Because Im bad for business, I've only been invited to a few, well, two, social media/tech conferences to talk about the sewer that lawyers have made of the the internet.
My other speaking engagements are limited to boring conferences, like talking to real lawyers who have real practices and actually believe that ethics play a part in marketing and law, and law students who are looking to not go afoul of the Bar Rules.
So last week I was invited to address an early morning Professional Responsibility class at a local law school. They chuckled, they asked questions, some stayed after to ask more questions, but most played on their laptops (some followed me on twitter as I was saying the most important things they've ever heard- so I thought), and for the most part, they got up and left and went to their next class or took a nap or something.
One student sent me an email. She wanted to say thanks but was admittedly too busy to stay after for that purpose. Apparently staying after class to commiserate with some old relic from the 90's was less important than her own studies, which I appreciated.
In her email, she told me about a recent presentation she gave to a local Bar Association (the 4th largest in the country) on ethics in advertising and the newly proposed Florida Bar Rules.
No, I'm not kidding. Apparently the law school has some clinical internship program where law students can do these types of things. Apparently, she was interested in this topic.
I asked her to send me the presentation. It was pretty impressive. Actually, it was first-rate kind of stuff. We'll talk more about it when I take her to lunch in a couple weeks. (Yes, there was a small lesson in that paragraph.)
So this got me thinking, besides all the law students we read about in the blawgosphere who are suing their law school for forcing them to attend based on promises of jobs, or whining about why lawyers don't see how incredibly epic and awesome they are, what the other ones doing?
That's my question.
Is this law student I met an anomoly? Are there others out there that ignore the economy, the crowd of crybabies, and the social media hacks that promise them wealth and fame by keyboard and instead have engaged in interesting projects that may result in a lawyer out there actually taking interest?
Take a minute from begging people to "Like" your Facebook Fan Page and let me know.
I'm interested. Really.
Non-anonymous comments welcome. Located in Miami, Florida, Brian Tannebaum practices Bar Admission and Discipline and Criminal Defense. He is the author of I Got A Bar Complaint.
Monday, October 3, 2011
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1 comment:
I don't consider myself an impressive law student, but I do refuse to accept that there are no jobs out there or that any future lack of work is my law school's fault. I've recently started a service for attorneys where they can hire qualified law students to do freelance legal research. My goal is to get real experience for law students and for attorneys to get quality research quickly.
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