It's not just a blog written by a lawyer, law student, judge or law professor. If that were the case then certain general interest blogs written by legal scholars - like Instapundit for instance - would fall under the category of legal blog. But if Instapundit, arguably the sine qua non of mass appeal general interest blogs, is actually a legal blog, then does the distinction really have any meaning at all?
Probably all would agree that Howard Bashman's "How Appealing" is clearly a legal blog. Perhaps even a definitive blawg. "Supreme Court Blog.," most would agree, is a legal blog as well. But what about "The Volokh Conspiracy"?
So how the heck do we define "Legal Blog" anyway?
Posted by admin at October 29, 2003 12:02 AMI've noticed there are a lot of Legal Blogs that are not done by lawyers. It seems that many legal law librarians are invloved in maintaining and these blogs, often as projects for their law firm's library.
These librarian-run legal blogs tend to be a bit more KM-oriented than legal blogs run by lawyers that discuss legal issues.
Posted by: Law man on November 5, 2003 11:54 AMI've always wondered just how legal my "blawg" is, given that the majority of my posts are either short stories or essays. In part, I don't want to be limited in what I write, so I'm legal insofar only as I'm a lawyer (even though I do address some legal topics, such as constitutional law or the life of a lawyer, on my blawg).
Interesting site you guys have here. I'll put you on my list.
TPB
Posted by: TPB, Esq. on November 25, 2003 03:54 PMTPB, you're probably on one end of the spectrum in that you mostly write about stuff having nothing to do with the law per se, even though you are a lawyer. So you may not in fact be a "legal blogger" - depending on how we define it.
But that might be a good thing for you, because I think we might be trying to hold legal bloggers to a different standard, making it more difficult to simply share your thoughts, and the desire to share your thoughts was probably the main reason you started blogging in the first place.
On the opposite end of the spectrum are the true legal bloggers; that is to say the ones for whom blogging is an integral part of their process - either as a promotional vehicle or as a way to establish expertise and credibility.
Posted by: David on November 26, 2003 02:21 PMI didn't even know there was such a thing as a blawg until Denise Howell of Bag and Baggage found me, and I found her link through technorati. I mean hey ok, I'm a lawyer but I only blog about the law part of the time. Mostly it's politics. I even blog about The Matrix. Yet, on a general sense, other bloggers (non-Filipinos) refer to mine as a blawg. And that is probably because the word "lawyer" is part of my blog's title.
I wonder too who coined the term that started the distinction between blogs and blawgs. The way things are, even blawgs are diivided into 1) legal blogs and 2) lawyer's blogs. And legal blogs can further be subdivided into blogs by lawyers and blogs by non-lawyers.
Posted by: The Sassy Lawyer on November 30, 2003 10:22 AMBTW, here are 2 more blawgs :
http://gweilodiaries.com (an American lawyer in Hong Kong who adores Asian women)
http://tiglaw.com/blog (a lawyer in Texas)
Both are lawyer's blogs but both rarely discuss legal issues. So, are they blawgs?
Gweilo is really good.
Posted by: The Sassy Lawyer on November 30, 2003 10:28 AMI always wonder myself if disLEXia - http://blogs.23.nu/disLEXia/ is a blawg or a network security blog or just something else.
I often warn people that The Mommy Blawg is more Mommy than Blawg.
Posted by: The Mommy Blawger on December 10, 2003 03:35 PM