Judge Tom Leonard is one of ten judges at the Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Court. In his blog, Judge Tom Talks, he shares his thoughts on a variety of matters, including general information about worker's compensation and technology shortcuts. Check out the link to the Oklahoma Worker's Compensation Wiki.
Today I have a pleasant assignment. I get to write about one of my favorite people. That is because Laura Calloway has launched her new blog, The Last Word. Laura Calloway is the Director of the Practice Management Assistance Program for the Alabama State Bar. She is an intelligent and capable lawyer and I have no doubt Alabama bar members love her and her program. I'm well aware that Laura has served in her role with the Alabama Bar for eleven years as we both recall learning that the Oklahoma Bar and the Alabama Bar were starting Practice Management Advisor programs. Both were launched within a month of each other and both hired directors named Calloway. She never lets me forget that she has senority, however.
She has been named to chair ABA TECHSHOW 2009. So I am really looking forward to ABA TECHSHOW, as I do every spring. I can't begin to list all of Laura's accomplishments. She served as co-editor for the finance articles for Law Practice Magazine. She speaks and writes frequently. I'm sure we will all learn a lot from The Last Word.
Usually I wouldn't feature a new blog as a Website of the Week, but this one is guaranteed to have lots of useful content. (Of course, posting may be a bit light leading up to ABA TECHSHOW 2009 next spring, but we understand that.) So check out The Last Word. In fact, one of her posts is something I was going to write about last week, but I got a little too angry. So look for my take on an important June deadline later this week.
I'm going to be participating in an teleconference CLE program on Thursday, March 6th, 2008. The title is Pumping Up Your Online Presence with a Blog and we will cover all aspects of blogging. My co-panelist is ABA TECHSHOW 2008 chair Tom Mighell. Tom publishes the Inter Alia weblog. The moderator for the program is Ponca City, OK attorney Brian Hermanson. The program is produced by the American Bar Association General Practice, Solo and Small Firm Division.
Tom and I have done similar programs together before, including Marketing your Practice with a Weblog at ABA TECHSHOW 2006. We both believe that blogs are powerful tools. Unlike some proponents of blogging, we do not believe that blogging is for everyone. We'll discuss the pros and the cons of blogging. We'll also provide all attendees with a list of representative blogs and an overview of many blog-related tools. If you are interested in starting a blog, this may be a great seminar for you.
Well, the ABA Journal has really improved its online content this year and this week's new feature is the Blawg 100, which features "the 100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers, as chosen by the editors of the ABA Journal." So you can click on the link above and go vote for your favorites among the 100. I'm pleased that Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips was included and would appreciate your vote. As I understand it, you can vote for as many blawgs as you wish, but only once for each one. It's worth your time to visit the collection just because you will undoubtedly find some blogs you have missed or forgotten. The blogs are classified by category and mine is included in Lawyer's Toolkit. You can jump to that section directly by clicking here. (In case you are in a real hurry to vote!) Other categories include Lawyers Behaving Badly (aka ethics blawgs) and Your So-Called Life.
As I said, the ABA Journal has really improved its website during 2007 and it is definitely an improved news source. They've also provided a Blawg Directory, with guides and links to over 1500 blawgs (or legal blogs if you prefer,) so it a good place to see whether there might be a blawg featuring the specialized legal content you desire. Just for an example, check out their guide to Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips, and you can see the screen capture, the link to the RSS feed and the first few sentences of the 10 lastest posts with links to the entire post. All in all, a nice one page summary of my work, and a fine way to quickly review dozens of blogs.
So, as the saying goes, vote early and often. <Grin>
Extraordinary effort should be noted. Blawg Review provides a weekly round-up of the previous week in law-related blogging through the efforts of a guest host. The host for this Labor Day edition is George Lenard, who writes George's Employment Blog.
George's Labor Day Special Edition Historical Edition of Blawg Review (#124) is noteworthy for several reasons:
I imagine this site will be heavily visited this month, but I wanted to direct my readers to George's great collection as my Website of the Week for this week.
When you compare blogs with law reviews, they seem to be polar opposites. Blogs are online and, with the exception of a few pioneers, law reviews are still largely paper-based. Law review articles reflect months of careful research and writing. They are carefully vetted and meticulously proofread. There is generally some level of competition to even get published. A blogger can do a blog post in minutes, without any sort of oversight, editorial constraint or control. A blog post can be made in anger, emotional pain or while intoxicated, and due to the magic of RSS newsfeeds, it can't even be taken back when you rethink your post.
