More work for Howard Bashman?

As if Howard Bashman doesn't have enough to blog about: The Virgin Islands Senate votes this week on whether to establish a Virgin Islands Supreme Court, the Virgin Islands Daily News reports. The VI is the only state or territory in the U.S. that does not have a locally administered appellate process, the report says.

Today's five-star site: The Bankruptcy LawTrove

The Bankruptcy LawTrove is possibly the most comprehensive collection on the Internet of links to bankruptcy-related resources. Maintained by Warren E. Agin of the Boston law firm Swiggart & Agin, it provides links to bankruptcy legislation, regulations, courts and cases; other bankruptcy law Web sites; government resources related to bankruptcy; and vendor pages offering products and services for bankruptcy lawyers. Besides links, the site includes Agin's answers to frequently asked questions about bankruptcy.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

Harvest moon haiku

Thank you, David, for the honor of a harvest moon haiku.

Why I'll never run for president

Jeez, I used to be proud of having graduated from Boston College Law School, but between Ann Althouse and Beldar, I'm starting to feel like some sort of slacker.

Law Office Computing announces best law firm sites

The editors of Law Office Computing have announced the winners and finalists of the magazine's 6th Annual Best Law Office Web Site Contest. According to the announcement, an independent panel of expert judges selected the firms "whose approach to utilization of the Internet stands at the forefront of innovation and value-added content."

Winners in the large firm category:

• Winner: Fulbright & Jaworski
• Finalist: Miller Nash
• Finalist: Pierce Atwood
• Finalist: White and Williams

In the small firm category, winners are:

• Winner: Gilbert Heintz & Randolph
• Finalist: Sonosky, Chambers, Sachse, Enderson & Perry
• Finalist: Schwegman, Lundberg, Woessner & Kluth
• Finalist: The Qui Tam Online Network

More information will be published in the magazine's October/November issue.

American Lawyer Media to change its name Oct. 1

American Lawyer Media will change its company name Oct. 1 to simply ALM, company president William Pollak announced in a memo to staff today. "Commencing on October 1, we will be changing our name to ALM, and will no longer refer to ourselves as American Lawyer Media," he wrote. "We anticipate that this transition will not be finalized until the end of the year."

The name change is one step in a broader effort to raise awareness of the company that serves as parent to a host of magazines, newspapers, Web sites, books, newsletters and trade shows, the memo said. While the company has focused its marketing on supporting these individual publications, products and services, Pollak said, "we have done little to promote the company as a whole among our clients."

The change is also a step towards moving into new markets, Pollak said, "including both the business-to-business advertising market and, increasingly, as a provider of legal news to non-lawyers in the business community with a need for the kind of information and perspective that we offer."

ALM will roll out the new brand in stages, Pollak said, beginning with its appearance on the covers of ALM publications the first week in October. ALM will relaunch its corporate Web site in mid-November to reflect the re-branding. The rollout will culminate, he said, with media announcements and advertising campaigns.

Today's five-star site: KMWiki

It should come as no surprise that professionals in the field of knowledge management have a compulsive urge to share knowledge. That may explain why one of the best gateways to KM resources on the Web is the KMWiki. What, you might ask, is a wiki? It is a type of server software that allows visitors to a Web page to freely add and edit content. "Open editing," as it is sometimes called, allows people with common interests to share information and ideas easily in a single Web location. The KMWiki, while little more than a collection of links to KM resources elsewhere on the Web, stands out because, unlike other collections of links, it is the product of not one person, but of the various KM professionals who contribute to it. It is a modest-looking page that accurately calls itself a "super index."

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

The king of legal domains

Stan Chess once told me that he has about 50 Web sites, most, if not all, related to the practice of law and the process of becoming a lawyer. Trying to navigate your way through them all can be confusing. But here's the thing: It can really be worth the effort because there is a lot there.

