Real Lawyers Have Blogs : Law Blogs, Blawgs, Law Firm Marketing

Could it really be 28 years since I drove my Pinto station wagon (no air conditioning) across the country from Wisconsin to Sacramento for law school? And no one one told me it would be 105 degrees. Not having been to Sacramento, I pictured it set in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada's, not in an agricultural valley that looked like a desert.

Peter Lattman at the WSJ's Law Blog has a wonderful series of guest author posts welcoming 1L's to law school. But before we get to those leaders in the law, here's my advice.

• Enjoy yourself and do not take anything too seriously.
• Make life long friends. The tension you will all endure will make for strong bonds. You will have the stories, laughs, and memories of a lifetime.
• Standing up in class and getting grilled by a professor is not all that bad - it's really rather funny. No one is getting shot at. You will survive.
• If large law and 160k to start is not what you are after, that's great. Take classes that are fun and intern with solo's in small towns, public defenders, and legal services programs. I did it and it's great.
• Buy Gilberts or whatever outlines exist today. It is a great experience to go through the Socratic method of teaching, and you'll learn from it. But there is no reason to be totally in the dark.

Click on the author's names to get the advice of others.

• Scott Turow, who thirty years ago published "One L," his classic autobiographical account of his first year at Harvard Law.
• Jeffrey Toobin, a 1986 Harvard Law grad, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn and an associate counsel for Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh before later CNN fame.
• Saira Rao, a clerk for Third Circuit judge Dolores Sloviter after graduating from NYU Law in 2002, and now author of "Chambermaid," the story of a young lawyer named Sheila Raj who lands a prestigious Third Circuit clerkship in Philly
• Cameron Stracher, Harvard Grad and New York Law School professor and author of "Dinner With Dad," the story of his year-long quest to be home for dinner five days a week as a practicing lawyer.
• Jeremy Blachman, a 2005 Harvard Law grad, who made a name for himself as author of the popular Anonymous Lawyer blog mocking Large Law.
• Ron Liebman, a federal prosecutor in Maryland before joining Patton Boggs In DC as a litigation partner at Patton Boggs in D.C., and author of "Death by Rodrigo," the story two cynical defense attorneys, the "Grand Jury," and "Shark Tales -- True & Amazing Stories from America's Lawyers."

And my Pinto did not look near as silly as the one in the picture. Mine was blue - sold it second year in law school for a lime green VW beetle.

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Yesterday, I got word from Kevin of a LexBlog client who got the star treatment from his University's flagship publication.

Bill Marler, the pioneering food safety lawyer from the Seattle-based firm Marler Clark, is the subject of a feature profile in the August 2007 issue of Washington State University's Washington State Magazine. Authored by Hannelore Sudermann, "Food Fights" gives an in-depth look at Bill's life (current and past, personal and professional) and paints a picture of the man at his finest: a uniquely Northwest, socially conscious attorney who has dedicated his life to helping others. You can continue to follow the work done by Bill, who we wrote about in an update earlier this month, by reading his Marler Blog.

Congratulations are in order for Bill. His hard work is continuing to pay off, and Washington State Magazine's highly flattering piece is yet another indication of his success in the legal world.

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Man, when I started preaching that lawyers should use blogs for marketing, folks thought I was drunk.

Now 80% of Americans know what a blog is with half reading blogs regularly. That per a study conducted by Marketing Daily.

Source of post: Blog Herald

Technorati Tags: blog research

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Mark Cuban's posted a couple times over the last week that the Internet is dead and boring.

The best way to sum up how I feel about the excitement and opportunities on the net compared to the many other personal and corporate technology options out there is to use a Yogi Berra quote.

'Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded'

When everyone is looking for gold in the same river, the best opportunities are somewhere else.

Mark's excited about opportunities elsewhere such as virtual machines and HDTV. Perhaps.

But for average folks like you and me the Internet is alive, well, and anything but boring.

Lawyers using blogs and RSS to communicate and network with clients, prospective clients, and cohorts. Lawyers publishing content on the niche in which they practice and love, which content is syndicated via RSS into what is becoming core journalism. Young lawyers enhancing their reputations and passing lawyers years senior by harnessing the powers of the Internet.

And we're just getting started. You didn't have Google 6 or 7 years ago. Today you have Google search on your tool bar and Google is an integral part of your kids' homework. Not only is Google indexing information, but it's also indexing discussion via Google Blog Search. And in the last 18 months we've seen thousands of lawyers and law firms integrate the use of blogs and RSS into their daily routines. Who would have thought?

The opportunites to help others and help yourself are endless. Hardly dead and boring.

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I'd like to take this lull in blogging activity to introduce Stacey Merrick, a member of our staff whose name will likely begin appearing more and more frequently in this blog. Though we spoke with her last month to introduce the then-new LexBlog Newsfeed Reader, that interview gave little in terms of who Stacey is.

Stacey works as Director of Client Services here at LexBlog, a role she took over on January 4 of this year. Though she graduated from Sonoma State University in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and briefly worked in the news business, her focus soon shifted to marketing. Stacey worked for about three years handling promotions and marketing activities for a range of companies (including ski resorts in Montana) before landing with us. She currently operates a blog about Seattle activities called Seattle on the Fringe.

"It's really satisfying seeing people create really good blogs and content," Stacey says. "I like that I can subscribe to our clients' feeds, and I enjoy reading their blogs as they develop. I find that very rewarding."

Stay in the lookout for Stacey's name in blog posts, comments and more. As our company grows, readers can expect to see more and more of the LexBlog staff entering the discussion constantly building in Kevin's blog.

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As Kevin pointed out in his post earlier today, the Spring/Summer issue of the National Judicial College's Case in Point Magazine features an exciting cover story on judicial blogging. The article, written by NJC communications specialist Heather Singer, included this list of "Do's and Don'ts for Blogging Judges."

Singer suggests:

• DO provide links to other sites and to raw materials so people can find information more easily.
• DO treat blogs the same as any other mode of communication, adhering to the cannons of ethics.
• DO blog on judicial issues to provide information other judges may need.
• DO provide helpful tips on challenges such as caseload management.
• DO write about judicial issues that might give citizens a better understanding of the court system.
• DON'T write blog posts about pending cases.
• DON'T mix your personal and your professional life into one blog.
• DON'T write anything that could compromise your safety or the safety of those in the courthouse.
• DON'T blog on issues that could increase the number of cases from which you could be recused.