So you may be surprised to learn that many prestigious law reviews now have online companions sites that often look a lot like blogs. Ken Strutin's Guide to Short Form Open Access Legal Publications, recently published on LLRX.com lists a significant number of these sites. Professor Gordon Smith of the University of Wisconsin Law School wrote in his post on Conglomerate, Online Companions to Law Reviews and the Future of Legal Blogs :
The online symposia view is compelling. If fully realized, it combines the best of both approaches, with the painstakingly researched and vetted law review article at the center of a collection of reactions, news items and off-the-cuff comments. Of course, for this to be fully realized, the centerpiece law review article has to freely available online. We shall see how soon that happens.
Professor Lawrence B. Solum, of the University of Illinois College of Law, examines "the shift of legal scholarship from the old world of law reviews to today's world of peer reviews to tomorrow's world of open access legal blogs" in Download It While It's Hot: Open Access and Legal Scholarship, Lewis & Clark Law Review, Vol. 10, p. 841, 2006 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=957237 He notes that "intermediaries (law school editorial boards, peer-reviewed journals) are being supplemented by disintermediated forms (papers on the Internet, blogs)." While this trend produces a wider range of opinions, I'm not sure this complete end result would be a positive one. My writings improve with a good editor, review and contemplation. Vetting reduces the chances of outright error.
What's the take-away point for the practicing lawyer, who is not really interested in this academic discussion? Bookmark Strutin's article and be aware if you find a good law review article "on point" in your research, it may have an online companion with even more, or more recent, information.
Ride the Lightning is the name of the new blog from Sharon Nelson. Sharon is President of Sensei Enteprises, Inc., an electronic discovery and computer forensics firm. Their firm is nationally known as experts in computer forensics and her husband, John Simek, Vice President of the firm, is maybe the most capable computer technologist I've ever met. (A real personal missed opportunity happened a couple of weeks ago when John called me to ask me a tech question. Sadly I didn't recall the answer and didn't have time to research it. In my business, having John owe you one would have been huge.) This blog will no doubt become a "go to" site on forensics and discovery. The fact Sharon opened with a couple of posts on computer sex with aliens is just evidence of her understanding of how search engines work and Internet surfers think.
More important (to me anyway) is that she and John have become really my good friends over the years. Sharon and I served on ABA TECHSHOW board together and she followed me as chair of TECHSHOW. This summer she and I launched the podcast The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology. This week, she, I and the Utah Bar's Lincoln Mead will do a presentation to the National Association of Bar Executives on Electronic Discovery: Sharing the Pain. Watch her blog. It will feature many things. But, even though it attacks some technical topics, I don't think it will ever be boring.
BlawgWorld 2007 is a free eBook featuring "77 thought-provoking essays from 77 of the most influential blawgs." I'm honored Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips was selected to be included with that group.
Neil Squilante, Sara Skiff and the rest of the gang at TechnoLawyer have once again put together an outstanding publication in PDF format. Some will find fault with any selection of best blawgs, but this certainly should give anyone a feel for the varied and interesting content being published by the citizen journalists within the legal community. I know they have included most of my favorites. The e-book features simple and easy navigation features. I suggest you download it now.
However, there is an interesting addition this year with the inclusion of Technolawyer Problem/Solution Guide. It features 185 law office technology problems with 185 suggested solutions. It is a sponored feature, so that means you will be getting one particular vendor's suggested solution. But it is another useful tool. Take a look at BlawgWorld 2007.
David J. Bilinsky has entered the blogosphere with his new weblog, Thoughtful Legal Management. This brings up several questions. The most obvious is whether the term "thoughtful legal management" is an oxymoron. The second is why a very well respected gentleman who is already busy as a Practice Management Advisor and staff lawyer for the Law Society of British Columbia and the Editor-in-Chief of Law Practice Magazine would want to further complicate his life by starting a new blog? David, I should know the answer to that one because I hear (ask myself) similar questions with each new project. But I don't.
David is a towering intellect. Davis is a friend. He's also a perfectionist. So I want to warn him publicly that every blog post doesn't have to be perfect. Just toss them up there because we know you have a lot to share. I've had several really nice blog posts that died in the draft mode waiting to be perfected. Then a month or so later I review the draft and decide it just isn't that timely anymore or I'm just tired of thinking about it. Besides if you aren't aiming for perfect, mistakes are then just a part of the business plan. So that's my blogger mentoring moment.
David is also a former ABA TECHSHOW chair. I'll let you review his other list of accomplishments here. There will be some great information about law firm management on his blog, so stay tuned. And, congratulations, Dave. Starting a blog is half the battle won already.
Oklahoma City attorney Elaine M. Dowling has recently started the Consumer Law Updates blawg.
For 100 weeks now, law-related bloggers (or blawgers, if you prefer) have been volunteering a few hours of their time each week to do a round-up of that week's blawg postings with lots of careful attention and lots of links. I can't say for sure that I've read a majority of them, but I've read quite a few. Some have been great and some forgettable. I'm proud to have hosted Blawg Review #49 exactly one year ago today.
