Personal injury blogs have once again been ignored. This time it comes from the new web directory, Alltop. Constructed by web impresario Guy Kawaskaki, it's law page is chock full of great law blogs, some mainstream and some in small niches. My quick count shows 105 of them, and it has the potential to be a great resource for people to see who is writing about what in a single glance.

But not a single blog deals with personal injury law as its main subject. Now you would think that with all the yelling and screaming about tort "reform," jury verdicts, federal preemption, punitive damages and related subjects, that one or two blogs that devote themselves to the subject would be on the list. But they aren't.

Have we seen this before? Yup. (See: Vote For Me In Blawg 100!! (Oh Wait, You Can't))

So, in the event that the Alltop law page gets updated, here's a tip to Guy for a few blogs on the subject to consider:

• Bill Childs (TortsProf)
• John Day (Day on Torts)
• Beck/Herrmann on defending BigDrug and BigDevice (Drug and Device Law)
• Bill Marler on food poisoning (Marler Blog)
• Byron Stier and Howard Erichson (Mass Tort Litigation Blog)
• Perlmutter & Schuelke, publishing weekly personal injury round-ups chock full of links to good personal injury blogs
• TortDeform on civil justice defense
  

For goodness sakes, pick one or two from the list, or use some of the many other fine ones that I haven't mentioned. But ignoring an entire field of the law seems to be a mistake if the intent is to aggregate law blogs.

See also:

• Blawgs Get Kawasakied (Blawg Review)
• Blawg Stuff, How To Keep Up (Simple Justice)
• Finding Good Blogs (Deliberations)
• Law Alltop Launches (The Inspired Solo)
  

Labels: Blogging

Who'd a thunk it? It was just five months ago that I let loose against the ABA for leaving all personal injury blogs out of their ABAJournal Blawg 100 (see: Vote For Me In Blawg 100!! (Oh Wait, You Can't)). And today I learn that my blog has popped up as their Blawg of the Week.

When the ABAJournal re-invented its web site last July, I welcomed their redesign with "terrific news feeds" and "a great new compendium of blawgs." It was clear they had done their homework. (See: Welcome New and Improved ABA Journal)

This being the ABA though, I was a bit concerned that its focus would be waaay too much on BigLaw, and not enough on the small and solo firms that make up the vast majority of America's law firms and that do much of the grunt work. I even wrote last summer:

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.

So while I was disappointed that the entire personal injury bar, both plaintiffs and defendants, was left in the dust of its vaunted 100, it's obviously refreshing to see that, perhaps, things can change.

And yes, I did make sure to copy the page, under the theory that this was just a screw-up or practical joke and it disappears tomorrow.

A final note for new visitors: If you'd like to see some of the greatest hits of the blog, click that link. And feel free to add it to your RSS feed. No extra charge.

Labels: Blogging

It happened, ironically, with an April Fool's Day post. I passed the one million mark in page views.

I'm not quite sure what to make of it, since I've never really been able to figure out from the stats what represents human eyes and what represents spider eyes. And I know that many stumble in here simply because they are doing image searches or have used the images in various forums and blogs. Another stat, "visitors" passed the 500,000 mark and "unique visitors" is approaching 300,000.

If I had to decide what the most important metrics were, however, I would say:

• The number of comments, because that means folks are reading the content, and they often add new dimensions to the original post. I've never calculated them, though I can see there has been a marked increase in the last two months. Seeing 5-10 comments on a posting is no longer unusual, and some have generated over 20.
  
• The number of favorable comments, which of course, isn't quite the same as overall comments. I'm shocked, shocked I tell you , that some folks seem to have a knee-jerk reaction to personal injury attorneys, no matter what is written.
  
• The incoming links, because that also means people are reading and finding it useful to point others here. Technorati counts those for me, and I see 1,600+ incoming links. Of course that also includes spam blogs and double links coming in from some places.

But for whoever it is out there that has stopped by my tiny corner of cyberspace these past 17 months, I thank you. I've very much enjoyed doing this, and hope to continue as time permits.

Labels: Blogging

A small upgrade to the blog this week; Posts can now be emailed to people on a daily or weekly basis.

The Reason: While I had assumed that most folks would get blog postings via RSS feed, I noticed in the past month many coming to the site because some of my posts were passed around by email. Specifically, there were four posts that dealt with expert witnesses that bought a lot of new traffic: I posted a piece of evidence from one trial, about RICO suits against Allstate and State Farm, and a response from one of the RICO defendants.

Since many of the new visitors for this, or other stories, may be unfamiliar with RSS, I've added an email option.

Privacy: While it may be really tempting to sell all those email addresses I get -- I bet I can get almost a penny apiece for the 50-100 that I may gather -- I think I can resist that veritable gold mine. So even if I can figure out how to access those email addresses, I won't do anything with them.

Removal: If you sign up and decide after a week or a month that I am really annoying or posting nonsense, then you can say adios to me very easily. Each email gives you the option to remove yourself from the service.

Labels: Blogging

David Lat's Above the Law has a guest post from Ted Frank. Put up at 10:20 this morning, it has already generated a staggering 345 comments.

