but is it a blog? Om Malik says it’s not. What do YOU think?
• Bob Pritchett, President, Logos Bible Software – blogging since August 14, 2003
• Jeff Pulver, CEO, Pulver.com – blogging since July 6, 2003
• Paul Purdue, President, iFulfill.com – blogging since May 2, 2005
• Kate Purmal, CEO, U3 – blogging since July 7, 2006
• Michael Pusateri, VP of Engineering, Disney ABC Cable Networks Group, blogging since January 21, 2000
• Peter Quintas, CTO, Silkware – blogging since April 21, 2004
• Darrel Rhea, Principal and CEO of Cheskin, blogging since April 9, 2003
• Glen Reid, CEO, Five Across – blogging since July 3, 2004
• Ed Roberto, CEO, Newmerix – blogging since Sept 30, 2004
• Will Ruch, Versant CEO and Managing Partner, blogging since March 1, 2005
• Eric Rudder, SVP Servers and Tools, Microsoft Corporation (the most senior Microsoft blogger?) – blogging since May 20, 2003
• Scott Ryan, CEO, architel – http://pd.architel.com/
• Andy Sack, CEO, Judy’s Book – blogging since Sept 17, 2004
• John Scherer, CEO & Founder, Video Professor, blogging since February 25, 2005
• Jonathan Schwartz, COO, Sun Microsystems – blogging since June 28, 2004
• Mark E. Seremet, CEO, Spreadshirt US – http://www.spreadshirtmedia.com/weblog/
• Steve Shu, COO, 21Publish – blogging since February 23, 2005
• Mark Sieczkarek, CEO, Conceptus Inc. – http://blog.conceptus.com/subtext/
• David Sifry, Founder and CEO of Technorati – blogging since January 8, 2002
• Steven Silvers, Principal and Director, GBSM – blogging since June 14, 2005
• Michael Smith, CEO, EntertainCom – blogging since March 10. 2005
• Anne Stanton, President and CEO, The Norwich Group – blogging since May 3, 2004
• Roger T. Staubach, chairman of the board and CEO, The Staubach Company – http://roger.staubach.com/
• Joshua Steimle, CEO, MWI – blogging since June 5, 2003
• Steven Streight, President, Streight Site Systems – blogging since May 31, 2004
• David Teten, CEO, Nitron Advisors – blogging since February 27, 2004
• Michael Tiemann, CTO, Red Hat
• Mena Trott, Co-founder and President, Six Apart – blogging since April 3, 2001
• Greg Verdino, VP/Emerging Channels, DIGITAS LLC
• Jeff Weiner, Senior VP of Search and Marketplace, Yahoo! – blogging since March 27, 2005
• Will Weider, CIO, Affinity Health Systems – blogging since June 7, 2003
• Alan L. Weinkrantz, President, Alan Weinkrantz And Company – blogging since December 1, 2004
• Joe Wikert, Vice President and Publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Professional/Trade division, blogging since February 19, 2005
• Steve Wilson, Senior Director of Global Web Communications, McDonald’s – blogging since September 18, 2005
• Charlie Wood, VP of Enterprise Solutions, NewsGator Technologies
• Bob Wyman, CTO and co-founder, PubSub, blogging since September 2, 2003
• Lester Wunderman, Chairman Emeritus and Founder, Wunderman – blogging since September 20, 2006
• Hu Yoshida, VP and CTO, Hitachi Data Systems – blogging since October 20, 2005
• Scott Young, President and CEO, UserLand Software – blogging since November 17, 2003

Related articles by Zemanta

• Want to break your law firm’s ignorance on blogging? Be the best informed person in the room. (kevin.lexblog.com)
• Boeing VP ponders blogging, Twitter and social media (seattlepi.com)
• Twitter’s impact on the news and media cycle (myventurepad.com)