Blawg Review #100 is a trip down memory lane. Ye Old Blawg Review Editor handles the task herself this week. (Well, being anonymous it could be "himself," but I have my opinions.) The Editor posts a link to each of the prior ninety-nine Blawg Review posts, if available, and also included links to any interesting content which that blawgger had posted last week. Check out Blawg Review #100. It is worth a quick scroll, even if you don't have time to read about them all. The number of different law-related blogs will certainly get your attention. Even if you are not really into following blogs, you could learn of one you could really use next month.
And, of course, Blawg Review, with its "hundredth" birthday so near my own, has to be our Website of the Week!
I have been known to talk about lawyers delivering information to clients in the manner in which serves the client best. This means talking with the client about whether they prefer e-mail or hard copies, how frequently they wish to receive status reports, how your billing works into their payment cycle and lines of organizational communication. I do think, in many instances, communicating with clients via reports and copies in PDF format will prove to be increasingly popular.
The Law Practice Tips Blog serves information in several formats. The reader can peruse the blog website, or subscribe to receive the posts by e-mail. RSS Newsfeeds allow many to read the posts in their newsreader, even if not all of them recognize MyYahoo as a newsreader. RSS is used in other ways. The Wisconsin Bar uses the technology to republish (with permission) all of this blog's content at Practice411 Advice Alerts. My blog posts are frequently featured as a part of the such diverse places as the Vermont Bar News or the Stark County (OH) Law Library. And it is a given within the blogosphere that other bloggers link to and comment on your posts.
Well, in recently trying a couple of new things, I did sort of forget about some of the e-mail subscribers and others. So a couple of the last two posts may have been cryptic to some. One was about a YouTube Video, The Machine is Us/ing Us. This graphic representation of the evolution of the WWW to Web 2.0 became one of the most popular videos on YouTube and was the first video I ever wanted to feature on my blog. Embedding a visual link to the video was something new to learn. It looked good. But I should have also included the normal link to the video for the e-mail subscribers and Web republishers' audiences.
Live and learn. Here it is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
Then a couple of days ago, I used a new Google application to create Oklahoma Law Practice Tips Search. There was a little interface called a gadget that I posted right into a blog post that let readers do searches. Of course the gadget didn't go out via e-mail or all other methods. (And to my fristration, it sometimes didn't even appear when one first looked at the blog post on the site and you had to hit refresh.)
That's OK because I wanted to mention Oklahoma Law Practice Tips Search again anyway. Check it out. Search for law practice management questions or terms (e.g. staff, management scanners) and you may find some interesting results. Basically I have created a Google subset of sites geared to law practice advice, with some Oklahoma law sites thrown in.
Heres the link to the page: http://tinyurl.com/33ts4l
As I said, live and learn.
The Journal Record, an Oklahoma City-based legal newspaper, published a story this week titled Law Blogs: 21st Century Advertising? A local TV station republished it on their web site so you can read it here. I'm not sure how long it will be avaialble. They interviewed me and OBA General Counsel Dan Murdock for the story and mentioned the Law Practice Tips blog.
Well, the latest legal technology and law practice management expert to start a blog is none other than Ross Kodner. Ross Ipsa Loquitur is the name of his blog. Surely Ross's name will be familiar to most of you reading this blog. It certainly is familar to many Oklahoma lawyers due to his numerous guest appearances at our Solo and Small Firm Conferences. It was just a couple of weeks ago that I was noting that his materials on "sweet spots" for purchasing tech gear were available on the Web. Now he's are ready reposted them (or, knowing Ross, an updated version of them) to his blog. Ross's list of accomplishments is too lengthy to go in to in the short space. But I can say without qualification that you will want to either make this blog a regular part of your web surfing, subscribe to its RSS newsfeed or use the e-mail subscription form. (I cannot even claim to be unbiased about this blog as I am the one who came up with its name in a little informal contest that Ross ran.)
Ross Ipsa Loquitur is my Website of the Week.
Blawg Review #70, the "Back-to-School" edition, is just too interesting for you to miss. Check it out here. This layout is very clever. Am I the only one who thinks that this format actually allows you to scroll through the posts more quickly? There are quite a few worthwhile posts noted this week. The Blawg Review rotates between guest authors each week. I hosted Blawg Review #49 way back in March, 2006.
The Kennedy-Mighell Report sounds sort of like a network news broadcast. And so it is, albeit to a limited network of those interested in (as they state) "legal technology with an Internet focus." (Note the second name is pronounced Mile, not mig-something.) Since this is the week of ABA TECHSHOW, it is fitting that Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell start their new podcast with a feature on ABA TECHSHOW. The feature gets high ratings from me because it includes the content I view as most important- they mention my name. But seriously folks, if you are going to ABA TECHSHOW, this is a great introduction. See this article too. And we all can now look forward to many future K-M reports. We know they will be informative. Go to the site and click on the link to listen. You do not have to have an iPod to listen to a podcast.