The subject? An assertion by Frank that Barack Obama, if elected, would get rid of the Social Security cap that is currently at $102,000. And that would cost BigLaw lawyers lots of dough.

Frank doesn't say where the money should come from, of course, for Social Security. That is apparently something for the next generation to worry about. Fiscal responsibility isn't really important when trying to woo voters from BigLaw.

But back to the main point. With this kind of a hit on its hands, will Above the Law move away from its many (many, many, many) posts on salaries at this place and that and focus more on substance?

We'll see.

Update (2/27/08 @ 5:30 pm): The post has now generated a record number of posts, well over 500 and still going. A new post was added by Ted Frank on the subject: NY to... 147K? More About Barack Obama's Tax Plan (Or: Time to make the donuts?)

Labels: Blogging

The anonymous Editor of Blawg Review appeared today at ALM's LegalTech New York trade show, where vendors are currently showing off the latest and greatest of legal gizmos, gadgets and doodads for parts of the legal community.

I was lucky enough to catch up with Ed at a bloggers breakfast before the show, thanks to a generous invitation from Monica Bay and friends at ALM. When I last saw Ed in November, he was staggering through the finishers area of the New York City Marathon, having run the race dressed as Gumby to conceal his identity. Readers may recall my description of him at the end of his 26.2 mile running tour of New York:

His face was smeared with Gumby green paint that ran and mixed both with sticky lime green Gatorade and with his own accumulated body salts, a nightmarish look that was lit up by the sun's reflection off his heat shield. But his eyes were electric and ecstatic and shone through the gloppy mess, giving the volunteering medical staff all the information they really needed about his health.

And so today, camera in hand, I snuck up on him in an attempt to capture a picture of what those eyes look like. Alas, the energetic editor would not hold still, and was in the process of showing off his credentials when the camera shutter finally clicked a full second after the button was pushed. Which goes to show you why shutter-lag is such a big issue with small digital cameras.

When he disappeared, rumors flew of a sunset train ride up along the Hudson as he sought to explore others parts of New York.

As for the show, since my time was severely limited, I can't really write much. But others can, and are. For running updates on the show, visit Law.com's Legal Blog Watch.

Other sightings:

• Bob Ambrogi;
• John Bringardner;
• David Giacalone;
  

Prior sightings:

• Kimberly A. Kralowec;
• Ed sights himself and provides photo;
  

Labels: Blogging

The anonymous Editor of Blawg Review has opened nominations for Best Blawg Review of the Year. The nominating is open, according to his rules, only to those that have hosted one of the past 140 Blawg Reviews or those that have already signed up for a future one. (Edit: Nominations are now open until Jan. 14th, due to the holiday.)

The editor is looking for a peer-reviewed award (or as close as the legal blogosphere can approximate), as opposed to a popularity contest.

Since he points out, quite rightly, that such "best of" awards are so highly subjective, I'm going to participate and nominate by listing those reviews that inspired me when I wrote my marathon themed Blawg Review #134 this year. The editor's recommendations of some of the presentations that might be considered for nomination, which include mine, are up at Virtually Blind.

In listing these reviews, I tip my hat to each as I borrowed ideas and concepts from each writer and stood on their shoulders to create my own:

#89, The Mummers Veil by the anonymous Editor himself, inspired me to indulge in fantasy visits with different bloggers. A rigid regard for the truth, I understood, was not necessary to presenting the best posts of the week. The point was to simply point to good law blog posts, making it available in a fun, creative way. Doing so in the context of a story often makes it more interesting (if you can pull it off without being "annoying, strained and distracting" as David Giacalone once wrote).

#101, from Diana Skaggs at The Divorce Law Journal, based on the Kentucky Derby. Since I had decided one month earlier to host a November review based on the NYC Marathon, a review based on the Kentucky Derby certainly caught my interest. She galloped through the legal blogosphere in winning fashion in a creative review that clearly was long in the making. I loved watching her mid-stride integration of law and racing.

#106 from Brett Trout at IT Blawg was based on a motorcycle race track. With another racing review, I took mental notes on how different parts of a race course, or different concepts, might be used to help introduce different legal topics in a very non-traditional manner.

#127, from Anne Reed's Deliberations, was based on jury selection. As a trial lawyer that obviously appeals to me, and I watched as she took 17 different selection tips and matched them to posts. In her review however, she didn't just link but went into the personalities of the posters to match them up with different concepts.

#137, by Colin Samuels at Infamy or Praise, was based on the third part of Dante's Divine Comedy, Paradise. While #137 came after my own, the Inferno themed #35 and the Purgatory themed #86 came before. In these, Dante travels with his guides, the poet Virgil and later Beatrice. This inspired me to add a guide of my own -- Marty, an alter ego or one-man Greek chorus -- who ran the race with me and would drop in from time to time to comment. While I couldn't pull off the wonderful literacy of Colin's pieces, his posts were there to remind me that the bounds of a review are limited only by the creativity of the mind.

Two final notes on the Blawg Reviews:

First, while the editor has an interesting idea with the nominating process, the reality is that many folks are out of town for the long holiday weekend. I'm guessing the nominating will therefore be very light. Having a yearly award in April would have a much better response rate. Yeah, yeah, I know. (Edit: Nominations are now open until Jan. 14th, due to the holiday.)

