My legal education began after law school when I started working for Dakota County’s largest employer: Thomson Reuters.  I sold Westlaw online legal research and print publications to new and existing customers, all of them sole practitioners and small law firms.

During my tenure as a sales representative, I learned the features of Westlaw inside and out – as I learned the lawyer’s mind inside and out – through 50 cold calls a day, relating to varied personalities, and closing contracts.  My job in sales was to market our products to lawyers. 

In my current role as attorney editor at FindLaw, my job is to market the legal services of those same lawyers to prospective clients.  I am still a “humble peddler”, as a fellow cube mate in sales often said; instead of hawking the company’s wares, I hawk those of the lawyer.

I am uniquely situated for this – like every member of my team – not only because I am a lawyer but because I grew up fused to the computer since birth.  I understand the Web’s mind as I understand the lawyer’s. 

The lawyer craves authoritative pillow talk on the common law.  The Web, however, craves hits and clicks.  My job is to introduce hits and clicks to the common law and create a Web site with, as we say at FindLaw, “well-written content specifically designed to achieve your business goals – the conversion of Web visitors to clients.”    

When Mr. Smith is charged with drunk driving, you want the Web and the lawyer to understand each other.  If they do, Mr. Smith will be client Smith, and that’s lawyer marketing.