Not your average attorney, it's more than the fact that Paul Jacobson wears jeans to work that sets him apart. It's the fact that Jacobson saw a gap in the legal services market as South African businesses and brands began to incorporate the social Web and make use of digital media in their everyday marketing practices. He has used this opportunity to establish himself at the forefront of this ever-changing space. He believes he's ahead of the curve - for now.
Back in the day
Jacobson has been around for almost as long as the Internet. He was there for the rise of the South African blogging community, when RSS feeds were all the rage, and was one of the earliest adopters of Twitter in our country. Back then, technology and the budding social Web were merely hobbies.
Jacobson recalls the aptitude test in high school that showed his interests were inclined towards journalism, law and marketing. “This aptitude test was pretty accurate, considering what I landed up doing,” Jacobson remarks, “but at the time I wasn't interested in journalism because - in my worldly experience - journalists and ethics weren't too closely aligned, so I ruled that out as an option. Marketing was ruled out too, because at that stage, there was no degree option for it, and I wanted a formal qualification.
“So it was off to Wits for a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, Philosophy and Law, after which I completed my LLB and headed straight into articles at Werksmans in 1999.” He stayed on as a professional assistant, and when the firm changed, he became an associate and, later, a senior associate. “I left Werksmans in July 2005 to start my own company. The very next working day, I was at the Law Society registering the firm - Jacobson's Attorneys.
New media man
“At that point, Jacobson's Attorneys was a purely commercial law firm,” Jacobson recalls. “It was also around this time that I started a blog with my friend Victoire Olwagen, called ChiliBean. Intended to be a sort of South African TechCrunch, we focused on social media adoption in this country and explored online trends. We developed a fair amount of notoriety in the circle of bloggers that existed and we debated extensively on how to take ChiliBean to the next level. Our plan was to launch ChiliBean as a social media agency but our main problem was that between my practice and Olwagen's work, we didn't have enough time to build it properly, so we shelved it.
“The more involved I became in this new social media thing, the more I realised how passionate I was about it,” Jacobson explains, “and so a couple of months later, I decided to launch what I called a 'new media focus area' into my practice.”
This new focus area was called Web.Tech.Law and it provides the space for Jacobson to adopt a flexible, multi-disciplinary approach to legal solutions required for the Web and digital media. “One disadvantage to working as a conventional law firm is that you can't work with certain types of people and you can't share fees with non-lawyers, so Web.Tech.Law gave me the elbow room to engage in social marketing, social media and digital media,” Jacobson explains.
Web.Tech.Law
Web.Tech.Law was launched with partners Cerebra Communications to handle social media marketing and strategy as well as Vuma Reputation Management, leaving Jacobson with the capacity to handle compliance issues and legal services in an environment where the advent of legislation like the Consumer Protection Act was forcing change in the way businesses and brands dealt with their customers, especially online.
Businesses don't even need to be on the Web. If they have clients on the Web, they'll be exposed to a degree of risk they can't control. It's better to engage than to ignore.
Paul Jacobson, Web.Tech.Law
“Everything online, right from the basic terms and conditions of a Web site, needs to be compliant with the Act. The first client I picked up was a bank, and I worked with them to redevelop the legal framework that governs their site and drafted one of the first social media policies in the country, for them,” Jacobson says.
“There's been a forced shift in mindset in content and engagement, even before the CPA, that's required moving from a command and control model to a conversational model with customers. Businesses don't even need to be on the Web. If they have clients on the Web, they'll be exposed to a degree of risk they can't control. It's better to engage than to ignore.
“Over time, the model of the slice of legal services that are appropriate for this space developed in my mind and I have a fairly clear idea how to approach social media and digital media issues. It's not something that comes easily to most lawyers, even tech lawyers, as it requires a very unconventional approach.”
Jacobson says that even when tech or media lawyers move into this space, they bring with them a traditional mindset about being risk-averse and “this doesn't work in a space where things are fluid and people have an expectation that they can share content”.
When it comes to working in this social space, you need the correct perspective. You need to understand how it works or your legal solutions will always fall short.
Paul Jacobson, Web.Tech.Law
Jacobson notes how this frustrates a lot of lawyers because there's the expectation that they'll be able to control content and manage content and sharing, but in truth, it can't be controlled.
“While you can create frameworks that allow for sharing in a more productive environment, you're never going to be able to control it completely,” he explains. “You need to understand what this social Web thing is, how it's being used and how users think, in order to provide effective solutions. And as a starting point, you have to be able to use the services.
“That's where I think a lot of lawyers fall short,” Jacobson says. “They may have Twitter and Facebook accounts, but they're not really diving in. I don't think there are many lawyers who really get social media. There's no one who sees it quite the way I do, or gets it quite the way I do. I'm online, using social media tools, experiencing different services and platforms and writing about them, constantly. For now, I'm ahead of the curve. Of course this is going to change, as there's plenty of hot new talent coming up through the law schools and soon it's going to be a very different space. I could find myself on the receiving end of my own criticism and could well become that 'old fart who doesn't understand the newest new media'.”
Until then, Jacobson is content to help businesses become CPA-compliant and continues to explore the areas of social media, content licensing and protection, freedom of expression and online reputation management, as well as open source models. With his history of turning hobbies into livelihoods, it'll be interesting to see where Jacobson's current fixation with photography will take him next.
First published in the August 2012 issue of ITWeb Brainstorm magazine.
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