Second, it seems that the vast majority of reviews are written by practicing attorneys. Professors are notably absent. (In fact, professors rarely even acknowledge their existence, an exception being Prof. Dan Solove and his band of merry Concurring Opinionators for #75.) I haven't figured out why yet, since the primary purpose is to simply round up interesting blog postings, and their own postings are often included. Is there a reason professors are less likely to let their hair down and go outside their usual comfort zones?

Labels: Blawg Review, Blogging

Two law blog items:

First, if you didn't get enough Christmas yesterday, you can go back for more with the Christmas Eve themed Blawg Review #140 presented by Jonathan Frieden at E-Commerce Law. Frieden mixes commerce and Christmas with law blogs in his 12 Days of Christmas (plus stocking-stuffers).

Next up, Dennis Kennedy gives out his 2007 "Blawggies" for the best law oriented law blogs, and gives one to "niche blogs" as the most important trend. What is a niche blog? According to Kennedy, they "have titles like [State Name] [Practice Area] Law Blog."

While it's an interesting concept, it seems that the vast majority of law blogs actually fall into the category of "niche" once you get past the name, including his own on law technology and the one for best blawg about blawging (to Kevin O'Keefe, of course), among others he has chosen. As a percentage of the legal blogosphere there are really very few law blogs that focus outside of a niche.

While it's true that some blogs have descriptive names, such as this one, this is often done to give new readers a quick overview of where they landed. But it isn't the name that creates the niche but the content. If I used my name for a title instead of my practice area, would I no longer be a niche?

Labels: Blogging

Orin Kerr at the Volokh Conspiracy thinks that legal blogosphere has hit its saturation point. He couldn't be more wrong.

Kerr writes, without citation, that "For the most part this was a year of little growth or even a slight decline among law blogs."

I thought that was crazy when I read it, but then I saw Dan Solove at Concurring Opinions agree with him. He also did so without citation to any empirical data, other than his group's own traffic and that traffic has almost doubled in the past year! But, he goes on to say, that the big will just get bigger, and the little niche guys (like me or Scott Greenfield who also clearly disagrees), won't really go anywhere. He writes, "There are so many blogs that a person can read, and many folks have found their favorites now and are content," as if the number of blog readers is some static number instead of a dynamic one. His opinion on the future doesn't even mention the practicing lawyers who are opening up their own internet outposts.

Now I know that real data is hard to come by, so I'm not too critical, but I think these professors need to look outside their ivory towers.

Here is why they are not just wrong, but very, very wrong, and here is what you will see in the future:

First the present, from my own niche: According to Justia there are 33 New York blogs. The ABA Journal's Blawg Directory lists 41 New York blogs. According to the ABA, however, there are 147,096 lawyers in New York. I, for one, see a bit of room for growth with that disparity.

But wait, there's much more. The New York State Trial Lawyers Association has about 4,500 members that handle predominantly personal injury matters. There must easily be 10,000 lawyers in New York who handle them (or think they can handle them) as many are not members. Yet I can count on one hand the number of my brethren covering the subject on blogs.

Rather than being saturated, I think the legal blogosphere is in its infancy.

Now here is the future: There are precious few (if any) group blogs for practicing lawyers. The group blogs belong to the law school set. This will change. Someone, perhaps myself, will start gathering in more practicing lawyers for a group blog, perhaps modeled on the Huffington Post (TurkewitzTimes, anyone?) These lawyer/bloggers will be collected through the growing use of listserves, where small practitioners share tips. It is the perfect format for those who want to opine occasionally without the need to keep their blog up constantly. There will be several of these, and they will rival anything that currently exists.

Saturated? Stagnant? Profs. Kerr and Solove (and David Hoffman before that), you guys ain't seen nothin' yet.

Labels: Blogging

I've avoided doing a post like this for many months, but figured this is the time as one lawyer seems to have stepped over a line from using his blog for commentary or even advertising and gone to outright solicitation of a particular individual.

Kevin O'Keefe first reported on St. Louis attorney Ryan Bradley discussing a local accident and using the name of the injured person in the post heading, in a rather blatant hope that the injured person, family member or friend would Google the accident to see if anything was written about it, find the post, and call him.

Now he has done it a second time in a week, with this post here **

There are, it seems, four types of blogs, though I am using the word "blog" very loosely here since I don't think it truly applies in either #3 or #4:

1. The pseudonymous blogger. Without a real name and contact information, the blogger writes for pure enjoyment and without any business desire.

2. Blogs that comment on the law and recent events the same way as the pseudonymous blogger, but with a name and contact information. Such a blog might have a beneficial marketing side in making the blogger more prominent in the community and be used as a form of legal networking, though I think most that stick with it do it for the pure enjoyment of writing. This is similar in concept to publishing an article in a legal trade, though it is of course much easier to do and isn't peer reviewed. This represents most of the legal blogosphere to date.

3. Blogs that are advertising. These blogs discuss some general matter of the lawyer's practice, or more likely a local accident, and then scream, "call me!" The personal injury sites have many of these, and the "call me!" works to destroy any actual content that might have been posted.

