December 31, 2007 by Kevin

Why I do LexBlog

Wasn't sure whether to share my 'Why I do LexBlog' I wrote for an inquiring person for whom I have a lot of respect. Seemed too self serving, or at least a little mushy, to post here. But with it being New Year's Eve and you guys reading my blog knowing as much about me as anyone (almost), what the heck.

I enjoy serving other people and trying to make the world a better place. That's why I can became a lawyer. Throughout my professional career, I have always looked for that next opportunity to serve more people and to make a difference.

Whether as a young associate working my tail off, leading local political causes, starting my own law firm, starting Prairielaw.com, a virtual community of people helping people, or working on a non-profit Internet legal services project before I started LexBlog, the common thread was service to others.

Over the last 12 years I have been blessed with the opportunity to help more folks via the Internet than I ever before helped before. It's like the Internet was made for me and now it's time to take what I know, the growing powers of the Internet, and the base I've built at LexBlog to the next level - all to serve people. All to make a difference.

My goals are fourfold:

  • To get people the legal help they need. There are far too many people, whether they be a consumer, a corporate executive, or a practicing lawyer, in need of sound legal information who are not getting it. The best place to get information is from practicing lawyers with niche expertise. Tens of thousands of law blogs providing down to earth practical legal information would start to fill this void.

  • To connect people in need of a lawyer with the most appropriate lawyer. Too many people end up with a lawyer who is ill equipped to truly help them. At the same time, given the right information, people are smart enough to evaluate who would be a good lawyer for them. Blogs put a lawyer's skill, passion, philosophy, and expertise on display for the world not only to see, but to discuss. In addition, geography is no longer a limit in finding the best lawyer - whether the driving force be expertise or a lower hourly rate.

  • To help lawyers. A significant percentage of lawyers became a lawyer because of some principle they held - some burning light inside of them, some cause. Law school, student loans, and the practicalities of working long hours to make money and achieve what others have defined as success have just about drowned out that burning light. Blogging about something that you are passionate about, getting positive feedback from others about your blogging, and getting legal work in the area of law you are passionate about sparks that flame inside. Lawyers start to feel good about themselves.

  • To improve the image of the legal profession, not to just benefit lawyers, but to benefit society as a whole. Law effects everyday life and society more than we can imagine. Law defines our rights and obligations. Lawyers obviously play an integral part in making the law work for people. We can not have a society distrusting the very professionals who are best equipped to help them. We cannot loose bright and passionate young people to other professions not held in such disrepute. An Internet filled with law blogs making lawyers and legal information freely accessible as well as breaking down the social barriers between lawyers and average folks will improve the image of our profession.

My goals are not totally altruistic. These goals and ideals are strong enough that those working to achieve them deserve a financial return. That's American entrepreneurialism at work.

If a guy from public housing in Brooklyn whose goal was delivering an affordable luxury to average Americans through a better cup of coffee and comfortable place to drink it can create a multi billion dollar corporation, those who improve the delivery of law and justice to Americans deserve their small slice of the American dream.

As we close the book on '07 and begin a new year, thanks to all who I've had the opportunity to serve in some capacity. It's been a hoot. And thanks to my team members at LexBlog. It's truly an honor to work with a such a dedicated and talented group. And most of all, thanks to my wife, Jill, and my family for putting up with me working all the time.

Onward and Upward for the New Year.


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December 31, 2007 by Kevin

Trip to the Apple Store

Seattle Bainbridge FerryWhen you live on an Island, the trip to the Apple Store is more of an adventure (well at least a family outing). Here's the view from the ferry deck traveling into Seattle from Bainbridge Island yesterday afternoon after the Packers game.

Two repaired machines, a new iMac, and a dinner out, and we were back on the 9 o'clock boat.

We live in a beautiful place here in Seattle, whose waters, mountains, and cityscapes I have come to take for granted after 8 years. I'll try to share more shots from my iPhone in the coming year.

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December 31, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/31/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereThe final update of 2007 is actually being published on the first day of 2008, and this post features a special selection of year-end content from the blogging legal community.