Hat's off to Jack Bogdanski, who has announced his plan to do podcasts of the entire Internal Revenue Code. This is great news for insomniacs and tax geeks alike. The announcement's here and the permanent home is here, with two sections already done. Jack's been blogging for nearly four years, but this is no doubt the project that will garner him his fifteen minutes of Internet fame.
Ian Andrew Best, a student at the Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, Columbus, has generated quite a bit of online fame for himself with his online Taxonomy of Legal Blogs. Yes, he may well be the first law student to garner academic credit for blogging. His sorted collection of many blawg names and links may be very useful to the practitioner and should be bookmarked. You never know when some day you’ll need some current information and wonder if there is an aviation law blog, a search and seizure blog or a Tenth Circuit blog. Nice work, Andrew.
Technolawyer's BlawgWorld 2006 was released near the end of November, 2005. It was a nice little e-book profiling many popular legal blogs. I noted its release then, but many of you may have declined to download it because you had to register with Technolawyer. Now it has been released for a free, public, no-strings-attached download. You can download it by clicking this link. So if you haven't see it yet, here's your chance.
Welcome to Blawg Review #49
For those of you who have never partaken of the Blawg Review, it is what is referred to as a carnival. I am this week’s guest host. Yes, this is a carnival, an online traveling sideshow of sorts. Carnivals are where one plays what one may believe to be rigged games to win items you’d never purchase in a store for the price of the chance. See here for hundreds of blog carnivals, covering many interests.
Well, there is little chance you’ll be cheated here, since it is yours truly, the carnival host, who has been conned by the Blawg Review Editor into donating an unanticipated amount of time to assemble a one week collection of blawg posts in the quest for Kewpie doll-sized nuggets of fame and blog traffic. And let me note that this is my project, done at home on the weekend, and not in any way the responsibility of my employer, the Oklahoma Bar Association.
Here in my part of the world, this summary of the week in online legal punditry doesn’t really seem like a carnival. Here we reckon we would call it a roundup- yep, a roundup of the week’s best of the blawg (or law blog) posts as culled from the herd of those that I learned existed. So head ‘em up and move ‘em out. There’s no time for shark jumping or re-thinking. We gotta get them doggies, uh, bloggies to market. This week join the ranch hands for:
Roundup at the OK Blawgger Corral
(aka Blawg Review #49 – Oklahoma Style)
ALL TOGETHER NOW!
“O-O-O-O-O-O-O Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain….” *** (These days we just hope it doesn’t carry any fire or ash along with it.)
(The symbol *** notes that all lyrics to songs from Oklahoma! are (c) Rodgers & Hammerstein 1943.)
One thing we believe in in Oklahoma is home field advantage and so we’ll lead off with a link to Oklahoma City blogger Russ Wheeler who keeps rolling out those Tenth Circuit criminal appellate opinion summaries and links to the full opinions.
Sheriff, we need to round up a posse.
On those days when I have to round up a posse to assist me when there are bedeviling tech questions or management mysteries, I count on the state bar practice management advisors and some of those fine folks who served on the ABA TECHSHOW Board with me. It’s not surprising that a number of them have blawgs.
Reid Trautz, of the D.C. Bar and Reid My Blog, offers his opinion that designers of some law firm websites should examine whether they are more concerned with Building Architecture or Building Clients?
Pennsylvania’s Ellen Freedman notes that you should “Purchase Your PC with Windows Vista in Mind” at her Law Practice Management blog.
Dennis Kennedy pointed to several blog posts that made him think (always dangerous, Dennis)
including one I’ll reference later.
Jeff Beard posts the complete text of two of his recent articles published in Law Office Computing. One is on Enhancing Mobile Security and one is on Avoiding Mobile Computing Burnout.
Tom Migell of Inter Alia noted that FirstGov launched a new search tool, FirstGov Search last month.
“Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.
One man likes to push a plough, the other likes to chase a cow,
But that's no reason why they cain't be friends.” ***
Well sure, and the Arabs and Israelis should be friends too. But debates, arguments and heated discussions seem to go with the law like country ham goes with eggs.
From Pointoflaw.com, we have this commentary on two respected Ivy League professors examining the data on punitive damage awards and apparently coming to very different conclusions.
Jonathan Stein of The Practice defends the contingency fee.
Bruce MacEwen at Adam Smith, Esq. has a great post discrediting a line of thinking that the quality of law firm management really does not matter.