4. Outright solicitation: I don't know what the Missouri ethics rules are on solicitation, but Ryan Bradley's blog postings clearly fit into the solicitation category. He puts the name of the injured person in the heading and the body, and looked up the accident report and insurance information to post that online also. Thus, he goes beyond the mere advertising, and into outright solicitation of an individual. Even if he is ethically secure on First Amendment grounds, what he has done certainly appears scummy and is a close cousin to sending a solicitation in the mail to the house. Or picking up the phone and calling. Or sending a person to the house. Or the hospital. You know where I'm gong with this. Solicitation is but one step removed from actual ambulance chasing.

I don't have the type of site that awards a "worst lawyer of the day," that is more of an Above the Law type of thing, but if I did, Bradley would surely get it.

The irony in all this is that when folks now Google Ryan Bradley of Missouri in the event they do stumble over his "blog" they will also find out what other lawyers think of his solicitations.

Addendum 12/17/07: Attorney Solicitation 2.0 --- Is It Ethical?

------------------------------------------------------------
** This link is via TinyUrl, which will redirect to the blog posting, but due to the masking created by redirection, will not add any Google pagerank to the blog. More on TinyUrl at Wikipedia.

Labels: Attorney Ethics, Blogging

Blawg Review #137 is up, and by up I mean it has ascended from Purgatory to Paradise. Colin Samuels @ Infamy and Praise has based Blawg Review -- a review of the legal blogosphere hosted at a different site each week -- on the third part of Dante's Divine Comedy. This Review follows in the award-winning footsteps he took with Dante in #35 (Inferno) and #86 (Purgatory). This is not one to be missed.

Samuels proves once again that literacy and the law may be happily married.

Labels: Blogging

I'd like to tell you to vote for me in the latest law blog popularity contest. After all, it's being run by the ABA Journal so it has to be prestigious, right?

But I can't tell you that. Because I wasn't nominated. Nor, for that matter, was any other law blog devoted to personal injury law.

Maybe personal injury blogs all stink? Maybe we don't discuss enough law, or have enough visitors? Perhaps all the blogs are poorly written? I mean every last one. Perhaps the bloggers really aren't worthy of mention? How else can an entire field of law be ignored?

So let's take a short look:

• John Day (Day on Torts, who recently published a handbook on tort law)
  
• Evan Schaeffer (Legal Underground and Illinois Trial Practice, and a grand daddy of legal blogging who authored Blawg Review #1 )
• Prof. Bill Childs (TortsProf, dealing with a great deal of PI, as well as more)
• Profs. Byron Stier and Howard Erichson (Mass Tort Litigation Blog)
• Beck/Herrmann (Drug and Device Law including pharmaceutical and medical device product liability, and both of whom are also book authors)
• Bill Marler (Marler Blog, one of many on food poisoning that has, you know, been in the news a bit)

You would think that, with so much noise being made about the need for tort "reform" because personal injury suits are so problematic, there would be at least a few blogs devoted to that subject as part of the top 100.

But if you thought that, you would be wrong. It's not a question of one blog being picked over another since this is, after all, just another vanity contest that small niche blogs don't have a shot of winning. No, the significant thing is that the vaunted American Bar Association simply doesn't think that this field of law is relevant. The decision to ignore a vast segment of the law speaks volumes about the organization.

[Addendum: The "ABA Mission" is at odds with their exclusionary choices:

The Mission of the American Bar Association is to be the national representative of the legal profession, serving the public and the profession by promoting justice, professional excellence and respect for the law.]

OK, short rant over. Cue Rodney...

Labels: Blogging

Having now read and linked to hundreds of blogs as part of my postings and round-ups during my first year, and having exceeded my expectations for a niche blog (The End of My Rookie Year: Thoughts, Metrics and Changes), I wanted to list a dozen tips on better blogging to kick off my second year. Perhaps one or two of the points will help someone somewhere, particularly those in my field, but these can be adopted elsewhere:

1. Blog optimization is different than search engine optimization: SEO experts tell you to use the same buzz words as often as possible so that it increases presence with Google. Except that doing so means your writing will probably suck. Does a reader really want to see the phrase "personal injury attorney" in every other sentence? And if the writing sucks, no one will want to read it, link to you, or come back. Incoming links, of course, are important both to bringing in new readers and improving Google PageRank. Otherwise you have to hope that new readers will blindly stumble upon your poorly ranked blog. So forget SEO and work on being a better writer and providing real content.

2. Don't engage in blatant self-promotion: Blog posts that look like advertisements ("If you or a close friend was injured, call me at ...blah, blah, blah") are posts that no one wants to read, and fewer want to link to. Perhaps a potential client will find you, but without the incoming links that come from better writing, it isn't very likely.

3. Don't use crappy back links to yourself in the post: If you continually link back to your own blog or website in the text of a post every time you use a favorite buzz phrase, you have added nothing. In fact, you've made it worse. Perhaps you think all those internal links make Google happy, but don't count on readers who chased bum links coming back again. While I'm not privy to Google's algorithms, you can bet your last pixel that external links are vastly more important than internal links. Google didn't get to be king of the hill by being stupid. I use one identifying link at the bottom of the post, and have an "about" section in the sidebar. That's more than enough if someone wants to find me, and doesn't destroy the text.