The end of an era, December 31, 2007 offers us these posts:

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December 30, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/30/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereToday's update: brief, but featuring late-in-the-year legal news from attorneys around the world.

The highlights for December 30, 2007 include:

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December 30, 2007 by Kevin

Size of audience not what matters for blog success

Robert ScobleScoble's spot on this morning that building a big blog audience is not what matters in blogging.

Robert was referencing what advertisers care about, but the same applies equally to you lawyers trying to achieve blog success.

So, what should you care about per Robert? (with my added commentary)

  • Are you getting content that no one else is? Some lawyers are all over niche subjects that no one is covering. Cover a niche and you will not be able to keep your target audience away with a stick.
  • Does that content cause conversations to happen? If you use Google Blog Search, do you find anyone linking to it? Conversations take place by others referencing points you raise, not necessarily via comments on your blog.
  • Does that content get noticed in the niche you're covering? Do you get noticed by conference coordinators and trade magazines?
  • Even more importantly, does it get the most credible and authoritative to link to you? Who are the bloggers most respected in your area of law or in industries who want to represent? Who are the reporters covering your niche? Get referenced by them and it's ten times as valuable as any ad or any PR person plugging for you.
  • Don't ask how big your blog audience can be. That's not the end game. Ask how far can I take myself as a lawyer. Ask can I take myself to the top in my niche area of the law.

Again, blogging isn't about search engine dominance (though you'll do very well) and getting a huge audience, it's about establishing yourself as an authority in a niche through entering online conversations with the key influencers in your field.

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December 29, 2007 by Kevin

Online communites without walls and gates

With all the talk of social networking and social or business community websites like FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and now, Spock, you'd think the concept of communities was just discovered in the last couple years. Not true.

As Shel Israel recently posted, in response to Jeremiah Owyang's Twitter comments about social media, the 'definition of community really hasn't been much changed since the Internet came in.'

...Since the advent of social media, there are a lot more communities and a great many people belong to more communities than they used to.

But by definition, they remain the same. Communities are bodies of people loosely joined together by a common interest.  Historically, that common interest could be geography, a profession, a religion, a political affiliation or even a hobby like stamp collecting.

The Internet has reduced the physical boundaries of community. You can now have a strong bind with community members you have never met. It is based on shared passion and interest.

And communities aren't something that someone or a company owns. A community is not defined by a web portal with walls and gates, it's defined by a common interest.

As a blogging lawyer you can participate in social networking sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, FaceBook and the like. But it's not necessary to do so to be part of a community of people with interests similar to your own. Such people being prospective clients, peers, and amplifiers of your message (other bloggers and the media). You'll have been drawn together as a community, not by registration at a website but by a common passion.

Don't think of your blog as a publishing tool or a search engine magnet. Think of your blog as a medium by which you'll participate in a community. And instead of having to follow the revenue driven protocols and road maps developed by a social networking company, your community will be comprised of people anywhere with a common interest who have an effective Internet presence.

And like lawyers in your hometown who have benefited from decades of networking offline, you should get out there and network in your online community. To grow personally, and to grow professionally.

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December 29, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/29/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereIt's the last Saturday in 2007, and we've got five prime selections from our corner of the legal blogosphere worth noting.

Our abridged weekend update for December 29, 2007 features these highlights:

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December 29, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Dan Schwartz scoops everyone with coverage of expected impending presidential veto

Another triumph for Dan Schwartz of the Connecticut Employment Law Blog: his quick response yesterday to the New York Times' report on President Bush's expected veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (and it's impact on the expansion of FMLA benefits to military families). Dan's post ended up scooping both the majority of the national press and the entire legal blogging community.

Mike Fox at Jottings By An Employer's Lawyer has the details.

[Dan] was keen enough to pass along a caution that the FMLA expansion that has been mentioned in several blogs recently (including this one), seems to have hit a Presidential snag.

[...]

What's more impressive is that Dan is apparently the first to make the connection between the well publicized veto and the hit to the FMLA expansion, as my google news search a moment ago for "fmla and veto" came up with no hits. A huge tip of the hat for a scoop not only in the (relatively) small world of employment law blogging, but of the big time media as well.

