The Velvet Hammer™ -

Back when I was an  defense lawyer, this is how the firm got business.  The partners golfed with, rubbed shoulders at clubs with, went golfing and to four star dinners with insurance and corporate key persons.  The firm maintained these relationships and periodically was able to build a new relationship with yet another company.  These relationships could last for decades. 

Marketing is a kind of dirty word for plaintiff attorneys who represent “the little people.”  We don’t want to do it (or at least most of us don’t want to).  But we need to let the public know who we are.  Otherwise, they’ll simply call the lawyers who bark the loudest.  Through tv ads.  Or billboards.  Or even in some gross cases – by direct mail when there’s been a disaster. 

Fly down to Vegas  to go see what Lawyernomics has to say.  Expect to be surrounded by rabid marketers.  Instead, am rather pleasantly surprised.   Because for every two super aggressive widget counters, there is someone who simply wants to figure out how to shine their light.  Plus the speakers are really good. 

Visit with Kevin and Colin O’Keefe – their company Lexblog.com houses this blog.  Chat with Mark Britton and the folk from Aavo – lawyers ignore this consumer focused site at their own risk.  Listen to Sam Glover of Lawyerist.com give my favorite talk of the conference.  Since he reads it, here it is:

http://lawyerist.com/why-your-blog-sucks-and-what-to-do-about-it-lawyernomics/

But wait.  It’s not quite over.  The woman in the front row gruffly warns people not to believe Sam.  She doesn’t like the recommendation that a blog be separate from a law firm website.  She charges:  I did it your way. But after seeing hardly any result, I moved it back to my website and it zoomed up Google rankings.

Sam blinks and says:  I don’t care.

Yeah.  That’s the right response.  

Because most lawyers who write blogs are doing it to get business.  The focus is on moving up google, or getting clicks. 

Not in writing something that people actually may want to read.

So why waste your breath.

Photo:  Kevin O'Keefe and I at the conference.

Once upon a time four young lawyers decided they hated practicing law.  So they became comedians.  Part of their gig involved creating a podcast.  Which they needed content for. 

One day one of the comedians, Matt Ritter,  saw that The Velvet Hammer blog was the number one trial practice blog for the ABA.  He thought that was neat.  Called.  And the rest is comedians at law podcast history.

What is nice about this format, is that it is totally random and interactive.  Real time.  No rehearsal.  No script.  No telepromters.   Unlike heavily scripted and edited t.v.  We go at it until time is out.  

Here is the  Episode:  http://comediansatlaw.podomatic.com/entry/2013-02-10T21_40_13-08_00.     Velvet Hammer starts halfway through.

Am lost.  Have made it to North Seattle University but need to find the media room in the education building. 

Ask student - Do you know where it is.  Nope.

Ask another and another. No No No.  Give up.  Go to library. The person at the desk says go down back up over and behind there.  Do so.  Find the building. But where's the room.  Student with earphones packs up computer, iphone, coffer, binder and escorts me to the room.  What a sweetheart.

Enter it ten minutes late.  Visions of angry technicians dancing in my head.  Nope.   Bill Budigan - the attorney host who has invited me - isn't even there.  He ends up being half an hour late.  This means, I talk to (different) Bill and Keith.  Or rather they talk to me about things like the Occupy movement and common law legislators (a concept I don't exactly understand).  Bill is prolific in his ability to speak without breathing.  Wow.

This is public access t.v.  Pretty cool when you think about it.  No commercials.  A forum for people to spread their message.  Up to now, I have no idea what the message is that I'm supposed to be spreading.  Have just come to talk about...whatever.

Bill shows up.  He's done this 26 times and tells me to look at the little red light that appears on different cameras.  The cameras roll.  No rehearsing, stopping, cutting, editing.  No one to power my nose.  There are crumbs and stains on the ugly blue cotton table cloth.  But who cares.  We sit there and talk about whatever we feel like for an hour.

Someone will probably watch it at 4:00 a.m.  We are not exactly prime time material.  But so what.  We got to be on t.v.

Am feeling like pious good mom.  Am going with Noelle to see "Never Say Never" - the Justin Bieber movie.  She's seen it once but wants me to see it with her. 

We drive to Jimmy Johns.  She gets tuna. I get veggie wrapped in a lettuce leaf.  They make them both in two minutes flat.  I give them a tip.  They try to give it back because apparently they aren't allowed to have tips - why not who knows.  Noelle sticks the wrapped tasty morsels in her purse.  Has to crunch them up a little.  Movie theater doesn't like healthy food. 

Drive to Bella Bottega theater.  Get tickets, popcorn (admit am addicted though gave up crude oil butter), expensive drinks and find seats since only about a dozen other girls (with their moms) are there on a Tuesday at 5:15 pm.

Did I mention it is 3D.  We have big glasses on.  I take a dramamine. 

Movie starts with Youtube clips.  Home movies.  Photos.  It is Bieber Fever time.  And I catch it!  Eat secret sandwich.  Munch some popcorn.  Movie is very jerky.  Have to take second dramamine about half way through it.  This means become somewhat drugged and begin dozing just a little.  It is involuntary I assure you as am mesmerized.

The crying screaming girls.  The cute boy.  All his crew and friends.  He's on stage.  Always picks out a girl from the audience to sing "Lonely Girl" to during concerts.  They are crying.  I am too.  Noelle is laughing at me.  So typical. 

Am now a convert.  A true believer.  I have the Bieber Fever!

