While speaking at last week’s Law Firm Growth Management Conference in New York, I met fellow speaker Arnie Hertz of Legal Sanity.  Arnie, and his fellow panel members Jonathan Frieden, Jim Hassett and Peter Marx shared advice on maximizing law firm blogs to enhance visibility and showcase expertise.

Arnie’s current Legal Sanity blog post on this topic raises another important, but not often mentioned, advantage of having young lawyers blog for their law firms:  fostering meaningful relationships between senior attorneys and “often marginalized and disengaged” young attorneys.  Arnie aptly notes that allowing young lawyers to blog for their firm sends a message that the firm values them and wants to keep them engaged.

Law firms with international practices would particularly benefit from this strategy. Many international firms reserve work on sophisticated international litigation, arbitration and business transactions for the cream of the crop–the cognoscenti. And so, many young attorneys have a hard time getting any real international experience. 

Yet, as globalization spreads, more and more young attorneys are drawn to the international field. So, how can law firms keep these aspiring international lawyers engaged and cut down on costly attrition?

Allowing young lawyers to draft firm blog posts (albeit with supervision and final sign off) would engage young associates in a way that taps into their Generation Y values.  It’s also a way to give young lawyers a taste of the international practice when putting them to work on a particular client matter doesn’t make economic sense (due to international travel costs etc…) 

Recent law grads also enter law firms full of energy and eagerness.  Their writing skills are also fresh from the law journal grind. Why not tap into that energy for your firm’s blog?