Though geared at judges, many of these tips could just as easily be applied to anyone blogging within the legal realm.

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Craig Williams and Blawg Review turned me onto an excellent article (pdf) in the National about judges and blogs. Published in the National Judicial Conference's Case in Point Magazine, Heather Singer reports on the judiciary's increasing interest in both reading and publishing blogs.

With the do's and don'ts enjoying much scrutiny, most [Judges] appear to agree that as long as blogging judges adhere to the cannons of ethics ad avoid ethical pitfalls, there are many upsides to this new medium.

From Judge Adam Fischer, Jr., of Greenville, S.C., a former member and chair of NJC's Faculty Council who teaches ethics courses:

Judicial blogs can be an excellent method for judges to come together and share information. Blogs on timely judicial issues are highly valuable to judges.

Texas Judge Susan Criss, who runs the successful blog As the Island Floats, gave a similar response:

Blogs are a way to share a lot of valuable information. I enjoy reading them. You can learn a lot about different areas of the law. Sometimes lawyers will analyze cases in their blogs, and you can learn from those as well.

Many of the sources quoted in the article agree, pointing out that as long as judges are cautious about what they write, they can be a valuable asset to the blogosphere. Says Mortiz College of Law professor Doug Berman, author of the blog Sentencing Law and Policy:

We tend to inappropriately deify judges more than we should. Judges are different from the rest of us but often an artificial distance is created. Jurists are not the only ones who should write cautiously. Prosecutors, defense attorneys and anyone in the legal and judicial fields should do so as well.

Technorati Tags: judicial blogs

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The Thomson West and LexisNexis duolopoly has had stranglehold on people's access to legal information for decades. But as John Markoff of the New York Times reports, their control of the nearly $5 billion legal publishing market is being challenged by a few organizations who believe the law should be freely accessible via the Internet.

...[Carl] Malamud [founder of public.resource.org] and a diverse group of backers argue that the control of publishing court rulings subverts the original intent of the framers of the Constitution by making the nation's laws difficult to obtain by those outside the legal profession.

In a letter to West Publishing last Wednesday, Mr. Malamud said his intent was to make federal and state court decisions available to a population that cannot afford the subscription costs.

Legal codes and cases are the 'operating system' of the nation, he said. 'The system only works if we can all openly read the primary sources,' he said in the letter. 'It is crucial that the public domain data be available for anybody to build upon.'

Malamud is not alone. A joint effort by Columbia Law School's Program on Law and Technology and the Silicon Flatirons program at the University of Colorado Law School called AltLaw is going to provide free access to the last decade of federal appellate and Supreme Court opinions.

Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor told the times:

I'm a legal academic and I woke up one day and thought, 'Why can't I get cases the same way I get stuff on Google? People should be able to get cases easily. This is a big exception to the way information has opened up over the past decade.

And Justia's Tim Stanley, who Thomson West fired after acquiring Find Law which Tim co-founded, told the Times:

There is supposed to be no ignorance of the law, and yet it's not even accessible to most people.

Justia is spending about $10,000 a month to send people to copy documents at the Supreme Court so the company can place it online for free access.

With the advancement of the net, our case law, code law, law reviews, and legal periodicals are going to go open source - perhaps at alarming rate to Thomson and LexisNexis. Like software companies, the dualopoly will need to sell services and value add products associated with the law to protect their revenues.

Technorati Tags: LexisNexis, Thomson West

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Just got word from Portland's David Rossmiller - an attorney with Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue LLP who writes the firm's Insurance Coverage Law Blog - that he was quoted in another insurance news article this morning. The piece was published by A.M. Best, an insurance trade journal that delivers real-time insurance news over their BestWire newswire.

The article, written by A.M. Best's Washington bureau manager Raymond Lehmann, is titled "Two Years After Katrina, Congress Still Looking for Catastrophe Solutions." David's expertise comes in about halfway through the article:

David Rossmiller, an insurance coverage attorney with the Portland, Ore.-based firm Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue, suggested the storm set the stage for a populist backlash both in Congress and in the courts, and that the industry has mounted a very poor public relations counter-offensive.

"Katrina stirred up something that is lying just below the surface and is something every lawyer remembers who represents insurers -- most people hate insurance companies," Rossmiller said. "Mostly they hate them in a generalized, nonspecific way, but with some catastrophe like this, it is very easy for some to focus on specific companies and the public is ready to believe anything about them."

This isn't the first time the press has considered David an expert in his field. He says: "These days on average I’m quoted in about two media stories a week, not counting blogs."

As both a lawyer and an expert on insurance matters, David's blog gives him a defined space in the blogosphere, where both journalists and readers who come across this attorney's name can validate his expertise. We at LexBlog offer our congratulations to David and the rest of the staff at Dunn Carney, as they continue to make ways around the Internet.

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There's a number of the ILTA conference attendees who are blogging from the Orlando conference this week. Subscribing to a RSS feed of ILTA at Google blog search I've picked up posts from the following folks (let me know who I've missed):

• Ron Friedman
• George Socha
• Nina Platt
• Doug Cornelius
• Chris Dale
• Lawyer KM
• Eric Feistel
• Ross Kodner
• David Hobbie

Presented with Dennis Kennedy yesterday afternoon and chatted with Bruce MacEwen at the reception last evening. So expect to see some blogging from them.

No reason to expect ILTA to ever be Gnomedex when it comes to attendees live blogging the conference. But this is an excellent start. Last year I'm not sure I saw any posts from attendees.

With the growth of blogs, internal and external, at leading law firms, you can expect to see their IT professionals blogging. When they're at ILTA conferences, that'll mean live conference blogging. Big plus not only for attendees looking to network with liked minded folks they'll meet by virtue of blog posts, but also for people unable to attend. And for ILTA conference coordinators live blogging only promotes the value of your conference and drives higher attendance.

For next year maybe LexBlog can organize the bloggers and create an integrated RSS feed from all of the ILTA blogs - one subscription and you get all the posts.

Technorati Tags: ILTA

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Today brings another installment of LexBlog's Five Questions interview series, where we chat with some of the biggest names in the LexBlogosphere on what makes them blog. The feature continues this week with Victoria Pynchon, a former commercial litigator who now works full time as an IP mediator. She is creator and author of the Settle It Now Negotiation Blog and, more recently, the IP ADR Blog. I recently sat down and chatted with Victoria about her blogging experience, how she writes, her work as a teacher and more.

