Long before blogs were common in the legal profession, Ernie Svenson, widely known as Ernie the Attorney, was already writing online and figuring things out as he went. Svenson was among the first lawyers to experiment with publishing on the internet, not as a marketing tactic but as a way to connect, think out loud and share what he was learning.
In this episode of the Real Lawyers podcast, Kevin O’Keefe sits down with Svenson to trace those early days of legal blogging and what they set in motion. The conversation moves from the origins of his blog to the resistance lawyers once had to publishing online, the difference between content marketing and being human and why owning your work still matters even as platforms change.
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Episode outline
- 00:00 – Meeting Ernie Svenson and the early days of legal blogging
- 02:30 – Discovering blogs through books, not the web
- 05:00 – Why “Ernie the Attorney” stuck
- 07:45 – When blogging turned from a hobby into opportunity
- 10:30 – Lawyers, risk and early resistance to publishing online
- 13:30 – Trust, visibility and why being known matters
- 16:30 – Platforms vs owning your work
- 19:00 – Writing, voice and the myth of effortless prose
- 21:00 – Using AI to think more clearly without losing your voice
- 24:00 – Disaster blogging and publishing when it matters most
- 28:00 – Why this still works for lawyers today
Key takeaways
- Blogging worked early on because it was human, not strategic
- Lawyers build trust by being visible, consistent and themselves
- Publishing is less about tactics and more about letting people know who you are
- Owning your work matters even if you distribute it elsewhere
- Writing is hard, even for good writers, and that’s normal
- AI can help with structure and clarity but not voice
- The fundamentals of connecting with people online have not changed