4. Breaking the news beats the hell out of commentary on the news: The posts that most readers found to be of interest were those that had originally sourced material. Why? Because other bloggers (and news media) saw them and linked to them, thereby bringing in more readers. Commentary is nice, and allows you to give your views, but it's still just commentary.

5. Link to others often: While this is part of every "how to" on blogging, many people still don't get it. Links are how others find out about you, and they bring in other bloggers who might, if you write well, link back to you bringing in more readers.

6. Your competition is your friend: While you may compete in the same niche for clients with other firms, they are also your readers and sources for stories. A successful blog doesn't ignore that.

7. Quirky is good: If a blog isn't enjoyable to read, then people won't read it. Simple. A little personality is fine. Don't make reading your blog look like work.

8. Stay focused: If you are off-topic more than 20% of the time, people won't really know what you are about, and therefore may not come back. And 20% is probably too high.

9. Add value: A blog that is merely parasitic of news stories or other blogs isn't worth much, unless you intend to be a news aggregator like How Appealing or Kevin M.D. If you're writing about a news story or decision reported by others, add your own thoughts on its significance.

10. Don't try to monetize the blog with ads: Very few blogs have the traffic that will attract meaningful advertising dollars. So if the money is minimal, don't uglify the blog with ads.

11. A blog is indirect promotion: When people write articles for publication, they don't scream "hire me!" Writers for traditional journals simply hope that their reputation will be enhanced by demonstrating knowledge in a field and that this may indirectly help them professionally. It's a form of networking. Treat your blog the same way.

12. Enjoy yourself: If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. If it is done as a hope for obtaining business it will be quite clear in your writing, and more importantly, it won't be fun. Let's face it, no one will ever hire me because of my marathon Blawg Review, but I had a blast doing it. And that's the important part.

This past week has been devoted to blogging due to Blawg Review and my one year anniversary. The navel gazing will now stop and I'll return to the theme of the blog. Unless the mood or a good story messes with my plans.

(Eric Turkewitz is a personal injury attorney in New York)

Labels: Blogging

Tomorrow is this blog's first anniversary. So I wanted to share some visitor metrics, upcoming changes, and general thoughts:

1. Metrics:
This tiny corner of cyberspace attracted significantly more visitors than I had imagined a year ago. Weekday readership the last six months has been about 700 unique visitors per day. Roughly 20,000 per month. Here is the data for the year, starting from scratch, as of yesterday:

• Unique visitors: 158,860
• Most unique visitors in one day: 2,485
• Unique Visitors this month: Nov 1 - 15: 11,862 (790/day)
• Visitors: 291,612
• Page views: 524,139
• Number of Posts: 367 (too many)
  
• Number of blogs that linked to me: Over 200 (waaaaay more than I imagined)
• Largest blog sources of referrals: Above the Law, Overlawyered, Kevin, M.D
• Number of legal threats against me: 2 (one published, one not)
  

2. Changes:
OK, the blog was a success. So let's change it...

• The Personal Injury Round-Up that I have been doing is now kaput. It was fun while it lasted, but very time consuming to do on a regular basis.
  
• I hope to spend more time on individual stories and, hopefully, occasionally write stories that are not yet in the press.
  
• I hope to bring in guest bloggers. Interested parties can contact me.

Will the blog improve or will I get hit with the sophomore jinx? Beats me.

3. Blogging Tips:
Since the blog is a success (at least to me), my next entry will be my tips on blogging, for whatever it may be worth to others (perhaps not much).

4. Thoughts on Blogging:
This has been a real hoot, but it has also taken a great deal of time. The one oddity that stood out was that I was placed on the blogroll of Overlaywered while at the same time being a guest contributor to its arch nemesis, Tort Deform. I'm not 100% certain what it means, but I think that has to be good, especially for a beginner.

I've listed some of the most popular posts are here, but my personal favorite was the marathon Blawg Review #134 that I put up earlier this week, essentially the culmination of my rookie year. It was long, not just because marathons are long but, because I had so much fun conceptualizing, researching and writing it. I started making notes in a separate file six months ago on ideas and situations, much the way I make notes on trial themes and tactics from the day a case comes in.

The streets and crowds of New York provided unlimited opportunities to raise different subjects and allowed me to weave a fabric using both fact and fiction that included bloggers, the race and the city. The post got goofier and goofier as the race wore on because that is one thing that happens with exhaustion. A tip of the hat to the people that made it to the finish line.

And a big thank you to all who have visited and commented over the past year. Except, of course, to the two lawyers that threatened me.

