LegalTech memes? What a nerdy niche, right?

I wouldn't call myself an expert memester, but I have spent the last 5 years reading and learning about screenwriting, comedy, and content creation.

And since August 2022, I’ve published 600 LegalTech memes on LinkedIn.

Here's how I first got interested in Memes:

In the Summer of 2022, I had left eDiscovery and LegalTech and joined the sales team at a biometric security company. Think secure selfies that replace vulnerable 6-digit codes.

Suddenly, a new voice was in my feed: LitigationGod.

The memes were a harsh satire of associate of life at Big Law: bruising hours, constant criticism, and the reward for a job well-done was picking up the workload of the lawyer who just quit to join a startup.

No punches were pulled.
Law firms were called out.
Names were named.

It was glorious!

LitigationGod said all the things no one was allowed to say, and the identity of the poster was and remains a mystery.

Making LegalTech memes behind a mask

LegalTech and eDiscovery people didn't have a voice. No one was calling out bad behavior, crazy hours and demands, nonsensical expectations for speed and accuracy, or misuse of technology.

So I took inspiration from LitigationGod.

I created a pseudonymous memester profile named Gates Dogfish and created 22 memes in 3 hours. Then I posted them all -- to crickets. I added hashtags. Still crickets. Then I started tagging eDiscovery and LegalTech leaders, and the following grew.

Until LinkedIn killed the profile in December 2024.

With almost 800,000 impressions and ~1,800 followers after 16 months of work Gates Dogfish disappeared. Every post. Every DM. Every comment. Gone.

Under the LinkedIn Terms of Service, every profile must be a real person. Translation: no duplicate, multiple, or fake profiles.

The solution, according the LinkedIn, was to create Gates Dogfish as a "Company Page" run my me.

But what about the followers?

Luckily, LinkedIn migrated the Followers of Gates Dogfish to my profile, so they weren't lost. But Gates Dogfish started from zero, again.

To relaunch the memes, I contacted Doug Austin, of eDiscovery Today, and he was thrilled to reveal the mystery man behind Gates Dogfish.

Today, Gates Dogfish has almost 2,000 followers with 1.4MM total impressions. The page is followed by judges, partners, CEOs, executives, and, most importantly, eDiscovery Project Managers.

As a result of the reveal, I've been on podcasts, webinars, guest authored blog posts, which is great. But the real win is the fun community that's opened up in an otherwise competitive and siloed industry.

Mission accomplished.

So my goal over the next year is to:

Make more memes in collaboration with LegalTech friends and leaders.
Launch an eDiscovery Notebook, designed exclusively for people in LegalTech
Expand my memes into atomic essays and blog posts.
And create a LegalTech ghostwriting and sales business.

If I do it right, we could all be laughing/crying at #eDiscoveryLife. 🤣

Day 4: Here’s What Happened When I Posted 600 LegalTech Memes on LinkedIn

Sarcastic memes bringing people together...

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