Another great post sourced from this month’s Blawg Review is US attorney Brett Trout’s Why Lawyers Should Not Blog.

The culture of some law firms is simply not conducive to blogging. Blogging simply emphasizes the firm culture. If the law firm is filled with quality attorneys, blogs will are beneficial, not only to the law firm, but to their clients as well.

If the firm has its share of overbilling, underqualified lawyers who would have difficulty practicing their way out of a wet paper bag, however, it is a different story. In a law firm which routinely oversells and underdelivers, a blog would simply make this apparent to prospective clients BEFORE they hired the law firm. It would also provide clients a forum to comment on the job they believe the law firm did for them.

I commend you to view the original post and read Brett’s blog, but cannot resist quoting in full his list of reasons why some law firms should probably not blog:

Scared what the attorneys might say
Lots and lots of secrets
Right hand does not know what the left is doing
Figure the less clients know the better
The lawyers are bad writers
The firm lacks personality
The lawyers lack smarts, honesty, talent etc.
The lawyers at the top are control freaks
Firm does not work and play well with others
Lacks basic communication skills
Culturally neither open nor transparent
Not concerned about clients once they are in the door
Scared what past clients will say
Lots of disgruntled employees
The firm is pure evil (’cause you cannot fool the Blogosphere forever)