I've never even been quite sure whether there is a center to Chess's Web universe, although it would seem to be ChessLaw.com. Beyond that site, some of the other domains Chess owns include LawBlogs.com, BarPlus.com, LawSchool.com, LawSchool100.com, SupremeCourt.org, LawTV.com, RuleofLaw.com, BarPreview.com, LawCentral.com, LegalEd.com, LawProf100.com, LegalGossip.com and LawMerchant.com.

Then there are the state URLs: NYBarReview.com, MassBarReview.com, DCBarReview.com, FreeMPRE.com, TexasBarReview.com, FloridaBarReview.com, IllinoisBarReview.com, CaliforniaBarReview.com, etc.

Go to ChessLaw and you will find a fairly substantial collection of links to cases, statutes and other legal research sources. Go to SupremeCourt.org, and you will find a thorough collection of links to Supreme Court decisions, news, blogs and more. In other words, Chess does not just idly put up sites for their domain names alone, he fills many of them with useful resources.

From his Web site, we learn that Chess is president of LawTV and that he spent 22 years teaching professional responsibility and other subjects in New York, California and more than 30 other states for Bar/Bri bar review. From e-mails I have exchanged with him, I know that he is a former journalist who wrote syndicated features for The Washington Post for 10 years. His journalism career included stints editing the Post's daily and Sunday crossword puzzles, writing a weekly bicycle column, and then writing a humor column.

With so many domains, the ChessLaw universe can be confusing. But it can also be worthwhile.

Today's five-star site: Vital Records Information

Vital Records Information tells where to obtain vital records — birth, death and marriage certificates and divorce decrees — from anywhere in the United States. It lists sources for each state, territory and county, and most cities and towns, along with contact, fee and ordering information. For records outside the U.S., the site lists links to foreign vital records sites. This straightforward site is designed with a nod towards genealogy, but it is one many lawyers are sure to find useful.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

Today's five-star site: American FactFinder

A service of the U.S. Census Bureau, American Fact Finder is designed to simplify census research. It makes it easy to find social, economic or housing characteristics for any location. Tools help you create various tables—either from predefined templates or using your own preferences—and generate maps illustrating data and statistics. Other sections allow you to research industry and business facts and economic census data. American FactFinder allows you to access data using a variety of methods. Items labeled “quick” help you locate data or generate reports with only a couple of mouse clicks. Other methods help you perform more detailed research or construct more complicated queries.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

ABA opens online bookstore

Sure I'm partial to LawCatalog.com, the online bookstore of American Lawyer Media, and not just because they are the folks who publish my book. But starting this month, there is competition on the block, with the launch of the American Bar Association's new WebStore. The site provides access to nearly 1,500 ABA products, including books, CDs, DVDs, audiotapes and videotapes, magazines, journals, online catalogs, course materials and newsletters.

Search Engine Watch launches a blog

The best source for learning and keeping up with everything there is to know about search engines is Search Engine Watch. Now, search-engine junkies can get even more frequent updates on news from the field, thanks to the newly launched Search Engine Watch Blog. Yes, it has an RSS feed.

Today's five-star site: Legal Research for Estate Planners

Legal Research for Estate Planners. This is a comprehensive, well-organized and up-to-date collection of links to estate planning resources on the Web. Created by Jason E. Havens, an estate planning lawyer in Destin, Florida, this annotated guide covers both national and state-specific sites and also indexes sites by topic and type of resource.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

Today's five-star site: HUDCLIPS

HUDCLIPS is the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's official repository of policies, procedures, announcements and the like. Short for "HUD Client Information and Policy System," HUDCLIPS contains full-text searchable databases of all HUD handbooks; notices; mortgagee, preservation and Title I letters; U.S. Code titles 12 and 42; Code of Federal Regulations Title 24; housing waivers; Office of General Counsel preservation documents; Federal Register notices; and more. The site also houses all HUD forms. Most come in PDF format, with some also in GIF format or as templates for Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. The PDF forms are "fillable," meaning you can call up a form such as the HUD-1 settlement statement and fill it out right from the site.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

