Will Blog For China "Dream" Job

The July 9 issue of the National Law Journal has an article entitled, "Law blogs can be a successful strategy for job seekers," and CLB's own Travis Hodgkins is pictured and the focus.

Well, okay, he's not really with CLB, but he is with Harris & Moure and he has done a post on here, so let's not get too technical. The point of the article is that law student blogging can lead to big things:

Second-year law student Travis Hodgkins didn't land his summer associate position through top-notch grades, a position on law review or through the traditional on-campus interviewing process.
He landed his dream job by blogging.

Hodgkins, who will begin his third year at University of California Hastings College of the Law, is spending this summer working in Shanghai, China, for Seattle-based law firm Harris & Moure, a job he was offered after name partner Dan Harris messaged him on his law blog, www.transnationallawblog.com, which focuses on events in international law.

"The reality is we never would have hired Travis if not for his blog," said Harris.

For many law students, keeping up a professional blog has become another way to make employment connections. It enables an employer to see students' writing ability and knowledge about a particular subject and, more importantly, it shows that the student is motivated, innovative and takes initiative, Hodgkins said.

"A blog is like a huge billboard sign that is saying to the entire blogosphere, 'I'm a law student that has studied these areas of law and I need a job,' " he said.

I am then quoted regarding the subjects on which law students should blog:

Which is why it is important that if a student wants to attract employers, the substance of the blog should be about a particular area of the law, rather than just a personal journal, said Harris.
"It matters hugely what the person writes about," he said. "Travis' blog contributed in the sense that those who write on China law felt they needed to stop by the site every day to make sure they weren't missing anything."

Though it is true we would never have hired Travis without his blog, the reality is that his blog merely brought him to our attention. Before hiring him we met up with him in person. But it is really quite interesting how blogging is transferring the legal landscape.

For those interested in reading more on legal blogging, I highly recommend the Real Lawyers Have Blogs blog, written by my friend and fellow Seattleite (if one counts Bainbridge Island), Kevin O'Keefe. Oh, and Travis's blog, with a great new post on one of my favorite subjcts, Paris Hilton, can be found here.

Now if I could just figure out how to adjust the damn font size on this new system!

Comments

Dan, I noticed that you're active on avvo.com. What do you think of the site?

Posted by: David Yu | July 6, 2007 8:31 AM

David Yu --

Not sure what you mean regarding "active," but both Steve and I have updated our profiles. My partner, Charles Moure, is friends with Mark Britton, president of Avvo, and Mark and I actually talked very generally about the project long before it actually went live. I am also friends with one of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit against Avvo. His name is Alan Wenokur and he is a fine bankrutpcy lawyer whose ranking showed up at 6.5 simply because Avvo had no information on him whatsoever, because he is a solo without a website.

I think the ratings themselves are, in many circumstances, a good indicator of lawyer quality. Bad lawyers do not generally win awards, get articles published, and get asked to speak on the law. But there are exceptions.

There is also Martindale Hubbell, in which lawyers and judges rate their peers. I believe Martindale requires 50 people rate you so it really is quite a survey. Peer review can be really accurate. I think Martindale says an AV rating (the highest) means you are in the top 15% of all lawyers. I don't necessarily believe this is true (so nobody says I am whining here, I will note that both my firm and I are AV), but I do know that I have yet to encounter an AV rated lawyer who is not at least competent. I know many lawyers who are not AV who are quite good, but getting an AV is at least some guarantee. I think getting a "Superb" from Avvo is similar.

So if someone is both AV and "superb" from Avvo, that has to mean something.

Posted by: China Law Blog | July 7, 2007 2:09 PM

I talked at length with a friend who has crossed paths with many of your friends because my friend was and still is involved in the start-up business world in the Seattle area.

We both have our opinions on which sectors of the legal profession and consumer base avvo will serve. Most of my friends are partners or associates at big New York or San Francisco firms, and they don't use avvo at all. When I told them about the site, all of them instinctively looked up people like Marty Lipton and Larry Sonsini and joked about how they're rated higher than Marty and Larry and how they should get 9.7 for "modesty." They, being the hot shot big firm partners (and honesty is not always their strength, if you know what I mean), don't see any value in avvo at all. I think avvo's value is that it serves a previously under-served segment, but I guess it's still important to get the respect of the legal profession even if you're not serving most of the profession. I think the initial ratings were somewhat premature and sometimes even laughable but they've improved it. I'd be interested in seeing how much traction they eventually get.

I posted my comment under this topic because I hope chinalawblog has helped your business. I hope you don't take this the wrong way but your business sounds like it serves the "smaller people," and it fills a necessary gap large firms wouldn't touch. Your blog probably helps you connect with clients who need your service, and it's another example of how the internet is empowering.

Posted by: David Yu | July 8, 2007 12:08 PM

China Law Blog

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