This is a problem for bloggers, too, because we often need something written by the MLM (Mainstream Legal Media) to riff off — legal profession reporting to which we can add analysis and insight. If the MLM focuses heavily on BigLaw, the blawgosphere does too, and that’s not a good result. Large law firms have very little to tell us about good legal business and client service, and even less to tell us about how the profession will operate in the future.

This brings me back to something you and I discussed very briefly at Techshow with Carolyn Elefant and Nicole Black — we need a law.com for small law firms and solo practices worldwide. The profession needs a journalistic outlet that focuses on the silent majority of small law practices — silent because they don’t have marketing and communications reps to promote themselves or handle media calls, and they don’t have the time or inclination to chase down coverage. Speaking from experience, it’s hard for major legal publications to identify interesting solos and small firms to interview — they rarely show up in Google searches, they don’t pay PR agencies to pitch stories, and too many of them don’t even have websites. The result is that good stories about intriguing firms doing the kind of innovative things that will define the next century of law practice never get told, and the legal media fails to tell the whole story of the profession.

I’m not sure what we can do about this, but it seems to me this is both an under-served market to cover and a unfulfilled professional service to be performed. I’d like to think there’s a solution there someplace.