Jaffe site wins outstanding Web award

I am proud to report that, following a complete overhaul and relaunch earlier this year, the Web site of Jaffe Associates -- the legal consulting firm for which I serve as VP of editorial services -- has earned the award for outstanding achievement in website development from the Web Marketing Association. The award recognizes the collaborative work of Jaffe’s Web Developer Rebecca Allegar, Jaffe’s Creative Director Terry M. Isner, yours truly for copywriting, and Jay M. Jaffe, president and CEO of the firm. Judging was based on seven criteria: design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use. For more about the award and the site, read Jaffe's press release.

Today's five-star site: American Legal Ethics Library

From the legal-ethics chapter:

American Legal Ethics Library. From Cornell’s Legal Information Institute, this digital library contains the full text of the codes or rules of professional conduct for most U.S. states, as well as the ABA’s model code. Some are in hypertext format, others are included through links to state bar or court sites. In addition, major law firms are contributing narratives on professional conduct requirements in their respective states. Materials are organized by both state and topic, and all are fully searchable. The narratives cover Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Texas, with other states to be added. The library's materials are organized both by state and topic, and all are fully searchable. Each element of the library is linked to the rest of the collection in multiple ways, permitting a user to track a specific issue or point from code to commentary in a single jurisdiction and to track the same question in materials from other jurisdictions.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

Today's five-star site: Environmental Law Net

From the chapter on environmental law:

Environmental Law Net. David S. Blackmar, an environmental lawyer with Murtha Cullina LLP, Boston, created this rich and wide-ranging site in order to better serve his clients, who include general counsel, in-house attorneys and corporate environmental managers. He divides the site between two sets of resources: legal information libraries and “community resources.” The libraries are really just collections of links to material elsewhere on the Web, but it is a thorough and well-organized set of links. It includes federal, state, international and tribal laws and regulations; court and agency decisions; agency documents and databases; resources for environmental compliance; materials relating to enforcement and litigation; and resources having to do with environmental aspects of real estate and corporate transactions. The community part of the site includes a daily news section, with press releases and other news compiled from various sources, and a “desk reference” of Internet tools useful to environmental lawyers. This is an ambitious and useful site.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

A blog about money and politics

The Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at the University
of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication has launched Money and Politics Blog. Edited by Sean Treglia, senior advisor for democracy initiatives at USC Annenberg, it is intended to to help journalists stay on top of current campaign finance issues.

Today's five-star site: CyberLaw@Sidley

From the technology and e-commerce practice group of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, an international law firm with more than 1,400 lawyers worldwide, CyberLaw@Sidley is a truly practical site combining daily news coverage with in-depth feature articles and analysis. The news comes via links to other media sites, with a half-dozen or so headlines added every business day and older stories maintained through an archive. New feature articles are regularly added, with all articles organized under topics that include banking, copyright, domain names, e-commerce, encryption, legislation, privacy and others. A collection of links to Cyberlaw sites is also organized by topic, and some are annotated. The collection could use some updating, as a few of the links are dead.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

My Sept. 17 Internet seminar in Boston

I will be presenting a day-long program, Find it Free and Fast on the Net: Advanced Internet Strategies for the Massachusetts Legal Professional, this Friday, Sept. 17, in Boston. My co-panelist is Russell Beck of Epstein Becker & Green.

Off topic, but, man, what a sunset

Sept. 11 -- and the sky was ablaze.

New column posted: Patent and trademark searching

I've posted my column, Patent and Trademark Searching Via the Web. A complete list of columns I've posted is here.