1. Rob La Gatta: When did you first launch your Settle It Now Negotiation Blog, and why?

Victoria Pynchon: In June of 2006, because I saw someone else’s blog on Blogger.  I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really cool,’ and I went to Blogger. It was so easy to do that I threw one up within the first 15 minutes after I saw it. I mean, I just immediately did it.

[It appealed to me because] I’m a writer. I write fiction and literary non-fiction. I publish a literary magazine. I’d already written a fair number of articles about dispute resolution, and it seemed to be the perfect venue for me to be publish what I wanted to write instantaneously.

2. Rob La Gatta: I noticed that you write fairly lengthy posts, all of which have a very unique tone to them that gives a glimpse into your personality. Was this intentional, or is it just how you write?

Victoria Pynchon: That’s how I write, and that’s the benefit of blogs. I provide a service, and the service that I provide is helping people negotiate the resolution of litigation. That’s not an easy thing to do. Before people will retain you, they have to have a reason to trust you. And I think that who I am – my voice – comes across very clearly in my writing. So I think that if anyone is going to consider hiring me as a result of something that I write, they’re going to consider hiring me because, in reading me, they hear a voice they can trust.

See the rest of my Five Questions interview with Victoria Pynchon after the jump.
Continue Reading...

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Speaking right now on panel addressing blogs, wiki's and the like.

Didn't make enough copies of Powerpoint to handout, so here's a copy of the PowerPoint to download.

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Chuck Ferris, 83, lost his right leg to a German landmine during World War II. He became a school teacher thinking that would be easier with one leg than a news photographer, as he had planned.

Today Dhyana Levey of the Merced Sun-Star reports Chuck, retired and living in a small studio at a care home, reaches out to touch others via his blog Dribble. Chuck's been publishing Dribble, titled after a column he wrote for his high school newspaper, for five years. His blog is an ongoing online collection of his observations, past and current.

From Chuck, who's always wanted to keep up with technology:

It's a wonderful way to get out of here. Once we get confined, we can't get out that often. But with this I can keep in touch.........[S]ince no one here reads it, I guess I can write about whatever I want.

And it's working per Levey. There's a 'revolving door of visitors from all over the world -- keep[ing] a weather eye on his thoughts, memories and adventures in the care home.

And Chuck's not alone.

The blogging trend has mushroomed, said Christina Clem, program coordinator for communications for AARP. Everyone, not just seniors, want to stay connected with people who have similar interests.

The percentage of Americans ages 65 and older using the Internet is rising, according to surveys from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a nonprofit that follows Internet trends. In 2007, 32 percent of them were surfing online, up from 22 percent in 2004.

I'll bet there's a ton of folks with parents and grandparents in care facilities who would welcome their loved ones blogging. Not to mention, the observations and wisdom society is losing by not picking from people who have years of life experience over us.

As Levey says of Chuck, '...[T]here's one place he can hop around like a gymnast and scream like a banshee. He uses a mouse and keyboard instead of his feet and vocal cords.'

Update: Wow, just found out from Chuck's blog, there's a YouTube video of Chuck's interview with Dhyana Levey. Here you go.

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LexBlog continued to launch new blogs for our clients this past week, adding even more voices from a range of practice areas to the blogosphere. The debuts for August 13 through 17 were:

• The Employee Benefits Law Blog, published by Vicki Johnson of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP and providing employment-related news to business professionals.
• The Workplace Privacy Counsel Blog, written by the lawyers and attorneys from Littler Mendelson P.C., highlighting employment-related privacy issues.
• The Medical & Dental Device Patenting Blog, maintained by registered patent attorney John Rizvi of Gold & Rizvi P.A., who writes about - you guessed it - patenting news on medical products, processes and software.
• Davis Wright Tremaine - a firm that already has four live blogs  - launched their fifth one this afternoon. The Corporate Finance Law Blog, written by the firm's corporate finance lawyers,  focuses on financing news for companies of varying sizes.
• This one probably isn't news to anyone who read our New Law Bloggers Speak feature on Wednesday: Erich Rapp of Kean Miller launched the Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Blog, which focuses on coastal wetland depletion in the Pelican State.

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Today I came across this post - which linked to Vault's Top 100 Law Firms of 2008 list -  at Above The Law. The yearly rankings, based on lawyer surveys and various other methods, provide Vault's readers with a comprehensive list of the world's most prestigious law firms.

Not surprising, a few LexBlog clients made the list, and we want to praise them for the accomplishment:

• Wilson, Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, who have their attorney Cathy Kirkman writing the Silicon Valley Media Law Blog, were ranked #36;
• Proskauer Rose LLP, who operate the Privacy Law Blog, were ranked #40;
• DLA Piper, the firm that employs R. David Donoghue of the Chicago IP Litigation Blog, came in at #54;
• Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, the firm behind the In The (Red) Business Bankruptcy Blog, came in at #60; and
  
• K & L Gates, managers of the Electronic Discovery Law Blog, received the #71 ranking.

Congratulations to the firms above as Vault and its readers across the Internet - once again - recognize the hard work these lawyers and attorneys have put in to an ever-changing profession.

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Mary Whisner, assistant librarian for reference services at the Gallagher Law Library of the University of Washington here in Seattle, appears to be the driving force for the Legal Conference Watch Blog tracking conferences of interest to law faculty members (and others in the field).

The plan is not to include continuing legal education programs or local bar association meetings. The blog was started in response to a faculty request for help learning about upcoming conferences. "Attending and, if possible, presenting papers at conferences is a great way to develop ideas and make connections, so offering this service is a good complement to the other ways our library supports faculty scholarship."

If you're hosting or know about an upcoming conference that would interest law school faculty, Mary asks that you email her (whisner [at] u [dot] washington [dot] edu) a link or some basic information.

Update: Mary Whisner just emailed me that the very same week that she started Legal Conference Watch, a team at the University of Pittsburgh started Legal Scholarship Blog.

Instead of duplicating effort, they've decided to collaborate. Mary has been copying her postings into their blog and they'll just have one.

Mary will soon announce on Legal Conference Watch that it won't be updated and that readers should go to Legal Scholarship Blog.

Hat tip to Michel-Adrien Sheppard for word on Legal Conference Watch.

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I'll be in Orlando next Monday and Tuesday to speak at the Annual International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) Educational Conference. If you're attending, please look me up by email or cell phone, 406 599 1196.

