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The
Journal Record (Oklahoma City, OK)
October
23, 2007
Attorneys tend to be a "clubby" lot,
says California lawyer Steven Choi.
They have all sorts of legal organizations, and one attorney
may belong to several.
A couple of years ago Choi saw a major
gap: No social-networking Internet site dedicated to the
special needs of him and his legal colleagues.
"I was kind of surprised," he said. "Attorneys
network so much with each other."
In late August, Choi
and his partners launched LawLink, a screened-access site
for licensed attorneys that has drawn more than 2,000 members
in two short months.
Choi said about
25 of them are Oklahoma attorneys, most from Oklahoma City.
He said online networking is easier
than its offline counterpart.
"You can meet so many more attorneys all over the country
in different fields, much easier," Choi said. "That
is the benefit. "
Attorneys benefit from getting to know
other lawyers, he added.
"We all specialize in such small, narrow areas of practice
that the field of law covers probably, I don't know, a hundred
specialty areas, and each attorney practices in one," Choi
said. "But you have a client base that has all kinds
of legal needs."
He said every attorney has clients
ask whether they take certain kinds of cases, or know a lawyer
who does.
"Attorneys are always referring their clients to other
attorneys, and vice versa," Choi said. "Most attorneys,
as they build their practice, rely on other attorneys to
refer business to them."
Networking also provides attorneys
an avenue for sharing information about legal issues, judges,
experts and other matters with each other, he said.
The site is set up to facilitate interaction among members,
he said.
Choi said LawLink's job listings, which
currently total more than 100, are also a popular feature.
"We're adding new features," he added.
One of these
is the ability for members to create law groups, which may
be based on practice areas, geography, firms or other factors.
Choi said these may be private and open only to certain members,
if their creators so choose.
Another upcoming
feature is a blog aggregator.
Unlike some
blogs and other sites, Choi said, there is no anonymity in
LawLink.
"Everybody's identified by name," he said. "That
means we can then provide bloggers with information about
who's visiting their blog."
Choi said members will be
able to rate blog entries, and the site will be able to provide
information on numbers of visitors and other data.
Choi acknowledges that there are
good and bad sides to lack of anonymity.
"Sometimes people want to be anonymous when they're
going through the Web," he said. "But there's no
anonymity on LawLink. You are who you are. "
LawLink is a purely professional site, he said.
"If you don't want to participate as who you really
are, then you've got to go to a different site," Choi
said.
Initially, LawLink had a personals
section, but that has been removed.
Choi said that decision was based on nonuse and the fact
that some attorneys complained that it was not appropriate.
He
said LawLink's creators thought that the site would attract
mainly new attorneys in their 20s, but that has not been
the case.
"It turns out it's just the opposite," he said.
That
may be a product of how word of the site is getting around,
mainly from articles in newspapers and legal publications,
Choi added.
"We've probably spent $100 on advertising," he
said.
He estimated that the average age of
a LawLink member is probably 30 or older.
"It is definitely more established attorneys," Choi
said.
Choi distinguishes LawLink from Lawbby,
which was created by non-attorneys, and the fledgling LegalOnramp,
still in the build-up phase, which is targeted at in-house
legal departments and corporate attorneys.
"Our model is pretty much based on these very large
networking sites like MySpace and Facebook," he said.
Currently
LawLink does not carry ads, although Choi has received several
inquiries in that area.
"It's designed to accept advertising," said. "We're
just not accepting any advertising yet. " |
