CHINA ESQUIRE

This is sort of a follow up on my previous post about networking tips for law students (see here), hence the title, but also in response to the fact that blogging made the cover of the California Lawyer Magazine this month. I found the main article to be a re-hash of most such articles because of the content:

• lawyer blogging is booming (a 3500% jump in 5 years, which is no surprise)
• attorneys have many reasons to blog: to build a reputation in a specialty, attract clients, monitoring a legal niche, starting a conversation with a community of interest, etc. (common sense, no surprise again)
• the downside of blogging (lawyers are often technophobes and trolls are annoying, nothing new)
• future of blogging (no real information, just some pretty lame speculation)

However, the magazine provided 7 tips for blogging. Since I had counseled law students to learn about blogging and start their own blogs (or join the staff of a blog which has multiple authors like Transnational Law Blog), I thought I would put up some excerpts of the tips:

1. THINK GLOBALLY
In blogging, even though it feels like you’re sharing your thoughts with an intimate circle of friends, remember that millions of Internet users around the world will be able to read-and react to-what you’ve written.

This is even more important if you are taking on an international niche–then you really do need to think globally.

2. MANAGE YOUR READING REQUIREMENTS
Everyone already has too much to read, and the popularity of blogs is an added burden. But to be a well-regarded blogger, you really need to keep up with what fellow bloggers are saying. “Blogs act as funnels,” says Kevin O’Keefe, president of Seattle consulting firm LexBlog. “It’s like you have an intelligence agent that puts things in perspective for you.”

It is possible to follow a dozen or two dozen blogs without taking too much time if you have RSS or a standard bookmark list that you check once or twice a day. No need to keep on reading a blog over and over because there will be new stuff eventually.

3. KEEP IT CIVIL
If you wind up in a heated online spat but aren’t familiar with the tone and behavior expected in the blogosphere, resist the urge to respond immediately.

4. JOIN THE CONVERSATION (BUT IGNORE THE TROLLS)
When someone blogs misinformation about you, your firm, or an issue you are involved in, you should go ahead and set the record straight online. “The remedy for false speech is more speech,” says JoAnne Speers, executive director and ethics program director of the Institute for Local Government in Sacramento.  However, if you encounter a rabid, screaming, and pertinacious blogger-often referred to as a troll-you might want to hang back.

Just common sense, though I slightly disagree with #4. One thing is that when “trolls” abound, in general, just let them be. That usually works well. It’s the debate that will keep them coming back. No debate, moderate their comments, and you will be just fine.

5. FOLLOW OFFLINE RULES ONLINE
For the most part, you can avoid getting in hot water while blogging. “Use the same standard of ethics and decorum that applies to any medium,” including a person-to-person conversation, Speers advises.

Remember you are a professional. If you are a to-be lawyer, what you say will be remembered by the lawyer blog community. It’s a small community. So be professional always.

6. ABANDON ANONYMITY
Although it may be tempting to launch an anonymous blog in which you can speak freely, keep in mind that anonymous bloggers rarely stay anonymous. “Eventually, you are going to get found out,” says Kristie D. Prinz, founder of the California Biotech Law Blog. Howell agrees. “It’s not that difficult to figure out who someone is,” she says. Just ask Rick Frenkel, a lawyer at Cisco Systems. Shortly after his anonymous blog-Patent Troll Tracker-was outed this year, two Texas patent attorneys sued Frenkel and Cisco for defamation. Cisco has since revised its blog policy.

As a law student, I think this is a definite must. You need to be known in the community, and anonymity will hurt you. Of course, this assumes you are writing an informative blog and not something like Anonymous Lawyer (by Jeremy Blachman I believe).

7. SPEAK FOR YOURSELF
A blog is not the place for corporate blather or marketing blasts-it’s a place of personality. Keep that in mind as you write, suggests J. Craig Williams, a Newport Beachbased litigator. “Blogging by committee is bland and dry,” he says. “What makes blogging successful is voice. The most important thing is to be yourself.”

