Slate Launches Legal Blog

The online magazine Slate launched a legal blog this week, Convictions, that will provide commentary from a range of legal professionals, including Slate's Jurisprudence columnists Dahlia Lithwick and Emily Bazelon as well as practitioners and law professors from across the country. "By launching a law blog, we're able to post immediate reactions to legal cases and headlines, providing an accessible source for legal discourse from a wide range of qualified experts," Jacob Weisberg, Slate's editor, said in announcing the blog.

Phillip Carter, a lawyer with McKenna Long & Aldridge in New York City and a regular Slate contributor on legal and military affairs, will serve as editor of the blog. Others on tap to contribute include: David Barron, Harvard law professor and former attorney-advisor in the Clinton Administration; Rosa Brooks, Georgetown law professor and Los Angeles Times columnist; Jack Balkin, Yale law professor and noted constitutional scholar; Diane Amann, professor at University of California at Berkeley School of Law; Doug Kmiec, Pepperdine University law professor and former assistant attorney general in the George H.W. Bush administration; Walter Dellinger, former acting U.S. solicitor general and Duke law professor; U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, who sits in Boston, Mass.; Eric Posner, University of Chicago law professor; Richard Ford, Stanford law professor; and Kenji Yoshino, Yale law professor.

Lawyers as Bloggers as Writers

Thanks to Laura Orr at Oregon Legal Research for including this blog in a pair of thoughtful posts on the art and practice of blogging for lawyers: Blogging for Lawyers and Blawgers as (real) Writers. In the first post, she covers the fundamentals of getting started in blogging. In the second, she considers the discipline and persistence that go into keeping a blog interesting. The blogs she lists are among the ones I regularly read and I join her in commending them to you.

New Blog Deals With Business that 'Divorce'

A new blog focuses on break-ups between businesses, particularly in New York. Called New York Business Divorce, it is written by Peter A. Mahler, a partner in the Manhattan office of the firm Farrell Fritz. The blog provides information for lawyers and others on dissolution and other disputes among owners of corporations, LLCs and partnerships.

Whistleblower Protection Blog

Earlier today at Legal Blog Watch, I wrote about yesterday's joint investigative report by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post revealing the injustice to hundreds of defendants who remain in prison based at least in part on a discredited FBI forensic tool known as comparative bullet-lead analysis. As the Washington Post piece mentions, two affiliated organizations played central roles in bringing this injustice to light, the Forensic Justice Project and the National Whistleblower Center. In looking at the latter organization's site, I became aware of its excellent blog, the Whistleblower Protection Blog, which has much more detail on its bullet-lead investigation and the FOIA cases it brought against the FBI, as well as useful posts on legal issues relating to whisteblowers.

New Blog: 'Today in Legal History'

FindLaw has teamed with National Public Radio's Justice Talking program to launch the blog Today in Legal History. As the name suggests, each day the blog highlights a historical event related to law or government. The blog appears on both FindLaw and on JusticeLearning, a Web site produced by Justice Talking together with The New York Times Learning Network.

July 21, for example, was the fifth anniversary of WorldCom's bankruptcy filing, the largest in U.S. history. July 20 was the date in 1990 that a federal appeals court overturned Oliver North's Iran-Contra-related felony convictions.

Who Was the First Legal Blogger?

I ask -- and answer -- this question in a post today at Legal Blog Watch. I'd love to hear from anyone who thinks I might have it wrong.

Iowa Law Firm Launches IP Blog

The Des Moine, Iowa, intellectual property firm McKee, Voorhees & Sease today announced the launch of its blog, Filewrapper.com, devoted to legal issues pertaining to patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and IP litigation.

The firm has done something smart in preparing for the launch: It spent some six months developing and posting to the blog before taking it public. As a result, the blog launches with a substantial archive of postings and lawyers well-acquainted with the routine of regularly posting.

New Blog on Law Practice Management

OK, not brand new -- looks like it started in October, but I just discovered this blog, Law People, which describes itself as covering "better law practice through better people management." The author is Ronda Muir, a lawyer and consultant at the New Jersey consulting firm Robin Rolfe Resources, where she focuses on law firm and law department organizational development and dynamics.