If not attending ILTA and want to get together in Orlando, give me a holler. I'm always to meet socially or to discuss a possible law blog project.

And I can come to you. I hear they have cars that use air conditioning that transport you when it's above 72 degrees, something we don't have often up here in Seattle.

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Today Kevin forwarded me a link to this article published at Law.com, which gives some great coverage to LexBlog client Patrick J. Lamb, the Chicago attorney and business development advisor who maintains the blog In Search of Perfect Client Service.

The article - "Small Firm Finds New Ways to Encourage Business Development" - gives an overview of the innovative business development plan that Patrick helped initiate when arriving as co-managing partner at Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd:

Each attorney's income was linked directly to his marketing plan. Failure to accomplish marketing goals could significantly affect income level. [...] The standard compensation plan gives each partner a set number of permanent points representing guaranteed income. Additional reserve points are based on performance. At Lamb's firm, each lawyer now has a specific number of permanent points designated "at risk" and tied into the marketing plan. The number of at-risk points ranges from one-half to three points, depending on seniority. Each point carries a significant five-figure income value.

In explaining his reasoning to reporter Karen Dean, Patrick demonstrated a mentality not much different from the one we here at LexBlog hold:

"We don't really care whether they are successful in getting the business, because we believe that over time, these [marketing actions] will naturally lead to new business," Lamb says.

Today's article proves that Patrick's approach is turning heads. As he continues to spread the 21st century marketing gospel - that successful techniques take time and dedication - we can only expect that he'll make believers out of the skeptics. Just look at the results it had for Butler Rubin.

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Among the recent crop of tainted foods sweeping the nation, the ones contaminated with botulism have to be the worst. Just look at what Wikipedia has to say about its symptoms:

Common symptoms of either form usually include dry mouth, difficulty swallowing, slurred speech, drooping eyelids, muscle weakness, double and/or blurred vision, vomiting, blatter and sometimes diarrhea. These symptoms may progress to cause paralytic ileus with severe constipation, and eventually body paralysis. The respiratory muscles are affected as well, which may cause death due to respiratory failure.

Alarming to think about, especially after recent reports that chili and other canned meats distributed around the country were contaminated with the toxin.

For LexBlog client Bill Marler, handling the botulism scare is just another day at the office. Marler, managing partner of the Seattle-based firm Marler Clark, is a food safety lawyer who has been closely watching the recent outbreak and documenting it (and a wide range of other food safety issues) in his blog.

For the past two weeks, Marler reports that he has been in Australia, “giving a series of talks on food safety in the United States and how the Tort System works.” The three articles he is discussing – “Pure and Wholesome: Is food a risky business?”, “Tracking Foodborne Illness,” & “Class Action Litigation of Foodborne Illness Claims” – are all pieces that he wrote, and all provide a glimpse into the mind of a man who has taken on some of the biggest names in the food business.

Despite being halfway across the world, Marler still finds time to update his blog. From a dispatch on August 12:

Between my Blackberry, my Australian disposable phone and the Internet café down the beach, I have been able to keep up and help direct traffic as we work on the above and investigate the Castleberry Botulism cases, Hawaii lettuce E. coli cases and another outbreak at Souplantation – this time Shigella.

Guess we'll have to stay tuned to the Shigella Blog - one of Marler Clark's eleven blogs dedicated to a specific foodborne illness - to find out more on that. Meanwhile, Marler continues to keep the botulism posts coming, and has already written three of them since traveling down under at the beginning of the month. But work isn't everything, and as the picture above can prove, Bill certainly isn’t neglecting some of the more adventurous elements of island life.

Anybody interested in seeing how a law firm can seamlessly weave technology, food safety and practical legal representation together needs to look no further than to the good folks at Marler Clark. Congratulations on all your hard work, Bill!

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Read somewhere that the only profession held in less repute than lawyers were reporters. Looks like we lawyers may have it over reporters again. This time in the area of online media.

Amy Grahan, writing at Poynter Online, explains that just commenting on blogs and forums can be a good start for journalists looking to understand online media.

Getting in the habit of commenting on blogs and forums, following at least some comment threads or conversations that sprawl across multiple venues, or at the very least reading and responding to comments left on your stories at your own news organization's site, helps you join the participatory culture of online media. It helps you realize what you can gain from direct public engagement, and how to use it to make your work easier in some respects and more effective overall. This in turn influences how you plan and execute reporting projects or publishing efforts -- especially learning to feature discussion, not just treat it as a sideshow.

Turns out where thousands of lawyers have taken to not only commenting on other's blogs, but publishing blogs themselves, journalists are slow to bite.

...[F]or many people (especially journalists, I've found), actually getting involved in a public conversation that's likely discoverable via search engines (often not the case with e-mail lists) is a challenging but eye-opening experience. It's humbling but surprisingly empowering to be on a level public playing field with their readers, sources, or other communities. So often journalists prefer to hold themselves apart from these constituencies, and engage them in conversation only via private channels (phone or e-mail).

Amazing that the profession skilled in writing, interviewing, investigation, and reporting - perfect for blogging and online media - would be afraid to get involved. Job preservation and money is likely to bring a change of heart.

And frankly for lawyers, it's job preservation and getting good work that drives blogging. There's never been a better way to enhance one's reputation, do PR, and grow business.

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Another LexBlog blog has gone live, and we were right there to question its author for our occasional “New Law Bloggers Speak” feature (which debuted earlier this month after Fox Rothschild attorney Joel Bolstein launched his Pennsylvania Brownfields & Environmental Law Blog).

This time around we spoke with Erich Rapp, a Louisiana attorney with Kean Miller Hawthorne D'Armond McCowan & Jarman LLP,  whose Louisiana Coastal Wetlands Blog went live yesterday.

1. Rob La Gatta: When and how did the development of this blog come about?
 
Erich Rapp: In the summer of 2003, one of my law partners asked if I thought that the federal government was liable for coastal land loss in Louisiana. Anything involving federal liability for any reason is complicated, but I had no idea how complex this claim would be. What started out as a project for a client became far more. My search for legal and factual knowledge about Louisiana coastal land loss began consuming my evenings, weekends and holidays. In the summer of 2004, it consumed most of my three month sabbatical from the law firm.
 