Labels: Blogging

If Blawg Review #134 was a bit daunting due to its marathon length and you were waiting to see what others wrote before lacing up your sneakers for the event, then here are some of the first reviews to check out:

• Colin Samuels (Infamy or Praise, and winner of the Best Blawg Review in both 2005 and 2006): an "instant classic."
• George Wallace (Declarations and Exclusions): "epic...run wild and free through an astonishing range of legal webloggery."
• Anita Campbell (Small Business Trends): "a marvel of a post."
• Anne Reed (Deliberations): a "tour de force" [in the comments]
  
• Dan Hull (What About Clients): "We're in awe. Quality and quantity. Really nice job...."[in the comments]
  
• Nicole Black (Sui Generis): "thorough and impressive"
• Carolyn Elefant (Law.com:Legal Blog Watch): "Exhilarating...Turkewitz's Blawg Review sets a record pace, covering at least sixty different posts around the blogosphere without once stepping out of its marathon-themed stride."
• Editor (Blawg Review): "an insightful run through the best of the legal blogosphere with an exemplary law blogger, who demonstrates once again that this project has legs...it's worth reading from start to finish"
• Diane Levin (Online Guide to Mediation): "Marathon Edition of Blawg Review A Winner"
  
• Evan Schaeffer (Legal Underground): "An entertaining Blawg Review"
• David Lat (Above the Law): Very cool!
• Monica Bay (The Common Scold): his Blawg Review #134 is an hysterical spin on the ING New York City Marathon
  

Other links:

• Stephen Albainy-Jenei (Patent Baristas): it's definitely a marathon!
  
• Walter Olson (Overlawyered): a truly marathon Blawg Review
• Ron Coleman (Likelihood of Confusion): "will leave you huffing and puffing"
  

If additional reviews come in, I will supplement this list with more links. But, of course, only if they're good.

Labels: Blawg Review, Blogging

(The New York Personal Injury Law Blog presents Blawg Review, a round-up of legal blogs, or "blawgs." It is hosted each week at a different site.)

"The World's Longest Urinal holds a special place in my heart," Marty told me. "It's not that I'm a fan of urinals," my friend said, "but that trough is symbolic of the massive scale of the New York City Marathon, and the complexity of moving so many people across the landscape of this city."

Walking among the anxious runners in the staging area for the race at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island, sitting in the shadow of the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge, Marty and I found the anonymous Editor of Blawg Review. It wasn't too difficult, despite the record 39,085 runners that were assembling there, since he was dressed as Gumby and had painted his face green. He was the gathering point for dozens of law bloggers who had answered his call to meet and run together. With two million spectators and 26.2 miles of roadway ahead of us, toeing the line for the awe inspiring charge across the city would be a once in a lifetime fantasy for many. It would also give us ample time to meet each other, which the Editor was trying to encourage. The video invitation he emailed, seen at left, had been met with an unexpectedly high response.

We had a couple of hours to wait in the cold morning air for the canon that would start the race -- no pip-squeak starter's pistol for this collection -- so I eased over to the Jewish services being held. It's the only minyan on earth where congregants might be found sporting disposable clothing and trash bag ponchos for warmth while wearing promotional Sponge Bob painter's hats for yarmulkes. I met Peter Lattman and Sarah Waldeck at the close of the service, and the two of them struck up a conversation regarding the Oregon Supreme Court considering the legal issues of circumcision for a 12-year-old boy.

Ambling through Fort Wadsworth, which protected New York for almost 200 years, it was hard not to think of soldiers and war as we waited, especially given Veterans Day. Michael Stevens talked of some that gave their all, and all that gave some, with the Editor in agreement, lest we forget. Deven Desai joined in, bringing the discussion back to its post WWI origins, the munitions and bodies still being dug up in France, the apparently oxymoronic law of war, and the continuing efforts regarding land mines.

We couldn't talk of past wars, of course, without discussing the present circumstances. Distracting himself from the race he was about to undertake, Devon Chaffee joined us to chat about his trip to Guantanamo Bay and the difficulty tracking military commissions, while Peter Spiro wondered if amending the War Powers Resolution was in the works due to the situation in Iran. Alexandra Lahav sidled up to join the shifting conversation with news of a class action suit against a military contractor for abuse that was allowed to move forward.

As we crossed the grounds of the fort to the bridge our anxiety mounted, as we passed vast quantities of discarded outer clothing. Our own runners joined others in protecting feet, thighs, arms and nipples to prevent damage during the race, with various bits of tape, jelly or clothing. We continued to drink. There were countless discarded water bottles, food refuse, newspapers and blankets, while folks downed coffee and pre-race energy gels.

Out on to the plaza of the Verrazano we finally went with the throngs, 15 minutes before the start. Helicopters circled above in the clear, blue sky looking down on the madness of the mass endeavor. And all I could think, despite the 15-20 mile training runs I had done in preparation for this moment, was "What the hell am I doing here?"

More warm-up clothes were shed, flying this way and that toward the edges of a crowd so massive, it would take half an hour for everyone to clear the start. As the clock ticked down, former BigLaw partner and now New York Road Runners CEO and Race Director Mary Wittenberg presided over the gathering from a small stage. The colors flew, the national anthem was sung, a few words from Wittenberg, and then...

The canon erupted with a deep thud, the voice of Frank Sinatra followed in the air, the crowd surged forward toward the very heart of New York, and the race was afoot. Ascending the roadway of what was once the world's longest suspension bridge, we felt it bounce beneath the stampede as photographers in the air and on the giant towers sought to capture one of the planet's most spectacular movements of humanity.