While Dan is using the holiday season as an opportunity to stay on top of the law (and to report in it in an even more timely fashion than much of the mainstream media), his blog is serving as a portal between the nation's capitol and the legal blogging community. And as Mike Fox's post indicates, tech savvy lawyers across the country are taking note.

Note: This isn't the first time Dan has crossed our radar. His posts are frequently included in daily LexBlogosphere updates (which are worth looking at if you haven't yet checked them out), and we even featured Dan in a recent LexBlog Q & A.

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December 28, 2007 by Kevin

Journalism, an industry in upheaval : WSJ fascinating read

41 years ago Paul Steiger began his career in journalism with the WSJ and LA Times in 'an industry of family-owned newspapers... setting off on a momentous period of growing power and profit.' Next Thursday he leaves the WSJ, including 16 years at its managing editor, and an 'industry in upheaval, with slumping revenues and stocks, layoffs, and takeovers of publishers that a decade ago seemed impregnable.'

The Journal's editors asked him to retrace his experiences of the past four decades in search of insights into how all this happened, what may happen next and the implications of all this change for readers, the nation and society at large.

'Read All About It' is Steiger's story chronicling the days of Camelot, where investigative reporting had no bounds, including first class air travel, to today, where newspapers have been 'shredded by the Internet.' It's a lengthy and great read on how newspapers may have returned to their past where 'less than 50 years ago, American newspapers were in the main relatively small, narrowly profitable, family-owned, locally focused and hotly competitive.'

Take aways for me are the contrasts of feast and famine Steiger draws:

The cornucopia of national, international and business news, sports, and especially opinion available free on the Web is rich beyond historical parallel. Anyone with a fact, a comment, a snapshot or a video clip can self-publish and instantly compete with the professionals.

At the same time, the vast array of investigative reporting and foreign correspondence assembled at American newspapers over the past several decades is being cut back at all but a few publications, as papers succumb to the pressure to cut costs.

Many journalists and academics see in these cutbacks a threat to the democratic ideal of a well-informed public. Some urge turning to philanthropy or an expansion of public television as a way to fill the gap. Others have begun to argue for a government subsidy for newspapers -- an unlikely prospect for now.

And the struggles faced in the industry's transformation:

Many papers are seeking to leap ahead in adapting to the movement of readers and advertisers to the Internet. This means tightly holding down costs of print publications while leveraging metro papers' principal unique assets: local reporting staffs and local ad-sales teams.

Cash from newspapers' own Web offerings has grown fast but needs to grow faster, because at current rates it will be years before it makes up for the slumping inflow from the still-much-larger print side. As Google, Yahoo and similar Internet enterprises suck away ad dollars, many newspaper companies hope to gain new revenue by forming once-unthinkable partnerships with each other and some of these same rivals, particularly Yahoo.

Positive for us is where Steiger is headed. To a nonprofit called Pro Publica as president and editor-in-chief.

When fully staffed, we will be a team of 24 journalists dedicated to reporting on abuses of power by anyone with power: government, business, unions, universities, school systems, doctors, hospitals, lawyers, courts, nonprofits, media. We'll publish through our Web site and also possibly through newspapers, magazines or TV programs, offering our material free if they provide wide distribution.

Pro Publica is funded by philanthropists providing $10 million a year in funding. As Steiger eludes to, it may be that philanthropy will be one business model protecting investigative reporting so important in a democratic society.

Empowering hundreds of bloggers with LexBlog, I can't help believing that lawyers blogging on niches using their examination skills will also play a role in investigative reporting. Such blog content may not only be read on the blogs themselves but be syndicated to the likes of the Wall Street Journal.

Tapping into such free editorially controlled syndicated content gives newspapers local and niche legal content, perhaps better than they ever had. Opportunities lie ahead.

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December 28, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/28/07

Today is Friday, but the content continues to flow in the LexBlogosphere: it's just after noon, but dozens of blogging lawyers and attorneys have updated with entries covering a wide range of content.