Along the way, my law firm began a blog called Louisiana Law Blog. I began posting about several subjects on this blog. I had wanted to write a book on the loss of the Louisiana coastal wetlands, and I may still. In the meantime, however, posting entries to the law firm's blog sparked an interest in starting my own blog on the topic of Louisiana coastal land loss. Thus, I developed http://www.louisianacoastalwetlands.com.
 
2. Rob La Gatta: What do you hope to get out of your LexBlog blog?
 
Erich Rapp: In the future, I would like to see the federal government take into account the impact of their actions throughout the Mississippi River drainage basin on the coastal wetlands of Louisiana. I would like to see the federal government take responsibility for paying damages to those in Louisiana that have suffered as a result of coastal land loss, and most important, I would like to see the federal government take responsibility for a large scale restoration and preservation program in the coastal wetlands of Louisiana. I don't really think that all of that is coming from publishing a blog, but maybe it will play some small role in advancing national public awareness of the problem.
 
If somewhere along the way, I can find the right plaintiff(s) or defendant(s) in the right place at the right time, perhaps, I will also get to go back to court on this subject.
 
3. Rob La Gatta: If you read other blogs, what are some of your favorites?

Erich Rapp: I am really a novice at this. For me the best way to look at blog entries is by topic with Google News Alert or through a newsreader. Nevertheless, a couple of blogs that I follow are LaPolitics.com and Gizmodo.com.

That's all for now...check back in coming weeks, as more LexBlog clients continue to launch their blogs.

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Andy Merrett at The Blog Herald shares that banks ought to be blogging according to research by Javelin Strategy. "Their research suggests that 20% of US consumers read blogs, rising to 34% of affluent, tech-savvy ones."

From Bank Systems & Technology, Andy's source:

Blogging is a great step that banks can take in enhancing their online presence. Most younger consumers bank only online with very few yearly visits to a branch. And most banks' Web sites, while being very functional are not nearly as interactive as the branch. Blogging is a great way for banks to not only market to their online customers, but to show that, yes, there are real live bank employees behind their Web sites.

Sound a lot like law firms? Younger people, yes 25 to 40 year olds with legal needs, have very few dealings with law firms - even when the need arises or prudent planning dictates. And there's certainly no profession that has as great a need for demonstrating that the people who work in the profession, lawyers and the folks who work at law firms, are real people too.

Technorati Tags: blog research

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This week's installment of LexBlog's "Five Questions" feature differs from its predecessors, in that it includes responses from two of our clients. Why?  Because these clients - Arnie and Lori Herz - are a husband and wife team already established in the LexBlogosphere.

Arnie is a lawyer and business advisor, who runs the blog Legal Sanity; his wife Lori, the co-founder and co-producer of Legal Sanity, is about to debut her own blog Write For Clients, which should be live in the next few weeks.

1. Rob La Gatta: When did you first launch Legal Sanity, and why?

Arnie Herz: We launched it in June of 2004, because I had a book proposal and was told that I needed to have a platform that would make it easier to get a book deal. So I decided to present these concepts that are set forth in Legal Sanity in a blog format first, before I did my book.

2. Rob La Gatta: Your website says you've trained over 3,000 lawyers. What is it that sets you aside from other business trainers?

Arnie Herz: I don’t know anyone who’s directly offering programs to lawyers on how to create highly energized interactions on a consistent basis and avoid the depletion that’s so common in the legal world.

The essence of my program is called "XE Factor." "XE Factor" stands for "exchange of energy." In every single interaction we have with another human being there is an exchange of energy. Sometimes you walk away feeling more energized, and sometimes you walk away feeling more depleted. And if you take a look at the typical lawyer, most of their interactions, most of the time, are depleting. Which is why many of them feel very burnt out. Their interactions with their clients are depleting, with their co-workers, with their partners, with their adversaries, with their family and friends…what we do in "XE Factor" is teach people how to become aware of this energetic exchange that takes place, and how to consistently create energizing interactions.

When you have an energizing interaction with a client, you create what is called the client evangelist. The client is so thrilled by you, so energized by you and your work, that they start referring you to other people. When you energize your employees, they become engaged, and so one of our programs is called "XE Factor Employee Engagement." And this plays itself out through all the different relationships.

I could go on for another 10 minutes, but I want to give you shorter answers here.

3. Rob La Gatta: Arnie, you mentioned that your writing was included in the BlawgWorld 2007 e-book. Can you explain a bit about what this e-book is, and how you got involved with it?

Arnie Herz: I will let Lori answer that one.

Lori Herz: We responded to a outreach by Neil Squillante of TechnoLawyer, and he appealed to some of the major bloggers in the legal world and asked for contributions. I think this is the second one they’ve done, perhaps the third, and it’s really a compilation of some thoughts from 77 of what he considers the leading legal bloggers. [...] It is probably as much to create exposure for the bloggers and to help lawyers understand what’s out there in the legal blogosphere. And it also is educational and promotional, because it also promotes some of the services and products [of] TechnoLawyer.

4. Rob La Gatta: Rather than using a static website and a blog, you manage to combine the two of them into one site at Legal Sanity. Why did you do this?
 
Arnie Herz: I think it’s very effective for me. It’s just simple to have it in one place and to maintain it in one place. And the main focus of my blog is really to attract attention to the thoughts and ideas that I have, and to focus on my training and development business. So if I [were] really strongly looking to develop my legal business, perhaps I would have a separate website. But it's very simple: just in one spot people can get a real good sense of who I am and what I offer.

Lori Herz: And I’m doing the same thing. I’m about to launch with LexBlog a site for my business writing and consulting practice. And I did the same: I combined a blog with what would be considered a more conventional website through the static pages in the back.

I had asked Kevin about that, and what he had relayed to me – which I think is really the conventional wisdom now – is that if you have a very niche focus for your blog, and a service line or product line that complements that niche focus that you would otherwise put on a conventional site, [then] combining the both into one site is perfectly feasible, because they just play on one another…you have the same niche, you have the same focus for the two, for the service line and for what you’re blogging about. So they really complement one another and support one another.

[In a situation] where you have, for instance, a firm that has a diversified set of offerings or practice areas, you would want to have both, because your blog site would be in a niche area and then the firm site would be more generalist and talk about the firm and its overall service offerings. It would be difficult to put all of that on a blog site, because the premise is that blogs these days are generally very niche focused.