But aside from how adorable he is, there are some lessons to be learned.  Signs of the times.  Things that we should take note of.

• He arose from nowhere.  A boy raised by single teenage mom and her parents.  No music lessons.  Nothing but a love of playing instruments, singing, dancing and playing sports.
• The family had no financial resources.
• He did not go through the traditional kid star singer/dancer route of being discovered by Disney.  He didn't make it onto American Idol, the other option.
• His mom made a poor quality youtube clip with him singing either acapella or with a simple acoustic guitar.  These were posted for friends and family.  They forwarded them to their friends.  People would make requests.  He would then sing, video  and post them.  Ultimately these went viral.
• A young no-name agent/manager in his twenties saw a youtube clip.  Then another and another and went to meet Bieber and his mom.  This guy had no real resources and very limited contacts.  But he and Bieber had a vision.
• They made contacts.  But the record executives expected Bieber to "be developed."  This could take years.  This wasn't in the vision.
• They recorded a song.  Took Bieber on the road where he met radio DJs in person and sang his song with the guitar on the air, even if they weren't playing his record. 
• The personalized approach was magnified when Bieber began texting on Twitter.  His fan base began to explode.
• Within a span of 1.5 years from the date he moved to Atlanta to begin his record career, Bieber went from singing to groups of under 100 people, to selling out giant stadiums.  He has 22 Million followers on Facebook.  7.5 million followers on Twitter.

The phenomenum of Bieber is a testament to his own charisma and talent.  But social media and networking have made it possible. 

For those of us who dismiss the "whole internet thing" as a big time waster, here are two important words:  wake up!

I look at the clock - 7:40 am - and wonder what is on my plate today.  Pull calendar off phone - 8:00 am breakfast meeting Library Bistro.  Crap!

Wash face, brush teeth, throw on warm outfit, run out the door, drive across town (2nd Avenue is the best- lights are syncronized) and find a place to park where the meter is broken.  I wonder if I'll get a ticket.  Run into restaurant ten minutes late (sorry) and there waiting in a cozy corner is a man I met last week on the internet. 

Umm, my oh my Karen how bold you are.  Yeah.  I suppose so.  But this is no ordinary man.  This is Kevin O'Keefe and I met him via Twitter.  And yes, this is the mommy who has told her girls never talk to strangers. 

I have been reading his posts for about a week, looking at articles he has  linked to, and seeing that other lawyers know him.  One of his tweets mentions the local restaurant Palace Kitchen and when I ask him about it he says he lives in Seattle.  So we decide to get together.  Boom like Lightning.

Kevin is a former plaintiff trial lawyer from Wisconsin who heads a lawyer blogging empire known as LexBlog.  He tells me his story for the next hour and a half.   http://kevin.lexblog.com/.     I can't tell you what he says cause that's his story to tell.  But I am enthralled with his vision and ethos.  Plus his company turns out to have designed some of the lawyer blogs I'm most impressed with (like Bill Marler's).

I am a hard sell.  He doesn't even try.  He  doesn't need to.   I keep interrupting him wanting more info.  I am an info hog.  Breakfast ends, we hustle out the door.  There's no ticket on my car.  I drive him to his office down the street because he's late to his next appointment.

And that folks, is how the internet puts strangers in touch with one another and creates new life opportunities... (trying to snap my fingers) just like that.

I hit the wrong key and think - did I just hit the wrong key?

Flashback about ten years ago.  We are just getting into the whole email thing.  Cautiously because we are lawyers and about five years behind everyone else.  There are about 500 of us trial lawyers on a listserve.  It is changing the way we know and can help each other.  Very cool indeed!

One day I post something and a friend emails me back with a question.  What is DART?  I tell her it is a group of male attorneys who have appointed themselves as the best plaintiff trial lawyers in the state.  I say a couple of other things that are hmmm not really derogatory but certainly a bit flippant and of course highly disrespectful.  I hit that send button and  the message goes to all 500 instead of the 1. 

You know that feeling.  That kind of slightly sick feeling where you start to sweat even though you are suddenly cold?  Yeah, well I get that feeling.  I then reassure myself with the thought that it's ok, they're old (rhymes with darts) and probably don't know how to use the listserve anyway.  Wrong.  One of them emails me back.  And then to make sure the others don't miss it either, he sends it by old fashioned postal service to each member of the group .

Now there was a bit of a brouhahahahaha afterwards, but that isn't the point of this story so I'm not going into all of it.  Some of it was funny, some of it was not.  But it all ended just fine and dandy and I'm still here typing so obviously it wasn't too catastrophic. 

Fast forward to the land of facebook, twitter and the Kardashians.  The lawyers' email listserve is still going strong.  A few of them have ventured into FB.   But for the most part, the lawyers are mainly interested in trying to keep the insurance companies out of their clients' social networking.    

The few that use twitter or blog (using a generality here - there are exceptions for example Paul Luvera's personal blog; Justin Walsh's appellate law blog) do so specifically to increase website traffic and get clients.  I've spent some time looking at the various law sites, and I have to say - it's kind of ucky.  There said it.  Okay, let's be real here.  If your tweet is to post each new car collision and a link to your website every few hours, does that have any chance of fostering a healthy respect for our profession.  If you hire someone to blog for you - how exactly is that different from having someone take your test for you in school and pass it off as your own.

Am I in trouble yet?  Probably.  But the very fact that I can have my own opinion and put it out there for whatever it's worth to whomever wants to give it the time of day - that's the great fun of blabbing to the world.