The posts worth highlighting today, December 28 2007, include:

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December 28, 2007 by Kevin

New York Times reporter exageragating effort required for good blog

Marci Alboher followed her Times article today on the marketing value of blogs to consulting professionals with a blog post on her own Times' Shifting Careers blog.

Despite learning in writing the article that blogging works to reinforce your brand, communicate with clients or customers, identify yourself with a certain community, show your expertise, and get clients, Alboher felt she needed to warn professionals who may blog to achieve success that they may not want to.

...[A]s I know from first-hand experience, blogging is hard, and not every entrepreneur or small business is suited to it. For blogs to attract a regular readership and to be picked up by search engines, they need to be updated often and promoted. That means that the person doing the blogging for the company has to have a certain amount of time as well as commitment to the project and, of course, writing ability.
.....
I also discovered a few small businesses that successfully used blogging as part of a focused marketing strategy, in some cases dedicating an employee (or team of employees) or outside contractors to create blogs that would generate significant traffic.

I let Marci know I liked her article, but that she is making too much out of the work required to maintain a good blog. An effective blog published by a professional services person so as to further enhance their reputation and grow their business can be done in much less than the time required for other marketing/networking efforts.

A Harvard Business School newsletter talked of one post a week for a business blog. I preach that with LexBlog's hundreds of lawyer clients who are blogging. I also tell them to try get their blog posts down to half hour or so. Many spend more time, but that's because they are enjoying the process and growing their network and business as a result of their blogging.

In addition, blogging is not supposed to be a 'Woe is me, what am I supposed to write to my blog.' The best professional services bloggers listen to targeted RSS feeds from particular blogs and news websites as well as keyword/key phrase searches from Google Blog Search. A good blog post comes from, 'Boy this is great stuff I just found in my feeds, I need to share it with my readers' - adding one's commentary of course.

Blogs are a conversation, not a publishing expedition. It's easier to talk socially than it is to publish.

And blogging knowing it's all about a conversation solves the problem of growing your blog's readership. By referencing what others are writing in their blogs and reporters are writing in online news stories, such bloggers and reporters take notice of your blog. They'll often subscribe to your niche focused blog and share with their readers something you blog about.

Not everyone is trying to be an A-list blogger like Guy Kawasaki, who Alboher quotes as saying ""If you're blogging and no one is reading you, are you really even blogging?" Guy may see 500 unique visitors a month as total failure. Not the case for a 30 year old lawyer whose 500 unique visitors after a month of blogging are members of the California biotech community she is looking to reach.

I've got skin in this blog game, but working with hundreds of wonderful law bloggers around the world I have rarely heard that this blogging is too hard or takes too much time.

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December 27, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/27/07

Another full update of worthy posts to highlight, which includes some strong writing from lawyers around the country.

The discussion in the LexBlogosphere on December 27, 2007 includes these posts:

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December 27, 2007 by Kevin

Avvo bashing foolishness

Why does just the mention of Avvo get lawyers all worked up? (latest posts and comments here and here)

Based on the lawyer outrage about Avvo allowing consumers to comment on a lawyer's services, you'd think Avvo actually harmed someone looking for a meaningful way to pick a lawyer.

What's the danger in giving people more information in their attempt to choose a lawyer in a world that's been dominated by lawyer yellow page ads, sleazy TV advertising, and self-aggrandizing lawyer websites? If people want to use Avvo's lawyer directory which includes third party commentary on a lawyers services and ratings, they'll use it. If people do not believe Avvo is worthwhile, they'll choose not to use it.

I choose not to drive a Yugo. I wouldn't feel safe in such a small car next to a semi on the freeway. But I don't go around dissing Yugo telling the manufacturer their car is worthless and telling anyone who will listen to me that Yugo is just out to make money by selling worthless cars to the unknowing populous.

There are too many people in this country who believe people are too stupid to protect themselves. God forbid these poor souls who did not have the opportunity to go to law school decide to pick a lawyer in a method of their own choosing. We lawyers know better and we need to protect you from yourself.