Nicole Black caught up with me as we crested the Verrazano at the one-mile mark after a 150 foot climb, and we watched fire boats spewing celebratory streams into the air over New York Harbor. Ahead of us and to the left, we looked toward the downtown skyline of Manhattan, and the gaping hole that still exists. The queen of New York blawgers told me that when she ran this race on the first Sunday in November 2001 the ground was still burning. Black went on to tell me of her present homeland security concerns, from the vantage point of an overreaching government. She had done an investigative report on what may be a government trying to profile our kids at a young age and indoctrinate them into accepting governmentally defined ethics.

On the down slope of the bridge, we passed dozens of men who stopped to relieve themselves because they had failed to take aim at the famous half-pipe of piss in the staging area. Feminist Law Prof Ralph Stein pulled up to me to tell me had seen the long lines that stretched for the women at the hundreds of less-than-ideal portable toilets. Many women, he reported, put societal conventions aside to pop a squat near a fence, reminding him of some of the changing societal norms he discussed in A Tale of Two Books.

Marty, who had left my side in the athlete's village, reappeared to whisper, "Are you sure you want to go down this route, with a feminist law blog and semi-public urination? Mightn't you be taking a risk?"

Ignoring Marty, I went on to tell Stein how legendary nine-time winner Grete Waitz dispensed with modesty while dealing with mid-race intestinal upset in 1984 to claim a shit-kicking victory here in full view of a national television audience. Said Waitz in her 1997 book On The Run, "When you are running a major race and in the lead, you don't stop to go to the bathroom." Since I couldn't find the quote online, I scanned the pages from her book: Waitz-Book.pdf.

Copyright guru William Patry glided up to me, having just seen me scan and publish here pages of a book, as we came off the bridge and under an overpass. Passing the first cheering spectators yelling for names that so many of us had written on our shirts, he talked to me about issues of potential copyright infringement and the concept of fair use. Interestingly enough, he told me, Sean "Diddy" Combs -- who finished this marathon in 2003 while raising $2M for charity -- may be a copyright bad boy. Patry had "Not Diddy" scrawled on his shirt to avoid confusion.

Marty slipped back in to quickly chide me, a pattern that would recur throughout the day. "How can you talk copyright when this is not within your area of expertise and you are ignorant of intellectual property issues?"

Into the heart of Brooklyn we went, quickly passing another legend of this race: Zoe Koplowitz and her purple-painted crutches. She went on to finish the race dead last. As she always does. My hero.

Then out on to Fourth Avenue! Long, glorious Fourth Avenue, packed with huddled masses from around the globe breathing free within the magnificent tapestry of New York. We saw signs in languages too numerous to mention, fire truck's from New York's Bravest parked on side streets with ladders extended high out over the course, and thousands upon thousands of screaming children stretching out their hands to be slapped by passing runners. Immigration Prof Kevin Johnson moved swiftly through the extraordinary diversity of this crowd that lined both sides of the road, and took the opportunity to let me know that anti-immigration alarmists didn't fare well this week in elections. "This is a city of a thousand cities," he said looking out in wonderment. "And this is a nation of a thousand nations. And it's stretching before our eyes."

Marty glided up to me again, unseen by others, trying hard to contain himself: "Warning! Warning! Stay away from politics! That's not a Blawg Review!"

Seeing all the cops on Fourth Avenue, not just supplying security and crowd control, but actively cheering us on, had taken Mark Bennett by surprise. Bennett, who is now live-blogging a Texas murder trial he is defending and seems pretty fast on his feet, was completely unaccustomed to having cops on his side. He told me that, as a matter or practice, he refuses to represent a snitch and help the government. In a heartbeat, other criminal defense lawyers drew near to weigh in on the subject, including Norm Pattis, who couldn't comprehend that cooperation with the government is wrong, and Scott Greenfield who said he has a position between the two of them.

Coming up to seven miles, Steve Bainbridge and I squeezed down energy gels followed by water and Gatorade chasers handed us by some of the many thousands of volunteers helping out. Marvelling at the landmark Williamsburg Bank tower that had come into view, Brooklyn's tallest building with a magnificent clock tower, he turned our gathering group to a favorite subject: The marriage of business and law. And with that, he went on to discuss the fifth anniversary of Sarbanes-Oxley, passed in response to corporate and accounting scandals, and the excerpts from his book on the subject he made available. Leon Gettler was listening, and stopped Bainbridge to note that the number of corporate fraud investigations was plummeting. He too had marvelled at the Williamsburg Bank tower, which had started this conversation, and which we were fast approaching. (I didn't have the heart to tell them the building had gone condo.)

The tower stands at the eight mile mark, and we made a sharp right turn onto the tight confines of Lafayette Street, passing the Brooklyn Academy of Music where mid-race marriages have been known to take place. Then past a high school band playing the tune from Rocky. Like they do every year. Conversation stopped while runners stretched their vocal chords and pumped their hands high, a scene that was repeated again and again for many of the 120 bands that lined the route.

Then on through Bedford-Stuyvesant and into Williamsburg at 10 miles, where the late, legendary Fred Lebow used to scream in Yiddish from the pace vehicle at the black-hatted Hasidim for more enthusiasm, as they looked curiously at the throngs passing through their enclave. His efforts here can still be felt.

