As many people in the legal blog world know, Denise Howell, pioneer of legal blogging, was fired from her firm last week. Her post, Have Aeron, Will Travel gives her perspective on the situation.
What’s interesting to me is the amount of attention her firing is getting online. Her (now former) firm, Reed Smith, is getting the kind of publicity money can’t buy [Not that you'd want this kind of publicity if you could buy it!]. Some of the highlights:
“Denise is particularly mum about the whys and wherefores due to a confidentiality agreement (read: severance package, I’m guessing). Whatever the reason, what was Reed Smith thinking? I don’t know about Denise’s rainmaking, but she’s certainly a forward thinker and more than creative. There was a ripple in the fabric of the Internet the day that decision was made.”
Dennis Kennedy has a longer, more speculative post giving his opinions on Reed Smith’s reasons for firing Denise (I’ve included his list below…..read the post for the longer version):
Based on my experience in law firms, inexplicable firing decisions (and sometimes inexplicable hiring decisions) almost invariably result in people inside and outside the firm drawing one of three conclusions:
1. The firm is slimming down for a merger.
2. The firm simply made a bad business decision.
3. The firm may be having financial problems.
On the Between Lawyers blog, Mr Kennedy adds:
“How many law students interviewing with Reed Smith this fall will ask a question about Denise? How many of them will be satisfied with the answers they get?”
The fact that complete strangers are writing and commenting about a personnel move made by a law firm really illustrates how blogging has changed everything.
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