Deborah McMurray questions whether corporations are really firing their law firms in record numbers, as stated in a BTI study released this year. I’m pleased to see her questioning this. Certainly there’s more movement than there used to be, but if 52% of companies actually fired their primary law firm in the last two years, I don’t think it would have taken a study to make it apparent. (Of course, I’m reading “fired” to mean just that, fired, not merely decreasing the percentage of assignments.)
Meanwhile Dan Hull at WhatAboutClients?™ blog thinks any such trend is mostly about client’s dissatisfaction with service delivery as he discusses McMurray’s comments, the BTI study and general observations about “biglaw.”
“I’m a Lone Cowhand!”
Longtime blawger Ernie the Attorney is now a solo practitioner and he’s blogging about New Orleans politics.
Alaskablawger Steve Wells leaves a public defender career for solo private practice, announcing that he’s Got to be Moving on.
Anthony Cermino of BizzBangBuzz is another new solo as of earlier this month and his blog lists the Dirty Dozen Top IRS Scams for 2006.
Just the hired help
You might remember the character Judd in the musical Oklahoma! He was the hired help who lost the girl (and then his life.) Well, OBA member B. Janell Grenier’s at her BenefitsBlog and Walter Olson at Point of Law commented about the wave of overtime compensation suits recently brought by stockbrokers maintaining that they are just the hourly hired help and are owed overtime on top of their pay of up to $400,000 a year.
Then Workplace Prof Blog notes a case where an employer sending flowers to an ill employee was used as evidence of notice in an FMLA case.
Professor Baimbridge discusses whether the grant dates of options for corporate managers could be timed to coincide with news that impacts their value.
“People will say we're in love!”***
Adriana Linares loves technology and at her IHeartTech blog, she asks the potentially problematic question Have you Hugged Your Tech Team Today? Adriana, that assumes that they all want to be hugged by all of us!
Some Native American tribes have a War Chief and a Peace Chief. In many legal disputes, peace and settlement may mark the wisest path. Diane Levin, on her Mediation Blog, corrals her own roundup of online mediation-related posts. (Nice cow picture.)
Arnie Herz at LegalSanity.com posts about law firm leadership and links to a nice article from Law Practice Today, “What Does It Take to Develop Effective Law Firm Leaders?” by Dr. Larry Richard and Susan Raridon Lambreth.
If any would-be blawgers are reading this, Dave Swanner at the South Carolina Trial Law Blog has a series of instructive posts on how to write a weblog, how to set it up, what to write about and, well, why to do it in the first place. They are all grouped together here and are good reading for all bloggers.
Gunfight at Blawger Corral
Sadly, this week saw Ben Cowgill at his Legal Ethics blog unleash a series of attacks on Kevin O’Keefe of LexBlog. Go here and scroll down. The criticisms seemed a bit thin, leading some of us to conclude that this is personal and not about ethics. But readers are free to make their own calls. Evan Shaeffer of Legal Underground has an initial rebuttal. If you actually have an interest, read Evan’s post and the numerous comments by Cowgill and others afterwards. In an indirect response, Kevin commented generally about upholding free speech on the Web. Another comment shootout followed.
Speaking of the importance of reputation, Larry Bodine’s Legal Marketing Blog nails an important marketing concept with “Ain't Nothin' Worse than Bad Word of Mouth.”
There was a good discussion about whether lawyers doing annual onsite client satisfaction reviews (or sending client satisfaction surveys) have an opportunity for “selling” more legal services or whether that is just an occasional pleasant by-product. But seriously, the goal does greatly impact planning of the visit. Gerry Risken (via Jim Hassett,) Patrick J. Lamb and Michelle Golden all jump in.
End of the trail
Well, partners, all good things must end, so it is time to pour some water on the campfire, saddle up and ride off into the sunset with a few melancholy guitar chords playing in the background. Hope y’all had a real good time. “Happy trails to you until we meet again.”
Blawg Review has information about next week’s host, and instructions how to get your blawg posts reviewed in upcoming issues.
The knowledgable (and very charming) Adriana Linares has launched the IHeartTech blog featuring "Technology Tips and Advice for a Lawyer's Life and Business." I must be slipping. She started it in December and I just found out. Among other things, she is a whiz on law firm training issues.
I think her blog is going to be a bit more personal than some. Here's Exhibit #1 from her post on Relationship Rules: "Want to date me? You better follow some rules...here are some starters: 1. Bring gifts (preferably from CompUsa)...." OK, settle down guys. Actually the post is about setting rules in Outlook. A belated welcome to the blogosphere, Adriana.
