ABA Journal names ‘Lawyer-Blogger’ a ‘Newsmaker of the Year’

Kudos to the ABA Journal for naming blogging lawyers as one their newsmakers of the year for 2007 and 2008. It’s the cover story for the Journal’s January 2008 edition

Sure, law blog superstars like David Lat and Tom Goldstein have been churning out content for a while now, but the last year saw a plethora of law blogs begin to insert themselves into the most significant daily news and legal issues debates alongside their counterparts in journalism and academe.

From the Duke lacrosse team fiasco in North Carolina to the high-profile ‘Family Secrets’ Mob trial in Chicago, bloggers made their presence known with a flourish, sometimes to the chagrin of the judges and lawyers involved. But the influence of the lawyer-blogger goes beyond that.

Whether by a single practitioner who wants to share his or her problems and experiences opening an office, or a BigLaw associate who wants to dish the dirt about the practice, the lawyer-bloggers are finding an audience for their work, and we salute them.

Key takeaways from this traditional legal publisher:

• Blogs are part of significant daily news and legal issues debates alongside their counterparts in journalism and academe.
• Lawyer-bloggers are finding an audience for their work.

I’m not aware that any editors at Thomson West/FindLaw, LexisNexis, or Incisive Media’s ALM (though they have a small blog network at law.com) have acknowledged law blogs as framing legal news alongside tradition journalists and publishers. May be that the ABA, not a major force in legal publishing, has little to lose and a lot to gain with the rise of law blogs.

And thanks for not labeling law blogs as ‘blawgs’ as part of this recognition. ;)