Technology & The Trial Lawyer

Keep on Bloggin'

By Susan J. Silvernail

What is the hottest thing happening on the Web these days? Without a doubt, its "blogs". Or as they're known in legal circles, "blawgs". The name may have you asking if SARS has spawned offspring, but in fact, it's the trendy name for Weblogs.

Blogs have been described in the mainstream media as meaningless chatter or interactive newletters, as inherently personal and communal at the same time. Truth be told, blogs are as varied as the people who publish them; teen-agers fascinated with body piercing, computer nerds, political activists, journalists and yes, even lawyers (assuming they don't fall into the previous categories). This recent explosion is self-publishing has been made possible by the availability of inexpensive software that makes it easy for almost anyone to get into the blogging business. The ad would read: "No computer coding skills required. Just bring a point of view'. With little effort, the material comes up in a chronological sequence, from the most recent entry to the oldest entry. Hence, the journal, or diary-like feel of all blogs.

Many Web observers believe that blogs have come into their own during the war with Iraq. Some of the best war reports and analysis were done by bloggers with journalist credentials. Two reporters covering the conflict for CNN and Time magazine had well-received blogs until their bosses shut them down. Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor with his own blog named InstaPrundit, lamented the loss, saying the "posts had an Edward R. Murrow quality". On the other hand, MSNBC.com has embraced the blogging phenomenon, hosting several blogs, including one by Reynolds. Other war blogs that have popped up include "Live from Kuwait…A Civilian War Diary" (http//www.zaydoun.blogspot.com) and "L.T.Smash: Live from the Sandbox" (http://www.It-smash.us), reportedly written by a U.S. Military officer in the Persian Gulf.

Do we as lawyers need to tune into blogs? And, of course, I'm speaking of something more than their amusement value here. Robert J. Ambrogi of Law Technology News recently checked out the blog-o-sphere to see if there were any blogs out there that provide practical information lawyers can use in their day-to-day work lives and found several blogs of value. Here's some of Ambrogi's roundup:

Blueblanketblog, www.blueblanket.net/Steph/b;pgger.html. Stephanie Tai, an appellate attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department Justice, reports and discusses selected Supreme Court and environmental cases.

Consensus at Lawyerpoint, bpdg.blogs.eff.org. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization devoted to protecting civil liberties in cyberspace, sponsors this Web log.

CopyFight: The Politics of I.P., www.corante.com/copyfight. Donna Wentworth, an editor at Harvard law School's Berkman Center for Internet Law and Society, tracks legal ruling, Capitol Hill policymaking, technical standards development and technological innovation as they relate to intellectual property and the Internet.

Ernie the Attorney, radio.weblogs.com/0104634. Ernest Svenson, a partner with Gordon Arata McCollam Duplantis & Eagan in New Orleans is one of the most popular law-related blogger. He writes generally about law, law practice, legal technology and the Web.

Excited Utterances, excitedutterances.blogspot.com Devoted to "a sociological and psychological perspective of law firm knowledge management", this blog by Joy London, manager of the practice data group as a large law firm, provides commentary along with a number of links to useful articles and Web sites.

HIPAA blog, hipaablog.blogspot.com. Jeffery Drummond, a partner with Jackson Walker in Dallas, TX, comments on the policy and politics of medical privacy and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

How Appealing, appellateblog.blogspot.com Written by Howard Bashman, chair of the Appellate Group at Philadelphia's Buchanan Ingersoll, this is one of the best resources on the Web for tracking appellate litigation throughout the United States.

Inter Alia, www.inter-alia.net Tom Mighell publishes the information electronic newsletter, Internet Legal Research Weekly, and maintains this companion blog to provide timely updates of new web sites and legal research tools.

Jurist, jurist.law.pitt.edu. Like a daily newspaper for the legal profession, providing news, commentary, event listings, court dockets and more. Operated by Bernard Hibbitts, professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

Leah's Law Library Weblog, radio.weblogs.com /0109773. Leah Sandwell-Weiss, a librarian at the University of Arizona College of Law and a former judge advocate, covers law, libraries and legal research, with a smattering of military law.

RealCorporate Lawyer.com Blog, www.realcorportelawyer.com/blog/bllog.html. Tracks current developments in corporate and securities law.

SCOTUblog, www.goldsteinhowe.com/blog/index.cfm. From Washington, D.C.'s Goldstein & Howe, this is the only blog devoted to tracking litigation before the Supreme Court.

Statutory Construction Zone, www.statconblog.blogspot.com. Washington, D.C. lawyer Gary O'Connor analyzes current federal cases that involve matters of statutory construction. For each use, he sets out the statute construed, the court's conclusions, and the statutory construction tools used by the court.

Tech Law Advisor, rechlawadvisor.blogspot.com Devoted to copyright, trademark, parody, fair use and technology legal issues, from Kevin Heller, a lawyer with Manhattan's Gursky & Ederer.

If your interested, there are at least two well-established blogs with Alabama connections: Ignatz and Votelaw. Ignatz is written by Sam Helman, who's in the Washington, D.C. office of Gardner, Middlebrooks, Gibbons, Kittrell, & Olsen, P.C. Heldman describes his provocative blog, which can be found at http://sheldman.blogspot.com. As "of the subspecies 'law and politics/left-liberal'". Helman's current focus is following Attorney General Bill Pryor's nomination to the Eleventh Circuit but he frequently writes about Supreme Court and appellate cases he finds noteworthy. Another blog at the self-described "intersection of law and politics" is written by Birmingham attorney Edward Still and can be found at www.votelaw.blogspot.com. Still shares with us his considerable experience and insight into election law and voting rights.

This article first appeared in the Alabama Trial Lawyers Journal, Spring 2003, Volume 23, Number 2 issue.