Many of you outside the state of Minnesota may not be aware of the blog Technically Legal. Technically Legal is a legal technology blog sponsored by the Minnesota State Bar Association and written by MSBA staffer Mike Trittipo. Mike is an intelligent writer. His posts are detailed and well worth your time. I do have a couple of minor criticisms about this blog. One is Mike's lack of a profile, contact info or an about page, evidencing a modesty quite inappropriate for a blogger. I decided to contact him by phone about that one and he assured me he's in the process of working on that. The other comment is that he doesn't post often enough. If, after visiting Technically Legal, you agree that he needs to post more (or have other comments,) feel free to drop Mike an e-mail. (You see, Mike, even if you don't post your contact info, others may do it for you.)
Well, I just got my copy of BlawgWorld 2006, an e-book from those fine folks at Technolawyer. My friend Dennis Kennedy has already said everything that needs to be said about it. So just go read his post. If you want a copy, you need to be a member of Technolawyer and can sign up at http://www.blawgworld.com/
Over 50 great blawgs profiled.
The November issue of Law Practice Today has been posted. It contains the usual assortment of helpful articles including such topics as law firm culture, strategic planning and "Eight Things Keeping Law Firm Management Awake at Night". But the feature I really want you to notice is one on the abundance of law practice management blogs that are online. Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell profile nineteen blogs focusing on law practice management (including this one.) This is really sort of amazing, Consider all of the paid law office consultants, coaches and other fee-for-services vendors to help lawyers improve their practices. Now we have 19 sources of practice management advice online for free. Hopefully the number and quality of blogs noted here will convince visitors to this site that it is about time to get one of those RSS newsreaders installed and set up so you don't miss any of these words of wisdom. But, (as the infomercial goes) wait, there's more! New practice management blogs are popping up all the time, like The Practice, mentioned in my post of earlier today.
(And just because I mention subscribing to the RSS feeds, I wouldn't want anyone to think I don't appreciate their visits to this site. It gives me good feedback on what topics interest the readers.)
A new law practice management blog has been launched. It is called The Practice. It is the brainchild of three lawyers--Jonathan Stein of Elk Grove, CA, Shane Jimison of Richmond, VA and Barry Kaufman of Jacksonville, FL. For a blog that has been online less than a month, they have a remarkable number of good posts.
But they may have already made a few posts that are, well, just wrong! Why would I point that out? Well, that's part of their design. They don't all agree on everything and don't hesitate to do point-counterpoint posts on various topics like whether a solo lawyer should purchase pre-engraved stationery or print it as they print each letter. Since they disagree, one has to be wrong. Right? Well, actually no. I would think that attorneys, more than most all other professions, would appreciate the benefit of hearing both sides of an issue. Anyway, this is a great blog and my only concern is that these guys keep up the good work and don't burn themselves out early with such a large volume of posts. We all want to keep hearing from them.
Several days ago, I did a post here on Blog Search Tools. Now we have a new powerhouse in this area with the entry of Google's Blog Search (in beta.) Many of us have been anticipating this from Google for some time. You will not be surprised to hear that it seems to work well and quickly. While some of the more specialized tools I noted previously have unique features and will be useful, my prediction is that that this will become the blog search engine of choice for most. Check out the Advanced Search features so you will know what is there.
With millions of blogs online and tens of thousands of new ones appearing daily, there is a need for tools to sort through the many new voices posting on the Net. Certainly traditional search engines like Google index the blogosphere, but there are other tools focused primarily on blogs. When I want a search to see what's hot and recent in the blog world, I go to Technorati. The search results are presented chronologically, so often the first results returned are mere minutes or hours old.
Even if you do not see a present need for them, it's important for lawyers to be aware of powerful tools. Genie Tyburski's The Virtual Chase Alert directs us to an article worth reading by anyone who fancies themselves as knowing how to do Internet research. A free article, available to nonsubscribers, on the Wall Street Journal's online edition discusses blog search engines and has a nice chart comparing five blog search tools. Read it today. I'm not sure how long it will be online before being archived. Even lawyers with little interest in blogs should peruse this one.
Of course there are always new trailblazing concepts. Cutting edge blogger Matt Homann of the [non]billable hour blog is already dismissing those of us who use Technorati as behind the curve. He points to Talk Digger, which is a metasearch engine that submits queries both to the blog search engines and traditional ones. Here's the Talk Digger FAQ. I have to disagree with my friend Matt as TalkDigger only indexes and lets you search Website addresses, not traditional keyword searchs. It is useful for bloggers to see who is linking to their posts and in some other situations. (Trackback links, like you see at the bottom of this post, only capture a very few of those who link to a blog post.) But for common searches I'm sticking with Technorati and, if I ever find time, will be examining more closely the other tools identified in the WSJ article. (IceRocket was new to me.)
I did a CLE program for a group of Edmond, OK attorneys yesterday and they had several questions about weblogs. As you know, law-related weblogs are sometimes referred to as blawgs.
