Nicole Black, The Daily Record Newswire
Dear readers, please forgive the navel-gazing nature of today's article, but earlier this week I realized I'd reached a milestone. You see, it's been exactly 10 years since I re-entered the legal profession and I sometimes find it hard to believe where I ended up. So please bear with me while I wax nostalgic.
A decade ago, I decided it was time for a change, so I started my small, part-time solo law practice. I did this after taking a self-imposed nearly 3-year hiatus from the legal field after practicing law for nearly 9 years; I left the law since I felt like I simply wasn't on the right track. But then in 2005, I knew it was time to start practicing law again - this time on my own terms.
So, in October 2005 I hung my contract attorney shingle, created a website, and launched my first legal blog, Sui Generis (nylawblog.typepad.com). I started doing freelance legal research and writing for other attorneys and posting into the Internet abyss in my spare time - a small voice in the dark - hoping that someone might read my thoughts on New York law and civil rights issues. At first, hardly anyone did. But over time, I developed a small, but loyal, following.
And another pivotal thing happened simultaneously: I slowly began to connect with other legal bloggers. I developed friendships with people that I initially met online and then later met in person at various legal conferences. These wonderful friendships continue to this very day.
The emergence of social media a few years later helped me to cement these friendships and also amplified my reach. I was part of the first wave of lawyers to use each major social media site and found that worked to my benefit. That helped me to make a name for myself and between my online connections and the body of work on my blog, new and exciting opportunities came my way in rapid succession. I became of counsel to a local law firm, was offered the opportunity to write a weekly column for the local legal newspaper, and was even asked to speak about blogging for lawyers on a few occasions.
Things only improved from there. I became fascinated with the potential that Internet-based technologies offered lawyers and began to focus my writings, both online and off, on the intersection of law and technology. I wrote about social media, and then cloud computing and other types of technology. Before I knew it, I was the published author of three different books, "Social Media for Lawyers" (ABA 2010), "Cloud Computing for Lawyers" (ABA 2012), and "Criminal Law in New York" (Thomson West). Because of these books, my speaking and writing opportunities increased and my legal technology niche became even more focused.
Then, in 2012, I met the founders of MyCase, a law practice management software company, at a legal technology conference and a month later, they offered me a job. Six months later, MyCase was acquired by AppFolio, a company that provides cloud-based software for different business verticals, which celebrated its IPO in June. I was invited to attend the IPO in New York City and recall standing on the floor of NASDAQ in New York City holding a glass of champagne and looking around in wide-eyed wonderment.
There I was - just a decade after starting my small, virtual law practice that I operated out of my basement - celebrating the IPO of my California-based technology software employer. When I graduated from law school there were lots of paths I envisioned traveling - but being part of a technology company as it went public? Definitely not something that was ever on my career roadmap. And, but for Internet-based technology, my career path would never have been possible.
What a long, strange decade it's been. But let me tell you - I wouldn't change it for the world!
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Nicole Black is a director at MyCase.com, a cloud-based law practice management platform. She is also of counsel to Fiandach & Fiandach in Rochester and is a GigaOM Pro analyst. She is the author of the ABA book "Cloud Computing for Lawyers," coauthors the ABA book "Social Media for Lawyers: the Next Frontier," and co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a West-Thomson treatise. She speaks regularly at conferences regarding the intersection of law and technology. She publishes three legal blogs and can be reached at niki@mycase.com
Published: Thu, Oct 22, 2015
