Over at Network-Lawyers, Jerry Lawson posts a comment about the legitimization of blogs, noting that the most recent issue of inbox, the newsletter of Jaffe Associates, endorses blogs as one of the hottest trends of the coming year.

“If there is an ‘establishment’ when it comes to law firm marketing,” Lawson writes, “Jaffe Associates would have to be included.” Kevin O’Keefe follows with the comment, “Jaffe is saying that blogs are a good tool for large firm lawyers to share their expertise and presumably build their reputations.”

Having joined Jaffe last August as vice president of editorial services, and director of its WritersForLawyers, I have two comments on this:

1. While Jaffe may be an “establishment” firm in terms of its longevity, it is anything but in terms of its energy and creativity.

2. If anyone needs proof of the value of blogging to lawyers in larger firms, just look at Howard Bashman, a partner at 350-lawyer Buchanan Ingersoll.

Lawson, of course, knows this well, as he made clear through his great article, Web Logs For Lawyers: Lessons from Ernie the Attorney. And O’Keefe just today posted a thoughtful piece on blogs as reputation builders.

At Jaffe, we have made blogs a standard element of our consulting with larger law firms on their Web sites. We build blogs for law firms and even help them plan and execute the editorial content. Clearly, there are many lawyers in larger law firms who have not even heard of blogs, but the people at law firms who are responsible for marketing are intensely interested in them.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.