How does one locate blawgs of interest? Well, generally by the same two methods that one uses to locate anything on the Internet, which are search engines and web directories. Two directories for blawgs are Blawg.org and the Blawg Republic. You'll find plenty of blawg links, organized by topic, at these two sites.
Kansas attorney Grant D. Griffiths has launched a new blog this month called Home Office Lawyer. He's already put up quite a few posts and I'm going to trust that his blog continues and feature him as my Website of the Week. He also posts on Macs in the law office and paperless office concepts. I'm not exactly an advocate of the home office set-up, but recognize that some lawyers really like it, others are forced into it and for some practice styles, (e.g. only researching and writing appellate briefs or a part time practice) it is the perfect situation. I'll look forward to seeing how Grant covers the issue of meeting with clients and others as his practice is 25% criminal defense and 75% domestic, which are the two practice areas where many would be most uncomfortable inviting clients, witnesses and opposing parties into their home or even giving them one's home address. Good luck on the new blog, Grant.
Technolawyer has just announced the winners of the annual @ Awards and this blog has been named Favorite Practice Management Blog. Here's the complete list of award winners in all of the categories. I am, as you can imagine, very pleased. Thank you to all of the voters and to all of the readers of this blog. It is really encouraging for a relatively new blogger. It is also more than a little amazing when one notes that the runners up in this category were the outstanding Adam Smith, Esq. blog and DennisKennedy.blog. Dennis gave me lots of advice as I planned this blog's launch, as did other legal bloggers. Thanks to them and thanks to Technolawyer for adding this new category this year.
Earlier this year I welcomed Ben Cowgill's Legal Ethics blog to the blogosphere. Now there has been a troubling development in Ben's home state of Kentucky. It seems that the Kentucky Attorneys' Advertising Commission wants to classify his blog as advertising, requiring him to do a filing and pay a $50 fee every time he does a post. As Ben notes, there's been a whirlwind of commentary on the web about this and even BusinessWeek has covered it. Let's hope things work out where Kentucky isn't the only state to effectively ban lawyer blogging.
In other states, just in June alone, Rhode Island's Annual Meeting had a program which featured a live blog posting, lawyers attending Missouri's excellent Solo and Small Firm Conference heard from a couple of bloggers about blogs (and other things) and Oklahoma's Solo and Small Firm Conference will feature a program "Blogs - Using Them and Building Them" from me and Tulsa County Special District Judge Charles Hogshead on June 24.
Many readers are familiar with the Neil Squillante's Technolawyer community. Several days ago Technolawyer launched its Technolawyer blog. The Technolawyer community operates via a series of free e-newsletters. Details on each newsletter can be located here. The blog mainly focuses on upcoming new content from the newsletters, but some other law technology posts are included as well. With over 10,000 members and eight e-newsletters, this unique and mostly free set of resources merits your attention.
There are lots of blawgs that discuss blawging and RSS feeds and such. I decided I wouldn't do too much of that. I will just say that I believe RSS feeds are changing the way we get our "hot" information and news and will do so much more in the future. If you are unfamiliar with RSS, the Law Dawg Blawg yesterday posted a nice little primer on RSS good for beginners with lots of superior links. I do know of some interesting RSS projects in the works. For example, check out the RSS enabled newsfeed that the Oklahoma Trial Lawyers have placed on their Website.
For many years, I did a Website of the Week for the Oklahoma Bar site. After a while I stopped updating it and when there was no great negative response, I moved on. After 5 years or so, locating interesting sites was a bit harder anyway.
With the huge number of blawgs springing up and the easier method of posting my blawg provides, I've decided to resurrect the feature here. Look for a Website of the Week every Monday morning here. Some will be blawgs, but many will not.
Tulsa County, Oklahoma has always had an interesting and useful family law site with its www.familiesintransition.com. The front page provides a picture of each of the family law judges and under each picture is a link to this week's docket for the judge. There's an online child support calculator, forms, a map to the courthouse and lots of useful things. Well, now they have added a brand new page with a News and Commentary section at http://www.familiesintransition.net. It covers news of interest to family law practitioners, including summaries of recent opinions relating to family law with links back to the full text of the opinions and statutes on the Oklahoma Supreme Court Network. FIT News is powered by Blogger software, so I guess it qualifies as a court blog. (Note to others: Does your state now have all your case and statutory law online at no charge like OSCN does?)
No, it's not a typo. My friend Reid Trautz has started his new blog, Reid My Blog. Reid is the practice management advisor for the D.C. Bar. His blog will focus on "furthering innovation in management, governance, and ethics for lawyers." I've encouraged Reid to do this because I know he will have some foward-looking ideas to share with law firms .