5. Rob La Gatta: If you could provide one bit of advice to a lawyer developing his or her first blog, what would it be?

Lori Herz: I would say first of all, if they want to launch a successful blog, there are a lot of different formulas for it. I don’t think there’s only one formula. But part of it is, before you launch your blog, to really get down to the specifics of who you want to reach out to through your blog, what problems they have that you want to address through your blog and perhaps through your service line, and [finally], how you address those problems.

In my business, I take people through that who-what-how process, and it really facilitates the whole blogging process, because then you come to your blog knowing who you’re reaching out to, and you can tailor your content to that who-what-how. [The] other thing that I would say is to really take a broader sweep, and look out into the online world. There is so much information out there…so many great things being talked about. Look beyond the law and see what there is for the people that you want to draw to your site or draw through your front door. See what would interest them, and draw from all different fields and venues – marketing, branding, all over the place. [...] And really educate people, because when you share your knowledge and you educate people, that’s the way to be successful: you’re showing people that you’re an expert that they can trust.

Why are you an expert? Because you’re fielding all this information for them, and you’re delivering it in these bite size pieces that they can readily consume, and it makes it so much easier for them to say, “Oh, that’s why this is relevant to me…you’re taking all this stuff that I wouldn’t have thought about, you’re bringing it together for me,” and they’re appreciative of it. That’s what people say to me: “I wouldn’t have thought to look over here at the Christian Science Monitor for something relevant to the law.” But it's so relevant, and it's up to you to tie it all together for them. And I would say don’t be afraid to go beyond your typical fare to bring things to your readers that might be important to them.

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The Blog Herald shares that for the second year Wabash College in Indiana has appointed three freshman to blog 'honestly and openly' about their first year experiences at the college.'

Staff decided not to edit or censor them, though they vetted those who wanted to write first, not only to get a range of backgrounds and interests, but also to ensure that 'they'd want their mother to read it'.

'For a lot of students looking here, they want to hear from students,' said Associate Director of Admissions, Chip Timmons. 'They want to know what the food tastes like, how hard the classes are. It's honest, it's genuine and it's what students want to know.'
The blogs are so popular that, aside from football, they are the most read pages on the college's web site.

With 80% of students making their first contact with their chosen college via the Internet, using blogs from new students make all the sense in the world.

Law firms ought to do the same. Get 2 or 3 new associates to blog 'openly and honestly' about their first year experiences. Such blogs are going to be the most popular pages on the firm web site because they'll include exactly what recent law grads want to know.

Ethics and liability issues? Be smart. It can be done. Blogging about general interaction with lawyers, staff, and lawyers at other firms (without use of names, if appropriate) as well as talking about the general nature of transactional work or litigation work one is doing can be done without creating problems. And with the popularity of pro pono and community service opportunities, lots of new grads would love to hear about those experiences first hand.

Such content is already leaking out and appearing on new associate message boards and listservs as well as blogs such as Above the Law. Take a little control of the flow of the information by promoting it via new associate blogs.

If there's any law firms promoting the use of such blogs, let me know. It merits a shout out here and then into national legal publications.

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It's Gnomedex time again in Seattle. 300 to 400 of the world's leading bloggers, podcasters, and tech-savvy enthusiasts will be here for the two day conference, Friday and Saturday.

And of course it wouldn't be Gnomedex if our host, Chris Pirillo, didn't line up major tech companies to sponsor open bar and accompanying hor douvres networking functions at the coolest places in town. Friday night, it looks like they're closing the Seattle Aquarium on the shores of Elliot Bay for our get together.

I look forward to meeting those coming to town. I'll be there at the Bell Harbor Conference Center both days. Please look me up or drop me an email.

Technorati Tags: Gnomedex

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Today we return with our "Five Questions" feature, which has been absent from this blog for a couple of weeks now. No better way to get back into the swing of things than to chat with Michael H. Cohen, the Massachusetts-based lawyer behind the Complementary & Alternative Medicine Blog, who I sat down with yesterday afternoon for a brief discussion.

1. Rob La Gatta: What caused you to develop the CamLaw Blog in the first place, and when did this happen?

Michael H. Cohen: In 2005, I came across LexBlog through a link from Wired. I realized that LexBlog was offering an outstanding tool for reaching a specific legal clientele and medical/health care audience, and provided a way to get the message out regarding the legal services my law firm was offering these unique segments of the legal marketplace. I also thought the blog would be invaluable for advertising general corporate legal services.

I signed up with LexBlog shortly before the blogging market exploded. In the early days (2004-5) very few people were sufficiently prescient to see how important legal blogging would become. Kevin O’Keefe was premiere in that crowd. He coached me expertly in the planning and packaging of my material, and gave a jump start on understanding search engine techniques and the methods Google and others use to rank blogs and get a legal blog noticed by the right audience. This helped me formulate my content and personal style for the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog. I also benefited from the exquisite design his firm provided.  

I remember that during one of first calls, Kevin said that it could take 180 days or so to establish a presence on the Web. At the time, this was a new concept: the idea that one could have a global “presence” through a blog. How could one type into a laptop and reach millions, if not billions, then and there? But sure enough, within six months, I began to see a Web “presence” develop. For example, my Web-based client referrals begin to grow. I no longer needed to ask, “where did you hear of us?” I could figure out what search terms had led clients to my site.

By then, I had learned how to write on topics specific enough for a niche market so that my site would get noticed in search engine results, yet remain sufficiently general to attract a broader readership.

2. Rob La Gatta: Your blog occupies a unique niche in the blogosphere, focusing on a specialized area of the law. Do you know of any similar blogs that write on the same issues as you?

Michael H. Cohen: Few other blogs, if any, specifically devote themselves to legal issues related to complementary and alternative (and integrative) medicine. Some blogs address health trends while others address health law, medical research, and developments in complementary medicine or holistic health. I do track some of these sites, and also follow technology and science sites, because these feed into themes relating to science, spirituality and soul.

3. Rob La Gatta: When writing content for the blog, do you find yourself taking the voice of a lawyer or of a medical expert?

Michael H. Cohen: I take the voice of an attorney and legal scholar who is also personally familiar with many complementary therapies, and who has had academic experience as a faculty member at a major medical school. Many of my academic colleagues are involved in clinical research, and so I have learned to draw certain conclusions regarding medical studies; however, I do not purport to have any medical expertise and my comments on clinical research are usually fairly limited.