Has any one asked the lawyers criticizing Avvo how much time they even spent on Avvo's website? Very little of the info provided in the completed lawyer profiles on Avvo has to do with the ratings causing all the lawyer outrage.

Much of the info provided on the Avvo lawyer profiles has to do with clients' and other lawyers' comments about their experience with the subject lawyer. That's good stuff. In a totally opaque industry, where else on the net do I get those types of third party comments about lawyers?

I didn't like Avvo at first. I found including all lawyers from 11 states in the directory, even many lawyers who would never take a consumer or small business client, a PR stunt. But the more I look at the profiles filling in on the site and the more I hear the shallow opinions as to why we must sink Avvo to the bottom of the sea, the more I like Avvo.

I should have expected Martindale-Hubbell to table forever my proposal to have consumers and small business people comment on lawyers and rate them on certain services related factors, but I never expected people who should have consumers' interests at heart to fight such a system.

Avvo execs are doing the right thing commenting on the Avvo dissing blog posts. But at the end of the day, Avvo is going to move on knowing if they create a service of value to consumers, their company will thrive. And it's not going to be lawyers who decide whether Avvo is of value, it will be consumers and small business people.

And a note to the Avvo nay-sayers. It's a well accepted start up philosophy that you should polarize people. When you create a service some people love, you can expect others to hate you. 'The goal is to catalyze passion -- pro or anti,' says Guy Kawasaki, Apple's first evangelist.

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December 26, 2007 by Kevin

Blogs offer professionals high return marketing tool : New York Times

Lawyer BlogsBlogs offer consulting professionals like law firms '...[A] low-cost, high-return tool that can handle marketing and public relations, raise the company profile and build the brand.' That per an article by Marci Alboher in Wednesday's New York Times.

Blogs may not be for everyone but some businesses such as consultants are obvious candidates, says Aliza Sherman Risdahl, author of The Everything Blogging Book.

They are experts in their fields and are in the business of telling people what to do.

As a consultant, blogging clearly helps you get hired. If you are selling a product, you have to be much more creative because people don't want to read a commercial.

David Harlow, a lawyer and health care consultant in Boston, was quoted for his success with his HealthBlawg. He used it when he started his own practice after leaving a large firm.

He gets about 200 to 300 visits a day, he said. He has also become a source for publications looking for commentary on regulatory issues in the health care field and has even gained a few clients because of the blog. In addition, he has formed relationships with other legal bloggers (who call themselves blawgers) and consultants around the country.

The word of mouth component marketing component of blogs was covered as well. Tony Stubblebine, the chief executive of a Silicon Valley software company told Albahor he gets new customers largely by word of mouth, and he uses his blog as a way to share news with friends and people who wield influence in his industry.

I'm trying to create a community of help for small Internet businesses like mine. My blogging philosophy is like the open source model in software. It's sort of a hippie concept. If I can help other people, it's personally rewarding. And those people will likely pay it back in some ways.

Plus for companies in the technology sector, Stubblebine believes having a blog is pretty much expected.

When I started blogging in 2003, I was hoping to find one news story on blogs a week. Can't go a day anymore.

Heck, when I got home tonight my wife, Jill, asked if I saw the articles on blogs in today's Seattle Times. More consumer oriented than business, one covering Starbucks Gossip, and the other on niche bloggers earning money through advertising. Nonetheless, blogs are all around us and definitely here to stay.


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December 26, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/26/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereHere's hoping everyone had a great Christmas, with plenty of fun and family time to make even the most professional, hard-working folks among us feel relaxed.

Getting back to the LexBlogosphere, the highlighted posts for December 26, 2007 include the following:

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December 26, 2007 by Kevin

Law firm PR & communications should move to micromedia

Law firm PR has traditionally been about getting the firm and its lawyers in main stream media, whether as the source of a quote or the subject of a story. Often done through press releases and press kit folders with accompanying brochure, lawyer bio's and suggested story ideas. Unfortunately for many law firms, that's where the heads of their PR people are still at.