I also disagree with #7. Some blogs do it quite well, so I don’t think that’s a reason to stay away from group blogs. You can still develop your personal voice in a committee blog, especially when your partners aren’t going to heavily edit your work.

I hope this helps!

I have law students asking me for career advice all the time. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that I was a Mentorship Committee Co-chair for the Asian American Bar Association ( AABA) for the past 3 years. And I don’t mind. Really.

One constant question is about how to network with people. How can you network with people who are doing what you want to do? Well, let’s assume you are a law student interested in doing international law in China. Yes, that’s a little different than just networking at your local bar association because your interests are more focused. But there are still a number of ways:

1. Go to the right conferences. The international law community is pretty small actually. Especially in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you can’t actually work with them, then at least try to meet the lawyers doing the stuff at conferences. I post about new conferences that relate to international law constantly. Stay tuned here and you won’t miss too much about local conferences.
2. Take classes taught by actual practitioners who have the experience that you want to get. Locally, Tom Klitgaard of my old firm Dillingham & Murphy, and a China expert, teaches an Asian Comparative Law course at the University of San Francisco ( USF). Tom is always opening up his network to promising USF law students who express interest. My partner, Bart Selden, teaches International Business Transactions and Intellectual Property courses at various universities, including Golden Gate University ( GGU). He even hires some of his students to be interns at the firm. When I was at Hastings, I took corporations with Anna Han of White & Case (and SCU Professor), another China business attorney. (though we never spoke about the topic because I was only interested in litigation at the time, and corporations was merely a bar course)
3. Talk to people. Dan Harris at China Law Blog makes himself available for questions constantly. (I should know, I’ve asked some) When you see an article or blog post you like, contact the author. Do informational interviews locally with people who you want to meet. The worst thing you can do is be timid and afraid. Don’t be.
4. Just get out there. Do a summer exchange program your 1L summer in China. Preferably one of those that allow you to take classes and intern at a local Chinese law firm. That’s a good experience and will let you meet people (and hopefully learn something). This applies to not only China, but anywhere else too. Here are some I found by a quick google search: Indiana, Willamette, Georgia.
5. Blog. Travis Hodgkins, Brad Luo, and Will Lewis have made quite a name for themselves by blogging. It isn’t terribly hard to do–just somewhat time consuming. Yes, you are in law school. No, you don’t have a lot of time. But you have some time. You are either wasting it on watching TV or reading the local legal gossip rags. Whereas these law students now have published the Transnational Law Blog, China Business Law Blog, and Experience Not Logic. Obviously you need to get your feet wet first, so this is not for the absolute neophyte. But after you have done #1-4 enough times over a year or two, you can do #5. In fact, I believe Travis is always looking for co-authors… (why set up your own if there are opportunities out there already?)
6. Set up online networking profiles. There are plenty of social networking online services. Like Facebook or Friendster. But I mean the professional networking sites. Ryze and LinkedIn are the two best places to start. Especially LinkedIn. Yes, I have both: here and here. And then be aggressive to meet the people you want to meet. (see #3 above)

I hope this is at helpful for those who shudder when they think of the idea of “networking”.

UPDATE: Travis mentioned this program at Duquesne, which is a combination of summer class and internship in a Chinese firm. Really, I don’t think this sort of experience can be beat for the aspiring lawyer wanting to go into a China practice.  Will Lewis recommended Santa Clara University’s programs.  They have one in Shanghai and another in Hong Kong.

It is hard work to publish a good resume. I have seen many a resume where I wanted to re-write everything, or at least tell the person that the resume needs a lot of work. Many people have resumes which are great except the formatting is an eyesore. Others have little or no content. Perhaps I will post some of them some other time.

I have placed my legal and technical resumes in the resume section of my blog. They highlight my extensive technical experience in addition to my legal practice.

Resumes tell me a lot about a person: how organized, detail oriented, and articulate a person is. Yes, many of them are generic and cut-and-pasted from elsewhere, but it still tells me a lot when I see a poor resume.