Today's five-star site: Capital Defense Weekly

Capital Defense Weekly. This practical site offers several useful resources. Begin with “Capital Defense Weekly,” its newsletter analyzing current court opinions and news developments relating to capital punishment. That is supplemented by the CDW blog, with daily updates on capital cases. Then there is its Brief Bank, a collection of appellate briefs in capital cases culled from various sources. The Brief Bank also includes selected motions and other pleadings, and various practice guides and manuals. The site includes ample collections of links, one specific to death penalty cases and another to more general reference materials. This useful site is hosted by Karl R. Keys, a lawyer in Bloomsbury, N.J.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

A novel idea from the ABA

For the first time in its 126-year history, the American Bar Association is publishing a work of fiction, Shadow of Justice, written by Miami criminal-defense lawyer Milton Hirsch. Due for release Sept. 30, the novel is the first in a new series from ABA Publishing, "Great Stories by Great Lawyers," according to a press release today. "The series will feature new novels by those who know the legal system the best: practicing lawyers and judges," the release said.

Today's five-star site: Avalon Project

Yale Law School’s Avalon Project publishes on the Web historical documents from the fields of law, economics, politics, diplomacy and government. Materials span ancient Greece to contemporary times, and include such pre-Eighteenth Century documents as the Athenian Constitution by Aristotle, the Code of Hammurabi and the Magna Carta. Documents are organized by century, as well as by author, subject and title. Documents are also grouped into major thematic collections, such as “American Diplomacy: Multilateral Treaties 1864-1999,” and “Nuremberg War Crimes Trial.” The entire site can be searched using keywords. The project’s scope is wide-ranging and ambitious. The directors of the site say they intend not merely to post these documents but also to add value by linking to supporting documents referred to in the body of the text.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

DUI lawyer's blog takes on 'true believers'

Following a trackback to a recent post of mine, I discovered a blog I had not known about before, but wish I had -- True Believer. Subtitled, "A Santa Barbara lawyer dares to explore the madd, madd world of DUI," it is written by Lee A. McCoy, a lawyer who defends people accused -- often wrongfully, he believes -- of DUI. He explains it better than I ever could:

"Over the years I have learned a few things about how our society treats the DUI offense — in the courts, in the media and in the political process. I think the American public would be amazed if they knew what I know from first-hand observation; I am confident they would be ashamed of what we have done to our fellow citizens.

"I have created this blawg to share some of these things that I have learned. ... My goal is to convince you before you become one of the wrongfully accused — one of the injured. I hope to educate and to inform; to instill outrage in those who have not yet been injured; to shape public opinion, and in so doing to change the world. For the better; definitely for the better."

If his postings make you thirsty for more, read his manifesto, check out his DUI encyclopedia, and visit his Santa Barbara DUI Center.

Today's five-star site: TRIALSmith

The largest deposition bank on the Internet, TRIALSmith archives more than 150,000 deposition transcripts of experts, doctors and corporate representatives. Access is exclusively restricted to plaintiffs' lawyers, who also use it to exchange documents, tips and investigative tools. Search for an expert by name or keyword, and view any available deposition immediately online or download it to your computer. Formerly known as DepoConnect, TRIALSmith hosts more than 400 discussion lists with more than 60,000 lawyers participating. It is sponsored by more than 50 state and national trial lawyer associations and litigation groups. It offers a range of subscription plans at reasonable prices.

(Excerpted from the second edition of The Essential Guide to the Best (and Worst) Legal Sites on the Web.)

Today's five-star site: Center for Law and Social Policy

Part think tank, part advocacy group, the Center for Law and Social Policy is a national nonprofit organization with expertise in both law and policy affecting the poor. Through education, policy research and advocacy, CLASP seeks to improve the economic security of low income families with children and secure access to our civil justice system by low income persons. Its Web site features CLASP Update, a monthly report on welfare reform developments. It also maintains an extensive library of articles on legal services for the poor, child support enforcement, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant, and other topics. The site includes an overview of CLASP’s national and state projects, as well as its organization and staff.

Today's five-star site: Lex Mundi Guides to Doing Business

Lex Mundi Guides to Doing Business. Members of the Lex Mundi international law firm network contributed these comprehensive and frequently updated guides to doing business in more than 100 countries, the European Union, and various U.S. states. Each guide is a detailed discussion of the jurisdiction’s government and commerce, its investment framework, its rules for importing and exporting, and forms of business organization, banking and trust companies, insurance law, taxation, visas and other important topics.