Small problem. Micromedia, whether it be news websites or blogs are more likely to publish your stories. Plus those websites and blogs reach just as many people as do the traditional media.

Search Engine Watch's Greg Jarboe researched media coverage of two very large high profile search technology conferences. He conducted several searches on Google News and Yahoo News and found more than 150 stories from the past month.

Only 1 percent of the more than 150 stories were written by the traditional trade press. 88% of the coverage came from online publications and group blogs. The other 11% came from press releases themselves which were put out by PR professionals.

Jarboe also found out that the number of visitors to those online publications and blogs was the equivalent of the circulation of print publications that could be expected to cover the story.

His advice? At least one of your PR and communications people should be focused on blogs and online media.

Bet you my house, there aren't five law firms with a PR person dedicated to blogs and online media. The part that's really a shame is that they could get a talented person to do the job for less than $50,000 per year.

That's right - $50,000 for a young person who gets social media and online publishing to monitor blogs and online media for stories relevant to the law firm, its lawyers, and its clients; to id blogs and online media to network with; and with the guidance of senior folks, to create and execute an effective blog marketing program for a few of the firm's practice groups.

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December 24, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/24/07

A brief update today, as everyone begins settling down to celebrate the holidays. The strong posts keep coming.
 
The highlighted content for December 24, 2007 - Christmas Eve - includes:

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December 23, 2007 by Kevin

Wall Street Journal endorses lawyers rating site

And it's not Martindale-Hubbell.

Commenting on last week's court ruling that there was no basis for cracking down on Avvo's lawyer-rating Web site because some lawyers didn't like how they were rating, the Wall Street Journal endorsed the concept of lawyer ratings.

At a time when the judicial system is under increasing scrutiny, the courtroom performances and verdicts of its practitioners would seem a reasonable object of public interest. For those shopping for legal counsel, an online rating service might at least provide some measure of transparency in an otherwise opaque profession.

The site, called Avvo, does for lawyers what any number of magazines and Web sites have been doing for other professions for years. Magazines regularly publish stories that rank an area's doctors and dentists. There are rating sites and blogs for the 'best' hairstylists, manicurists, restaurants and movie theaters. Almost any consumer product or service these days is sorted and ranked.

Professional ego aside, it's hard to see why lawyers or judges should be any different.

Though not mentioning Super Lawyers by name, the WSJ certainly seems to endorse Super Lawyers practice of selecting the best lawyers and publishing the lawyers profiles in magazines and now the Internet.

Like it or not, the Internet may bring transparency to our profession yet.

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December 23, 2007 by Kevin

Merry Christmas

Christmas Bainbridge IslandThe whole family is home on Bainbridge Island/Seattle (3 kids still living here & 2 back from college).

I'll start and finish my Christmas shopping tomorrow morning in downtown Winslow. There are less than 10 or 12 shops along our main street, but that's more than enough for me. I don't buy a lot of gifts and don't expect much either. Christmas means more than that.

Tomorrow evening we'll take the ferry over to downtown and walk up the hill to St. James Cathedral for 5:30 mass. We'll then walk down to McCormick & Schmicks for our annual X-Mas eve seafood feast. After dinner and a few drinks we'll probably walk through one of the upscale hotel lobbies. They have great looking Christmas trees for taking a family picture.

On Christmas we'll open a few gifts, I'll go for a run with the boys, and we'll just hang out. Jill bought a small turkey for what looks to be the second feast in two days.

It would be nice to be back home in the Midwest with the extended family. But with the kids getting older, they appreciate Seattle and what are becoming our annual traditions. So do I.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday.

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December 23, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/23/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereA wide range of posts worth highlighting on this Sunday, as we move further and further into the holiday season.

It is December 23, 2007, and here are some of today's highlights:

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December 22, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/22/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereAs usual for our Saturday updates, today's post features a more limited selection than usual. It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, but our blogging clients continue to churn out posts, adding to the ongoing discussion that defines the legal blogosphere.

The abridged update for December 22, 2007 includes these posts:

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December 21, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Live LexBlog blogs for the week of 12/17-12/21

It's the final few days before Christmas, but our design and development team continues to churn out blogs...we launched four new ones this week.

