Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog

It is Hard to be Objective About a Great Resource like BlawgWorld

Today I feel obligated to heap great praise and give an unqualified endorsement. I think TechnoLawyer’s BlawgWorld is superb. In particular I think it is a great resource for the busy practicing lawyer. Let me explain.

It can be tough being a lawyer in this, or any other, economy. Representing clients, completing projects, handling administrative responsibilities and staying current on one’s legal subject matter issues is the proverbial full time job. But in all but very large firms, where a narrow focus is still possible, a lawyer also has to be aware of technology issues, some management issues, time management, marketing and more. The days have long passed where a lawyer can be ignorant of issues like metadata, possible waiver of attorney client privilege by sending to a client’s work e-mail account, electronic discovery, the need for data backup and many other important matters.

If you are reading this blog post, you know there is lots of helpful free information about many practice management issues available online. But who has the time? That’s where the current generation of BlawgWorld fits our needs. Each Monday we can receive an e-mail with a selection of the greatest hits of technology and practice management related content selected from the last week of legal blog posts and online editions of several other publications. And that’s the first reason this is so great. In this day of disappearing newspapers and shrinking press rooms, with BlawgWorld, we can all benefit from the seasoned editorial judgment. Neil J. Squillante and his team at TechnoLawyer invest their time reading lots of blog posts and articles. And, even though you could visit the sites individually, receiving it all packed in an e-mail is very convenient.

BlawgWorld is concise, with just the post titles (or a description) and the links. There are lots of links, but you can scan all of the week’s selections in just moments. This lets the busy lawyer select and read one or two articles each week. (But don’t blame me or the Technolawyer gang if you end up reading many more.) But every week, you can painlessly devote a little time to reading about current emerging issues or how to improve your practice. You can decide if you have five minutes to invest or twenty. You can see a sample issue online here. I do have a personal interest in that I want BlawgWorld to stay just like it is—because it works for me!

I could say more, (spotlights brighten, background music rises) but you just need to believe. So….. I want you to stand up, and come forward, and click on this link. It’s time, brothers and sisters, to subscribe to BlawgWorld. What’s the risk? Just one more e-mail a week. You can easily unsubscribe after a few weeks if you wish. But as a lawyer (or other legal professional), I think you will really enjoy BlawgWorld.

Four Years of Blawg Review Meets Law21

For four years Blawg Review has given a rotating cast of legal bloggers the chance to examine the prior week in blogging as they saw it. The results have beeen mixed, but generally interesting. Of course, in my view, there have been times when the secretive editor of BR has committed errors in judgment. (In fact, I'm not even sure that Anon. Ed. has been the same person all four years.) It was not that long ago I swore never to read or even mention Blawg Review ever again due to Ed's bad judgment.

But it is amazing what a difference a true professional can make. Jordan Furlong is a professional writer and editor. His coverage of the blogosphere in Blawg Review #207 in his homage-to-newspaper style shows there is still life in the Blawg Review concept, even after four years. Blawg Review no long holds the place it once did as the keeper of the legal blogosphere. But Jordan Furlong does this week in law-related blogging proud on his Law21 blog. If you looked hard and worked at it, there was a huge amount of law-related blogging activity to be chronicled. Some American readers may not appreciate everything this Canadian journalist features and says. But you won't be able to read Blawg Review #207 without pausing to think -- and click on some of the featured links to read the full posts. Great job, Jordan.

ABA Journal Names Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips to 2008 Blawg 100

Being named to the ABA Journal's 2008 Blawg 100 was a most exciting honor. Thanks to the staff of the ABA Journal and congratulations to the other bloggers who were named to the list. It is worth your time to review the list. It turns out that 50 of the honorees this year were not included in last year's Blawg 100. There is a non-exclusive popularity poll where you can vote for your favorite blawgs. I'd certainly appreciate a vote, of course. But it is pretty cool just to be singled out among your peers as one of the "100 best Web sites by lawyers, for lawyers." This is especially true since I write all of the content personally.

In the "plugged in" or technology category, I know most all of the honorees personally and the list includes my good friends and blogger-mentors, Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell. It was good to see Ross Kodner and Ben Stevens join the list. But there are many categories, from legal news to niche to regional. You will likely learn of new blogs that may interest you.

Site of the Week: Judge Tom Talks

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.

Site of the Week: The Last Word Blog is Launched

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.

Teleconference: Pumping Up Your Online Presence with a Blog

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.

Get more information here.

ABA Journal Announces the Blawg 100 (and you can even vote)

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>

Extremely Noteworthy Labor Day Blawg Review

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:

1. The Labor Day historical theme is extremely well-executed with fourteen (!) different sections, including such historical notes as the Haymarket Square riot of May, 1886 and 1902-1949 States Adopt Workers' Compensation Laws. It is truly a multimedia history lesson as well as a Blawg Review.
2. It's huge. George just didn't limit himself to culling through the submissions from the bloggers and blawg fans. It is clear that he spent a lot of time "blawg surfing" and found a huge amount of content and, surprise, he found a lot of blog content that fit well into his theme.
3. You will find something of interest here. You may not care about the history of working or the number of worker's comp or employment law blawgs on the WWW. But, I believe every reader will find something useful here if you can take the time to review it all. (In fact, the only negative about this collection is the huge amount of content.) I've been hoping someone would do such a broad and comprehensive Blawg Review for a while and there's a lot of content of interest here.

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.

Law Review Companion Blogs

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 :

• "Enter the 'online companions' to traditional law reviews. How do they add value? In my view, the primary value added by these new publications is not their timeliness or their supposed 'polish,' but that they (1) link thoughtful responses to long-form legal scholarship, and (2) act as a gathering place for a variety of pieces of short-form legal scholarship on the same topic (online symposia). In short, the law reviews have an organizational advantage over individual bloggers, who organize via cross-linking, which is often haphazard."

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.

New Electronic Discovery Blog: Ride the Lightning

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.