Three new IP-related blawgs

The Trademark Blog notes the launches of three IP law blogs:

Communications Law Blog, from Davis Wright Tremaine

IP Litigation Blog from Mann Law Group

Nom de Domaine! from Cedric Manara

A roadmap for jury instructions

From the ABA Section of Litigation, a good article: "Jury Instructions: A Roadmap for Trial Counsel".

Today's five-star site: The Virtual Chase

In July 1995, the American Association of Law Libraries’ annual meeting was the venue for the launch of my former newsletter, legal.online, the first periodical to cover the Internet for lawyers. One of the very first people to come by my booth and subscribe was Genie Tyburski, a law librarian at Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, Philadelphia. A year later, Tyburski unveiled her own site, The Virtual Chase, and quickly made it a top destination for legal researchers. Sponsored by Ballard Spahr, Tyburski continues to add features that make this a truly useful site. A top feature is Tyburski's annotated guide to legal resources on the Web, distinguished in part by Tyburski’s addition of dates to her annotations, so users know how recently they were written. Another feature is TVC Alert, a weekly bulletin of research news, available on the Web site and by e-mail. Her skills as a librarian show in her many articles about research strategies, found under headings such as "How to Research" and "Information Quality," and tools such as her guide to researching businesses on the Web. A section for Internet trainers includes tutorials on Internet research. The Virtual Chase is a practical, interesting and well designed site for legal professionals.

Blogs for law firm CIOs

Via Jeff Beard's blog, I came to read Ed Schembor's useful posting, Blogs and the Law Office IT Director: 21 Blogs of Interest for a Law Firm CIO/IT Director. Schembor, founder of Easy Access Software, lists blogs that he finds "ideally suited to the knowledge needs of a senior project manager, director of technology or CIO at a medium to large size law firm. These blogs generally cover strategic aspects of technology of interest to law offices, and may also cover more tactical and technical subjects." I am pleased to be among the blogs he lists, and I would agree with almost all of his selections, except maybe for the one blog on his list that has not had a new posting since last January. As Jeff Beard points out, the list has some notable omissions, such as (here I go talking about Dennis again) DennisKennedy.blog and Kevin O'Keefe's lexBlog.

Dennis Kennedy on bloggers and the curse of the new

Dennis Kennedy manages today to both honor me and make me feel like an old geezer with his post The Curse of the New in the Blogging World. His comments about me aside, Dennis makes a thoughtful and all-too-accurate point, which I will paraphrase this way: In our rush to blog (and to out-blog each other), the act of reporting becomes more important than the subject of our reporting. Blogs arrive on the scene with great fanfare as their announcements spread like viruses through the blog network. Some prove themselves to warrant the fanfare, but others soon fizzle out -- much more quietly than they arrived.

But what, Dennis asks, of the veterans, "those who have earned their chops." He cites Sabrina Pacifici's beSpacific, and in my mind he could not have chosen a better example. Sabrina's blog is the best there is, by far. What makes it so is her steady, consistent focus on news of true value and application to legal professionals. Dennis, taking a cue from my recent listings of five-star sites, will himself inaugurate a feature where he will "highlight the core legal blogs that meet my definition of excellence." I, for one, will follow his posts religiously.

Lawyers Weekly bought by Dolan Media

The Boston Business Journal reports that Minneapolis-based Dolan Media has purchased Boston-based Lawyers Weekly Publications, a chain that includes Lawyers Weekly USA and state legal newspapers in Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.

Posted to site: Column on IP resources

In a slow-as-molasses effort to catch up on posting my legal.online columns to my site, I have just added the March 2004 column, Protecting Intellectual Property: Practical Resources on the Web. I also recently added, Laughing at Lawyers and the Law. A list of other available columns is here.