The new blogs debuted from December 17-21 were:

  •  The Diabetes Pharmacist Blog, published by Focus Express Mail Pharmacy and providing resources on diabetes and other health issues.
  • The New York Business Divorce Blog, offering information on resolving business disputes involving companies and partnerships based out of the Empire State. This blog is published by Peter A. Mahler, a Manhattan-based attorney with Farrell Fritz.
  • E-Discovery Bytes, a resource guide for matters regarding electronic discovery, published by nine lawyers from Quarles & Brady (a firm with more than 400 attorneys, who came #123 on this year's AmLaw 200 list).
  • Our first winter resort blog: Blog Crystal, published by the folks at Crystal Mountain (the largest ski area in Washington State) and offering news, weather updates and more.

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December 21, 2007 by Kevin

I'm learning dammit

I hope you've been noticing the interviews LexBlog's Rob La Gatta has been doing with leading bloggers. Leading lawyers like Denise Howell & Ernie Svenson and even non lawyers such as Walter Olson (here and here).

Best dam part of these interviews is that I am learning a ton. Where have we been with blogs? Where are we headed? What's to be gained? What's to be risked - by blogging or not blogging, for that matter? Why are lawyers blogging so much? Why aren't lawyers blogging more? Why is the media gravitating to bloggers and blogging? It's all over the board and dam, these guys are smart.

Just emailed Denise to thank her for taking the time for the interview. And to let her know it means a lot to me personally. When it comes to all the good bloggers out there, I'm just a snot nosed kid from the Midwest learning the ropes.

Who would you like to hear from? Have something to offer on the subject of blogging or know of someone who would? Let me know and we'll set up an interview. Not just lawyers.

Only a few folks like Seth and Guy who've declined so far. We'll shame 'em over time. ;)

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December 21, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/21/07

Legal News - LexBlogosphereAfter a brief hiatus, these daily updates have returned for the duration of 2007 and into 2008. To find highlights for the past two days (during which there have been no LexBlogosphere updates), see my post from earlier today.

The discussion in the LexBlogosphere on December 21, 2007 includes these updates:

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December 21, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Legal News - LexBlogosphere: 12/19-12/20 highlights

Legal News - LexBlogosphereDevotee readers will notice that these LexBlogosphere updates have been absent for the past couple of days; reason is, I had to undergo some unpleasant oral surgery and have been mostly sedated since the afternoon of the 18th.

But today I'm ready to get back to work. Since I missed two days of updates, here are some of the posts worth highlighting from the time I was gone.

From Wednesday, December 19, 2007:

From yesterday, December 20, 2007:
Starting today, regular LexBlogosphere updates will return as scheduled.

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December 21, 2007 by Rob La Gatta

Denise Howell of Bag and Baggage [LexBlog Q & A]

Yesterday's LexBlog Q & A featured Walter Olson of Overlawyered; today, we switch gears to another pillar of the legal blog community. Our guest for this last Friday before Christmas? Denise Howell, an appellate/IP lawyer who has been active in the legal blogosphere for the past six years. Denise's name can be found around the web, most notably at her personal blog Bag and Baggage and at a ZDNet blog, Lawgarithms.

In an e-mail interview conducted earlier this week, Denise and I spoke about her history operating within the legal blogosphere, why blogs are here to stay and more. The full text of the interview is below.

1. Rob La Gatta: An old post Kevin wrote says that you've been blogging since 2001. Is this accurate? If so, what first piqued your interest and made you get involved with blogs so early in the game?

Denise Howell: It's accurate, and it actually was a game that got me blogging. I had read The Cluetrain Manifesto in 1999, and it resonated with me about individuals and business more than anything I'd studied in college or law school. After that I kept up with the writing, thinking, and online doings of three of its co-authors who were early bloggers.

One of them, Christopher Locke, was writing an article for the Guardian about weblogs. He exhorted the readers of his e-zine (about 5,000 folks) to start blogs and link to him, so (1) he could have something to write about, and (2) his standings in "Daypop" (a Technorati precursor) would theoretically go through the roof. I took the bait over the Thanksgiving weekend and became a blogger in the process.