Many of my clients are health care practitioners, so by including information about clinical research and health trends I can reach a broader audience than just lawyers and judges. Many readers are also patients. At the same time, I have found a client base developing among small, medium and large law firms seeking legal and ethical expertise in the health law arena, particularly around cases involving complementary therapies.

4. Rob La Gatta: If you could give one bit of advice to a lawyer starting his or her own blog, what would it be?

Michael H. Cohen: It takes a fair amount of time to shape a blog according to individual needs and preferences, and finding one’s online voice is very much an evolving process.

Lawyers also have to assess the resources they can devote to blogging. I encourage bloggers to develop their own personalities, to take risks with posts and express their individuality. Do not hide behind a fog of seemingly Olympian reporting.  

If you’re a large firm and have the resources and can hire and train someone to write blog posts, that is one thing. But if you are “lean and mean,” you have to take control of the process from start to finish, and be sure that the product is professional, accurate, and reflective of your personal style and values.

5. Rob La Gatta: I noticed that your blog doesn’t have comments enabled, and entries lack any indication of their publication date. What was the reason for these design choices?

Michael H. Cohen: Many comments are simply the product of spam robots, so unless one is willing to screen these individually, enabling comments at this point can be burdensome.  

Many of my topics are timely but not time-sensitive, meaning that the information is valuable as it accrues. But usually I am not looking to, for example, the one U.S. Supreme Court case that was announced yesterday and suddenly changes the entire legal landscape. Many of the issues addressed in the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Law Blog are ongoing, pervasive, multi-state, and ranging across the usual topics. For this reason, the site aims to be informative, and sorts entries by topic and date, without time-stamping the material.

That's it for today. We've got some great "Five Questions" interviews in the works for future weeks, so keep watching this spot to hear blogging professionals as they describe their craft in their own words.

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Just saw this morning's post by Conrad Saam in the Avvo Blog highlighting the top 10 lawyer profiles viewed at the lawyer rating site last week.

Congratulations to Hunter Biederman, the Texas DWI attorney whose profile came at #5 on the list. Hunter, one of LexBlog's newer clients, recently debuted his Frisco DWI Lawyer & Attorney Blog.

Can't help but wonder whether or not his high ranking stems from interested folks who saw the posts here in our blog and in Jamie Spencer's Austin DWI Lawyer Blog welcoming Hunter to the blogosphere.

Good luck to Hunter from all of us here at LexBlog as he continues to develop his online presence.

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Potential liability arising out of lawyers leaving blog comments may have reached a new high if this one proves to be true.

Per Wired, some 'Righty bloggers' went to work upon Newsweek reporting this weekend of FBI agents raiding the home of former Justice Department lawyer Thomas Tamm as part of an investigation into how the New York Times learned about the government's secret wiretapping program. The bloggers quickly discovered that "Tamm had donated to Democrats in 2004 and that several blog comments critical of the administration had been posted with his name attached."

A blogger at Free Republic, cited by Wired, notes:

If it turns out that Thomas M. Tamm is the FISA leaker, then a good case could be made that [Bush Derangement Syndrome] postings on the web might have been his undoing. Ironically this would not be the first time a high government official illegally releasing top secret information revealed himself via web postings. Robert Hannsen, the FBI agent  convicted of selling secrets to the Soviet Union and Russia, raised suspicions about himself when he posted explicit information about his sex life on Internet chat rooms. Perhaps this FISA leak case will be the second time that web postings would have been the undoing of a government official illegally releasing top secret information. In the case of Hannsen his motivation was sex, in the current FISA case it just might be irrational BDS that undid the leaker. At least one person suggested to me that Tamm may be Mr. Blank, a regular commenter to the liberal Talking Points Memo blog who many believe is a former DOJ insider.  I'm not convinced that any judge would issue a search warrant, even in a national security case, simply for the kinds of posts that were actually done in Tamm's name (especially given that anyone could use his name to pass off posts).  But then again, maybe the lack of discretion in blog comments sections did get Tamm a visit from the feds. 

Government lawyers who may have found it expeditious to leak info to reporters and other influencers in the past may want to think twice when trying to influence opinion through blogs. Blogs not only leave a permanent record, but are also followed by a more ravenous pack of journalists than main stream reporters - bloggers.

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They may not be part of the LexBlogosphere, but bloggers Ian Samuel and Michael Nystrom are examples of the growing role weblogs play in shaping American politics.

Both men maintain blogs highlighting the progress of their favorite 2008 presidential candidates. While neither candidate is currently front runner for their respective party’s nomination, each blogger saw the value a blog could have in spreading their message across the web. A new form of grassroots promotion, the blog has become the political underdog’s new best friend.

“It's the fastest way to get your message out, period,” said Samuel, a 23-year-old student at the New York University School of Law who writes for The Bill Richardson Blog. Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, has been campaigning for Democratic nomination behind hopefuls Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama. “When networks of blogs interact with each other, the effect can be a powerful one that's completely independent from the candidate.”

Samuel started the blog in the summer of 2005, and at that time the Bill Richardson Blog was the first of its kind (though Washington for Richardson launched soon after). Since his blog’s debut, Samuel says, the people from Richardson’s official campaign – already prepared to handle the candidate’s web presence – have played a positive role.

“The response has been good,” he says. “They have a dedicated netroots outreach person, who is great about making sure all Richardson blogs are kept in the loop about things that are going on. There's great community networking and organizing tools on the official site, and all of that.”

While Samuel is focusing his efforts on the Democrats, at the other side of the blog spectrum is Nystrom, a freelance web developer who runs the Ron Paul blog at DailyPaul.com. Nystrom’s interest in Republican candidate Paul goes back to 2002, when he witnessed the self proclaimed “Champion of the Constitution” criticizing Alan Greenspan’s monetary policies.

“I made a note of this character’s name, and that evening when I got home from work I looked up his testimony on C-SPAN,” recalls Nystrom. “This was back in the days before YouTube, and C-SPAN had this clunky online video system that I had to painstakingly scan through to find the footage.  When I found the part with Dr. Paul, I transcribed it and put it up on the web.”

DailyPaul.com was launched this past January, after Nystrom heard an interview where Paul predicted the impact the Internet would have on the 2008 election.

“He said it would be a contest between the people who get their news in soundbites from the [mainstream media], and those who get their news more quietly and in-depth from the Internet,” Nystrom says. “I realized that was a true and correct assessment, and I wanted to be a part of it.”

