Family Law, Divorce, Custody and Child Support Attorneys in Denver, Colorado

Web Technology and the Law

She opened the presentation with, “So this is an example of a web page..” Right then I knew it was going to be a long morning.

The presentation was on web marketing for lawyers and the presenter was a senior partner at a well known Denver firm who manages that firm’s technology needs. Billed as “What is Web Marketing”, I chose to attend so I could assess the level of sophistication of the lawyer population, in general. One should always keep an eye on the competition but I was also interested in whether the bar would approach web marketing as a positive tool for solving people’s legal needs or if they’d approach web technology as something to be feared. After 45 minutes of watching the two presenters – and the bar’s tech guy – struggle with the Power Point presentation, finally giving up and moving to an ad hoc paper presentation, the answer was clear.

I suppose I should be happy as a clam that my fellow lawyers know as much about internet marketing as my dog Dexter, but I’m not. Sadly, all of the wonderful expertise my fellow professionals have is wasted as a web resource. All of their knowledge and experience could be used to help people handle their own disputes, or at least minimize the ones we have to get involved in. Yet that treasure trove of information walled off from the very people who need it most.

How is it walled off? Primarily, most lawyers don’t take the time to use the web as a resource themselves, educating themselves along the way on the new and exciting tools available out there for communicating with and informing clients and potential clients. Secondly, the rules that govern professional conduct are so outdated and yet enforced so rigidly, that lawyers get scared off and don’t even try to use the web as a tool to help these folks.

At a time when most businesses are evaluating collaborative work spaces, like SharePoint, and implementing cloud computing solutions, like Wave, my fellow lawyers are arguing about whether “friending” a judge on Facebook somehow creates an improper relationship. Seriously?

Today’s tools – blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube – may not be the same tools we use tomorrow, but in this world of fast moving technology solutions, the goal shouldn’t be to master any single one of them. The goal is to constantly be open and listening to all of them, adjusting your strategy with the emergence of each new tool.