Reid is a great resource. Reid and I have enjoyed doing several CLE presentations together. I'd suggest you bookmark his blog in your Favorites if you browse or subscribe if you use RSS feeds.
I've talked to lots of people about blogs this past week. (Many refer to lawyer's blogs as blawgs.) I've decided I won't spend much space on my blog discussing how to set up a blog, how useful they are and so forth. There's a lot of that information already available in the blogosphere and I'm going to focus on my primary topic of law practice management and tips.
So my tip for lawyers who want to learn about setting up a blog is to begin with Dennis Kennedy's blog. My friend Dennis writes a lot about blogging and understands it as well as any lawyer. See his recent post on most common mistakes a new legal blogger can make. I'm not just referencing it because he says nice things about me in it and in his post on naming a blog. (Thanks, Dennis.) Many of us recognize Dennis as a blog pioneer and the "go to guy" for blogging advice.
I posted a link to my "blogs" article yesterday. In it, I profiled Bloglines as a web-based RSS newsreader. Yesterday My Yahoo announced new features, including support for "the various flavors of RSS and Atom, allowing you to add virtually anything to your page." I had noticed people accessing my site through the beta version of this free service.
My story in the Jan 15, 2005, Oklahoma Bar Journal asks “Was 2004 the Year of the Blog?” I used this story to introduce my blog to our membership. The title is no doubt a bit of hyperbola since most Internet users (and therefore most of the general population) still don’t understand what a blog is. But several well-publicized instances of blogs making the news meant many more people knew of blogs at the end of 2004 than at the beginning. This feature follows up on my March, 2003 stories “Of Blogs, Bloggers and Blawgs” and “Interview with the Bloggers.” As I told someone recently, I thought about my blog for two years and then did it in two days. I mentioned several blogs by Oklahoma Bar members in my article, including the intellectual property blog PHOSITA, Benefitsblog, Direct Appeal and Res Ipsa Loquitur.
But I left out James D. Graves’ OKBlawg- The Oklahoma Law Blog. James had actually started his blog a day or two after I started mine and he hadn’t gotten the word to me yet. He’s going to cover “Oklahoma law, legal issues and politics.” Good luck, James.
The Electronic Discovery Law Blog was recently launched. It is a project of the Document Analysis Technology Group of the law firm Preston Gates. Their first post linked to a nice article "Eight Simple Steps for Doing Effective E-Discovery" by e-discovery experts George Socha and Dennis Kennedy on another e-discovery blog, DiscoveryResources.
This is the official announcement that my Law Practice Tips weblog (or blog, if you prefer) has been launched. My name is Jim Calloway and I guess now I’m officially a blogger. I’m also the Director of the Oklahoma Bar Association Management Assistance Program, where my job is to help Oklahoma lawyers to practice law better. Public perceptions notwithstanding, most lawyers do an excellent job of representing their clients. But there are always ways to innovate and improve. We help Oklahoma lawyers with law office systems, new management ideas, law office technology, law firm specific software and about lots of other business matters.
One could drone on at length about why one would set up a blog. I have several reasons. Over the last few years, I’ve attended and arranged conferences on law practice management issues. I’ve picked up a few things of value I want to broadly share with our members. I also know where a lot of smart people post good content online. Primarily this weblog will serve as a conduit for practice management tips and other information that can assist Oklahoma lawyers to improve their practices. The Internet being what it is, however, others with an interest in law office operations or legal technology are welcomed to frequent this weblog as well. But you’ll note a distinct Oklahoma flavor here.
For the next few weeks (or maybe, like, …for forever, ) this weblog will be a work in progress. I’ll post some items weekly, and often daily. Often my posts here will be short with a link to some other online content. One of the interesting functions of this site allows the organization of posts into categories. I’m hoping that over the months, these categories will become valuable resources for the infrequent visitor and those searching for specific information. So, over the next few months I will be posting links to some of my older online content, so it will be indexed by category.
Oh, yeah, and before I close, let me insert a disclaimer. When I provide links to some other web site, it is not an endorsement or guarantee of appropriate content. Click at your own risk. I’ll try to avoid such sites. But hey, it’s the Internet; who has time to read every banner ad? Most importantly my comments posted here are strictly my own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of my employer, the Oklahoma Bar Association. Only the OBA officers, OBA Board of Governors and the OBA Executive Director can speak officially on behalf of the OBA- not me. If I post a link to a product or service, it does not mean it is the most reliable or best option. You simply have more information than you had before. I do promise to make mistakes here. We all do. It is a new medium, it is informal and the point is to pass along information quickly and broadly. So my mistakes will be quickly pushed out to others via RSS feeds (more on those later) and I can edit, but not un-ring the bell.
For more law practice information, you can visit the OBA Management Assistance Program Web page. There are links to many articles there.
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