August 27th, 2007

Above The Law Tablawg In New York Times Over Nixon Peabody Song Story

Above the Law, which fashions itself as a legal tabloid, has been chronicling the lack of humor at Nixon Peabody, one of those BigLaw joints that thinks it’s a lot of fun to work at. They first created a song for themselves (so that’s how those legal fees are spent) and then had a hissy-fit when it was leaked to ATL’s David Lat who posted it online.

Some folks are their own worst enemies, as they threatned Lat on intellectual property grounds for publishing it, and then saw the song lampooned by another with a fair use parody. Lat’s tablawg now lands in today’s New York Times in the business section, so that all their clients can now see what they are doing.

Nixon Peabody has blown the one great rule of the digital age: Don’t say, write or create anything that you don’t want to see in the newspapers. And blown another rule about making dumb threats, which they can then be mocked for.

Hey, its August, which means slow news, and a chance to claim “tablawg” as my own creation since Google turns up zero hits on the word. Widespread use is not anticipated.

Late August also happens to be a perfect time to resign if you are an embattled attorney general.

August 24th, 2007

Three Interesting New Blogs

This isn’t New York personal injury law, but interesting enough to note:

1. Mike Leavitt, Secretary of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration, has become the first Cabinet-level official to blog.

2. The country’s first blogging coroner? (via Dr. Wes)

3. A fake law blog from the producers of the law show Damages with Glenn Close (via WSJ Law Blog), perhaps stealing a page from the Fake Steve Jobs. But if they really want to do it right, they would remove the references to the TV show that exist in the header, interact with the blawgosphere with outgoing links, and mingle real-world law and current events with their fictional show. Now that would be worth reading.

August 22nd, 2007

Overlawyered Adds Personal Injury Attorney To Blogroll

When pigs fly, I hear you say.

Would the oldest legal blog in America — dedicated to documenting the high cost of our legal system and, perhaps, savoring some of the outrageousness that exists (Pants Pearson, anyone?) for the anecdotal benefits — actually add a dyed-in-the-wool, 100% personal injury attorney to their blogroll? An individual that takes tort “reformers” to task every so often? One who is a guest contributor at Overlawyered’s arch nemesis, TortDeform? Well, yes. They would.

Has Overlawyered gone soft? Have they fallen under the spell of Judge Robert Bork’s new found convictions?

For reasons known only to those within the super-secret confines of the conservative Manhattan Institute (and senior fellow Walter Olson) that runs the site, they have added this trial lawyer (cough, cough, spit, spit) to their blogroll — apparently the only plaintiff’s PI attorney to appear there. And the blogger they added is still a rookie. Will Olson have to turn in his secret decoder ring for this? Will that trial lawyer guy be ostracized and banished from the PI Secret Society and have to turn in his own secret decoder ring?

Stay tuned. It seems that pigs can sprout wings.
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I don’t get around to updating my blogroll too often, but I think it’s time to add a few:

Overlawyered — Just for fun, I’ll place this entry right between TortDeform and The Tortellini. Excuse me while I grunt and flap my own new wings;
Kevin, M.D. — While Dr. Kevin Pho also has a position contrary to mine on some issues, he is a magnificent resource of stories and opinions from the field of medicine;
Deliberations — Anne Reed’s terrific blog on everything related to juries. Also a rookie;
Above the Law — David Lat’s legal tabloid…need I really say more?
TortsProf — Brought to you by Prof. Bill Childs from Western New England School of Law, who does a great job rooting out tort cases from everywhere the sun shines, and some places it doesn’t.

August 19th, 2007

NY Times to Add Health Blog, Is Law Blog Next?

The New York Times is expected to announce tomorrow the start of a health blog, according to Gawker.com (via Kevin, M.D.). The writer will be Wall Street Journal columnist Tara Parker-Pope.

If the Times is expanding its blog menu into such a heavy-duty area, and you can find a list existing Times blogs of them here, then I have to believe that law will soon follow. That’s not based on any inside information (though I will gladly accept tips on that subject), but on a basic gut feeling given the prominence the Times gives to law news and the current lack of such an offering.

July 24th, 2007

Welcome New and Improved ABA Journal

The American Bar Association has moved into the news and blog arena in a big way, as evidenced by their newly redone website.

A quick view shows terrific free news feeds as well as a great new compendium of blawgs. They have obviously done their homework.

The new ABAJournal also has a featured blawg each week. Let’s hope they don’t just focus on the big name A-listers from the ivory towers and appellate world, and present the occasional up-and-comers from the “Practical Blawgosphere” that are out there in the courthouses on a day-to-day basis.

Addendum: I noticed that New York, with 75,000 attorneys, has only 21 blogs listed on the ABAJournal site. Justia‘s Blawgsearch lists 28 and Blawg has 15. What does this mean? That those who think that the growth of blogs has stagnated may not appreciate that we are still very much in the early phases of the medium.