The point was to play around with the technology (which was free and easy), and the network effects of using it (which were fun and ultimately quite powerful on a number of levels). Many of the folks who participated in Locke's "article research" are still blogging away, and are some of the most thoughtful and insightful folks I've come to know.

2. Rob La Gatta: What are some of the most noticeable changes you've seen legal blogs undergo in the six years you've been watching them?

Denise Howell: I suppose the most noticeable change is volume. In '01-'02 there were so few bloggers that were connected in some way to the legal world, [that] we all pretty much knew each other, and it was possible to keep up with every blawg out there.

By '03 the new blawgs were coming fast and furious, and it was great to be able to discover a steady stream of new voices through the blogrolls and recommendations of the folks you were already reading. There was great potential for legal institutions - firms, academia, and government - to leverage the technology, and I had great hope for law firm blogs.

That potential has not yet been realized. With few exceptions firms seem to dabble in blogging reluctantly without "getting" it. Law schools do a far better job. It's a process, though. In the mid-90's email was novel; now it's ubiquitous. Blogging and/or its related/successor tools are here to stay. They'll become such a part of our culture, interviews like this one are bound to seem pretty silly before long. E.g.:

Q: What are some of the most noticeable changes you've seen legal telephone conversations undergo in the six years you've been participating in them?
A: Uh...

3. Rob La Gatta: You argued back in 2005 that law firms should look to PR folks, who have made serious headway in spreading their message through blogging. But it's almost 2008, and we still see many large law firms showing resistance to blogs, and even fewer encouraging their lawyers to blog freely. Why do you think this is? What will it take to convince big law firms that there is value in blogging?

Denise Howell: I did? I don't remember. :) I was probably struck by the contrast.

I saw Steve Jobs speak at the first "D" Conference (and blogged it). When asked about the challenges they faced at the beginning of the personal computer era, Jobs quipped: "People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this."

Legal institutions, firms among them, will adapt to (and adopt) the communications tools that work for their evolving work force. If/while they don't, key parts of their work force will inevitably use those tools to do away with the need for things like institutions at all. (Have you been following the Web fallout of the WGA strike?)

4. Rob La Gatta: You have given yourself an advantage in the legal profession by utilizing technology and new media skills. How important do you see the use of technology as being to the legal profession today, and why should lawyers take the time to learn these skills?

Denise Howell: I don't think you can force technology on anyone, but the beauty of blogs and related tools is their ease of use and the unlooked-for (and sometimes near-magical) effects that flow from their use. I should say rather that our generation might consider those effects magical; future generations will simply expect them, then demand (and create) situations and relationships we can't even imagine.

5. Rob La Gatta: And the question I like to ask everybody I interview for this feature: if you were to encounter a lawyer just starting his or her first blog, what is the one most important bit of advice you'd offer them?

Denise Howell: If you haven't already, immerse yourself in the new media ecosystem. Explore, learn and enjoy.

  • Find what resonates with you: text, images, audio, video - or some combination thereof.
  • Pick your medium and give it a whirl. Don't worry about having to feel your way. Don't worry about being polished. Learn as you go.
  • Ask questions in public.
  • Use easy tools.
  • Don't get fleeced by consultants or marketing folks who insist you'll flounder without their help. You can accomplish a great deal for little or no money and primarily on your own.
  • Educate yourself about the ethical obligations specific to online communications.
  • Educate yourself about Creative Commons, take advantage of the wealth of licensed material there, and license your own work in the way that makes the most sense.
  • Share the information you're most passionate about.
  • Heed a Dave Winer-ism and narrate your work.
  • Be a guide.
  • Give your take on events and proceedings that are interesting but not necessarily accessible through mass or even niche media.
  • Remember you're person and speak in your own voice.
  • Most of all: have fun.

Interested in hearing more? Check out some of our other featured guests...Denise is just the latest in our ongoing series of legal blog interviews for the LexBlog Q & A.

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