The Record (Bergen County, NJ)
December 14, 2007

Lawyers network flourishes online
by KEVIN G. DeMARRAIS

Like many Internet pioneers, Steven Choi discovered a void and dreamed up a way to fill it.

Now he's watching his enterprise grow while potential competitors - and perhaps potential acquirers - monitor its progress.

The business is LawLink, a professional and social networking site for attorneys. Spurred by positive stories in several publications, including the American Bar Association Journal, its membership has gone from zero to 2,500 since its launch in August, and new members sign up daily.
"It's been pretty great since we launched," Choi said from his Oakland, Calif., office. "It's definitely more than we thought. I think there's a lot of potential. It's free, it's easy."

Choi, an attorney specializing in personal injury cases, admits that 2,500 members is still a "pitifully small" percent of the million-plus attorneys in the United States, and that he needs a critical mass of 100,000 "for the site to be viable."

Still, there is no arguing with the early success of what Choi calls "the first social networking site exclusively for attorneys."

Part of the response comes from curiosity, he said. "Social networking sites are big these days, even for attorneys who are notoriously slow with new technologies."

Although he uses the term "social networking," this is not meant primarily as a means of increasing social contacts (although there is a "personals" section). Rather, that is the term used in the Internet industry to describe sites such as MySpace and Facebook in which users establish networks with one another, he said.

One big selling point has been the site's exclusivity, Choi said.

"We screen all applicants," he said. Before anyone can participate, LawLink verifies the credentials and that the person is a licensed attorney in at least one state.

The fact that all applicants are screened was a selling point for Shauna Bryce of Montclair, a Harvard law graduate who owns a résumé-writing service, Résumé Galleria.

"It was the only network of its kind I had heard of, where it was just for attorneys," Bryce said.

She signed up in September after reading about LawLink in the ABA Journal and has used the membership role to help match clients with possible jobs.
LawLink also includes job listings. Choi said he is working with several career sites to create a possible joint venture and to get their listings on his site.

But the main appeal is that it promises to help an attorney do his job better, Choi said. "Lawyers really benefit from networking with each other.
"Unlike a lot of other professions, by definition, we interact with other attorneys as a key part of what we do. A litigator is always litigating against another attorney. Other professions are more solo."

The site encourages litigators - or personal injury lawyers, or divorce specialists or any other field - to exchange ideas with others in the field.
Also, because lawyers often practice in narrow fields, "and clients don't always appreciate that we specialize in this, but don't do that," networking helps identify specialists in those other fields to whom you can refer your clients, Choi said.

Choi was surprised at how many older, more established lawyers have joined. Part of that could be that word of the network has spread most heavily within more established outlets, he said.

Membership is free, so potential members have little to lose, Bryce said. Also, because the high cost of some directories is "outside the range for a lot of small practitioners," LawLink has the potential to attract attorneys from various disciplines, including business and academia, so "it has the potential of being a much more comprehensive directory."

Without membership fees, the enterprise continues to be funded by Choi and some associates who hope to cash in eventually through advertising, joint ventures or an eventual sale of the company.

LawLink has been contacted "by major players, the well-known guns in the law industry," he said.

They are watching its development to determine whether to start a competing site or to allow Choi to suffer the growing pains and, if he is successful, to buy him out.