In to Greenpoint we went, passing Polish immigrants and gentrifying hipsters that help make Brooklyn one of the great melting pots of the world. As we did, a sweet, smoky and unmistakable smell wafted our way, leading James Peters, who flew here with many other California bloggers to run with us, to pull up by my shoulder. "It's been a while since I thought about smoking that," he told me, "But it really isn't compatible with training for a marathon." He went on to talk of the case currently before his high court, regarding an employees' medical marijuana use and the collision of three different laws. Vikram Amar, flashing across the New York blacktop to catch up, gave us an even more extensive view on the medical marijuana issue.

Our band of running attorneys had grown significantly, for the difficulty finding us in the crowd was greatly eased by the Editor's Gumby costume. Anne Reed turned serious to wonder about another group of attorneys, with far more on their minds than our frivolity -- the mass of lawyers that have taken to the streets in Pakistan after the Supreme Court was fired by Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Bob Ambrogi, now joining our group, had no doubt those lawyers are heroes, as did Michael Dorf and Barry Barnett (who wrote an open letter to our own top politicians). Scott Greenfield, who still followed close after the snitch discussion and with boundless energy to discuss more, was reminded of Dick the Butcher's idea of how to seize power: First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers. Since lawyers will never agree on everything, however, David Giacalone took on Greenfield's interpretation of the (in)famous Shakespearean line. But Giacalaone no doubt endorses the rally planned by New York attorneys in support of our Pakistani brethren of the bar. Jamie Spencer openly wondered how American lawyers would react under such circumstances, but rallies by American lawyers, George Wallace piped in, was not something he expected.

The subject of Pakistan's attorneys followed us to the halfway mark at the Pulaski Bridge. That bridge led us up and over Newton Creek, the most polluted and noxious waterway in the United States as we crossed from Brooklyn to Queens. This environmental disaster brought Mike Millikin to my side (while testing some new running shoes) to talk of changing times, and discussed the suit Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger brought this week against the Environmental Protection Agency to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

While law and politics occupied much of the running commentary, we psychologically prepared for the 59th Street Bridge that would shortly take us from Queens to Manhattan. Then David Lat sidled up to the group looking for dirt for his legal tabloid. Running in a discreet costume so that he might hopefully sneak a peek under some judicial robes, he was looking for tablawg gossip on a judge that may have played a role in changing his kid's bar exam grade from fail to pass.

It was also in Queens that a very excited Bill Marler caught up as I grabbed orange slices from bystanders. Marler, a well-travelled expert in food contamination cases, told me how Queens is now home to some of the most exotic restaurants in the city given its huge Asian population. Queens has its own Chinatown, Koreatown and Little India, and the 7 train that runs through the borough is known locally as The Orient Express. We talked of fueling up for the race and our pre-race meals (peanut butter, banana and chocolate chip sandwich for me). But what he really wanted to know as we turned back to the subject of law, and couldn't yet figure out, was why there was such an upsurge in eColi contamination in the beef industry this year.

We hit the 59th Street bridge just past 15 miles, and talk around us slowed. We heard the sounds of our feet hitting the asphalt and our labored breathing as we climbed the structure, and little else. Except that due to the absence of crowds here, I could overhear newlywed Peter Lattman, now riding in the press truck with his colleague Amir Efrati because he's too tuckered to run, talking about the marathon running prosecutor of Olympic track start Marion Jones. While watching us huff and puff up the bridge, he comfortably went on to discuss a different marathon: The run by Miami defense lawyer and sole practitioner Rick Diaz from the local courthouse to Washington to argue before the Supreme Court on a high-profile Internet pornography case, holding on to it despite the efforts of some in BigLaw to snatch it away. But a little guy doesn't make it to the big leagues without criticism. Indefatigable Eugene Volokh was able to carry on the conversation notwithstanding the hill, and told us he was less than enthused about Diaz's brief. Carolyn Elefant, while not keen on talking through the climb, wanted to make sure we heard her own thoughts on a fellow solo heading to the Supremes and Volokh's criticisms.

Lyle Denniston, who did a post-race analysis of Diaz's case, caught his breath as we hit the bridge summit and gazed out at the midtown Manhattan skyline spread before us. He wanted to talk to me about security, and as a veteran of this race, he knew this spot would be the last quiet one for many miles. Each of us knew that despite the best efforts of the city for this annual stampede, the race is really unsecurable. This concern turned to guns and brought up a Second Amendment case that the Supreme Court considered this week, taking on a subject it had not broached in seven decades: Is the right to bear arms a personal right, or a collective one belonging only to a well organized militia? The ramifications, in terms of the number of guns on the street, are enormous.

Coming down the other side of the bridge we started to hear the buzz. Louder and louder. Then down off the ramp it turned into a roar!

Into the teeth of a thundering crowd stacked 5-10 deep we ran, swooping through a 270 degree turn that took us under the bridge and out onto the broad expanse we call First Avenue. It has been described as the greatest thrill any recreational athlete will ever experience.

Now who could think of law at a time like this? Not with the voices of a million people screaming, bouncing off the canyon-like wall of condos and co-ops that line the boulevard. But