The benefits of DailyPaul.com and its blog, he says, are widespread. Rather than just providing links to articles, Nystrom wants his site to give visitors a “shared experience.” They can comment and read comments from others, see how many times a story has been read and more. And since it isn’t Paul’s main website, it provides a variety of opinions, not just the “official” ones.

Traffic numbers between the two blogs may differ, if only due to their content. Samuel calls his blog “low post volume” – meaning he provides opinions rather than news updates – and says that as a result, traffic is lower than it would be at a news-centered site (though he remained tight lipped on exact numbers). Nystrom’s blog, which provides continuous brief news updates, has grown substantially: when it launched, Nystrom himself was the only visitor. Soon after, Matt Pyeatt – Paul’s eldest grandson – began blogging on the site, bringing the daily visitor toll up to 400. Today it has increased to “about 7,000 unique visitors a day.”

While at this (albeit early) point in the election game it seems that neither candidate will be the next president (an August 2nd Newsweek poll showed Richardson with 1 percent of Democratic preference for the party’s nomination and Paul with 2 percent from the Republicans), the fact that blogs exist in their favor show the substantial role the Internet is playing in a presidential election still more than a year away. For politicians in a wired America, a viable Internet presence could literally make or break a candidate’s campaign.
Technorati Tags: law student blogs

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Josh Hallett wondered how many many photos would be indexed at Flickr for BlogHer '07. Josh reports it's 2,903 BlogHer '07 photos. Cool, and I'm sure a lot of good memories. Wish I had gone.

See you at Gnomedex the end of the week Josh.

Technorati Tags: BlogHer

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Law firms typically look to blogs to enhance the reputation of individual lawyers and practice groups. However, talking with Amanda Bronstad of The National Law last week, some blogs are drawing law firms unwanted attention. It's now the subject of Bronstad's story in the National Law Journal, 'Law Firms Get Their Share of Attention From Bloggers.'

Above the Law reports on more law firm gossip than any blog. Not a surprise in that it's edited by former assistant U.S. Attorney, David Lat, a prior blogger at Underneath Their Robes, a judiciary gossip blog, and the DC Gossip blog, Wonkette.

Gotta love Lat's philosophy. With Above the Laws promise of anonymity, the blog "...helps people act on their 'human instinct' to 'unburden themselves of a secret.'" And though no law firm has asked for a post to be removed, at least one associate has told Lat that his posts have caused a stir in their firm.

The result is Lat and blogs like the Skadden Insider publish, as Bronstad reports "...internal information at firms, such as confidential firings and sexual trysts with partners."

The other situation reported by Bronstad, and the one I discussed with her, was ex-employee lawyers blogging to get back at the firm. I didn't see it as high risk because of ethics issues, severance agreements, and making yourself unemployable. But upon Jeff Brauer's leaving his of counsel position with a law firm in China, he took an ex-employee blog to a new level.

Brauer spent five months sending e-mails and hiring attorneys to collect $150,000 in unpaid compensation he claimed the firm still owed him. Didn't work so he started a blog. The result was an agreement that Brauer would take down his blog in return for payment of his 'outstanding debts.'

Expect more blogs like Above the Law. Skanky law firm content attracts a demographic with a lot of buying power. That's not lost on advertisers.

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In an attempt to give readers more information than the basic list of this week's live blogs can provide, we at LexBlog have started asking a few questions of our newest bloggers. We begin this feature with Fox Rothschild attorney Joel Bolstein, a Pennsylvania-based lawyer who just launched the Pennsylvania Brownfields & Environmental Law Blog.

Rob La Gatta: When and how did the development of this blog come about?

Joel Bolstein: I was recently named co-chair of the environmental practice group at Fox Rothschild. I saw that a number of lawyers in our firm had blogs in various specialty areas and I thought that I'd write a blog in my area of expertise -- the redevelopment of brownfield sites. Since leaving my position as Deputy Secretary of the Pennsylvania DEP, I've worked on many brownfield projects, and I keep current with new policies and regulatory developments. When Pennsylvania rolled out its program, I traveled the country promoting brownfields redevelopment. I've testified before the US Congress and the PA General Assembly on matters relating to brownfields redevelopment. Now I think it's time to share some of my experience and hopefully have a dialog with others committed to brownfield redevelopment.

Rob La Gatta: What do you hope to get out of your LexBlog blog?

Joel Bolstein: I'd like to be able to communicate with attorneys, consultants, developers and others in Pennsylvania and around the country who are working on brownfield redevelopment projects and discuss hot topics, think through issues, swap success stories, and share experiences.

Rob La Gatta: If you read other blogs, what are some of your favorites?

Joel Bolstein: I am an avid reader of blogs that cover politics and elections. My favorite is The Fix on the Washington Post's website, especially around election time. I also like Capitol Briefing, another blog on the Washington Post's website.

Keep watching this spot. As more folks like Joel begin developing LexBlog blogs, we hope to continue conducting brief interviews on what turned them into bloggers.

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Over the past week, we saw a few new blogs (as well as a redevelopment of one of our existing clients' blogs) launched into the LexBlogosophere. Here's what went live this week:

• The Holrob Communities Blog, managed and maintained by Holrob Commercial Realty, LLC. The blog - Holrob's second, after The Farm at Tralee Journal - updates readers on the company's various developments in Tennessee.
• Gosselin & Associates P.C.'s Law For Life Blog, written by John Gosselin and focusing on estate planning, elder law, real estate and other lifestyle issues.
• The eDiscovery Source Blog, from the electronic evidence service providers RenewData, providing electronic discovery news and legal commentary.
• Over at Fox Rothschild, the law blog collection just keeps on growing. This week, the firm debuted their Pennsylvania Brownfields & Environmental Law Blog, written and updated by attorney Joel Bolstein. The blog deals with various issues related to Pennsylvania environmental law.

In addition to the launches above, we also debuted the recently-redesigned Law Biz Blog, written by law firm management consultant Ed Poll. In his blog, Ed provides tips and suggestions for helping law firms and attorneys increase their profitability.

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'Super Lawyers' and 'Best Lawyers in America,' both legal directories of leading lawyers, will have to wait to hear whether they'll be able to use such superlatives when describing lawyers in New Jersey.

Public hearings before a special master appointed by the NJ Supreme Court scheduled for this week were postponed until the end of the month because of problems scheduling witnesses.

Technorati Tags: Super Lawyers, Best Lawyers

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