Leadership for Lawyers

ABA Top 100 Discriminates Against Non-Lawyers?

The December 2007 cover story on the ABA Journal featured the "Blawg 100" - the top blawgs written by attorneys, ranging from our favorite law practice management blogs to "gossip, rumor and innuendo". 

Some legal 'blawgers', however, noticed that many insightful blawgs were omitted from the list not because of their content, but because they were not authored by attorneys.  Harvard blogger Amy Campbell and Edge Group Founder Patrick McKenna both commented on the obvious omissions.  Kevin O'Keefe summarized a number of blogger's not-so-positive reactions to the list here.

I've been a member of the ABA for seven years, and a contributor to the ABA's Law Practice Management Magazine for the past five years.   I hope that next year they consider expanding their review to at least paying members of their association. 

Does anyone else find this odd? 

Blawgworld 2007 Released

The second version of Blawgworld was released today.   Blawgworld 07 is an innovative e-book that contains essays from 77 of the leading blawgs (legal blogs) on the web today, as well as a legal technology problem/solution guide.  More than a directory of blawgs, the e-book gives sample posts along with information about the blawger and the blawg.  Featured blogs include Monica Bay's Common Scold, Matthew Homann's The Nonbillable Hour, Dan Hull's What About Clients and many others.  Blawgworld is a great place to start if you are looking to track legal blogs via rss or google reader.   The publishers were kind to include this blog on page 85.   Download the book here. 

Legal News Blogs

Newspapers are starting to launch legal blogs to track everything from law firm news to popular cases:

Wall Street Journal Law Blog - covers a wide range of topics from law practice management, associate salaries, and the war on talent. 

The Washington Post's Bench Conference - covering popular legal stories, from Anna Nicole Smith to Scooter Libby at Gitmo.

Cal Law's Legal Pad - the blog of The Recorder and Cal Law, covering legal news in California.

It will be interesting to see how legal marketers use these journalist blogs for marketing and PR purposes.  Conspicuous on the Wall Street Journal blog is a colorful ad aimed at re-branding Gray Cary as DLA Piper (see below):

COLPM Collaborative Blog

Ron Friedman, Merrilyn Tarlton, Simon Chester, Peter Zeughauser and others discuss "the fear of blogging" by attorneys, innovation, work-life balance, and boring GC's on a new collaborative blog by the College of Law Practice Management.  COLPM is an honorary society of lawyers and those who 'manage' them.  I am sure that the 200 members of the College will have some interesting things to say about management, leadership, professional development, marketing, and innovation.

Check out the blog:  http://blog.colpm.org/colpm/

Blawgworld 2007

Blawgworld 07 will be pre-launched at a party in NYC during LegalTech 2007 next week.  The electronic tome will highlight 77 legal blogs, with information on the blogger, blog topics, and a sample blog post.  Blawgworld is published by technolawyer.com.  Watch www.blawgworld.com for more details in March.  Leadership for Lawyers is pleased be one of the featured blawgs.

Subscribe to Leadership for Lawyers

I've added a feedblitz subscription widget (lower left navigation panel) to the site.  Fill in your email address and you will receive a copy of new blog posts via email.  Join the thousands (ok, tens) of managing partners, in-house counsel, C-level executives, academics and summer clerks who have already subscribed to the feed!  I hope to develop a newsletter in the future, and will use feedblitz list to launch it.

Leadership Now Blog

How could I have missed this?  Check out Leading Blog, which is part of the Leadership Now site, which contains a plethora of articles, tips, insights, and resources for leaders of all sorts.   Recent posts include a comment on Six Sigma Leadership (some leaders fail because they don't have enough tools in their leadership tool kit - they may be good at a few things that got them where they are, but they need more leadership skills to adapt to new situations - a good excuse for leadership development in organizations).  He also writes about an upcoming conference on NeuroLeadership (Stephanie West Allen recently asked me, "Don't you think everyone should know about neuroscience and brain health?  Of course, I replied.  We should both go to the conference.)  And Michael McKinney also beat me to a wonderful post about Rev. King's vision, a topic I hope to write more about in the future.

Visit Michael's blog at http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadingblog/  and check out his leadership globs at http://www.leadershipnow.com/minute.html.

Merrilyn Astin Colors Blank Sheet

Merrilyn Astin Tarlton joined the community of blawgers with Blank Sheet of Paper and a Box of Crayons this month.  Merrilyn is the current editor of Law Practice Magazine, president of the College of Law Practice Management, and former marketing director of my firm, Holland & Hart, LLP.  She is also a founder of the Legal Marketing Association.

Merrilyn opens her blog with,

  "There is something frightening about a blank sheet of paper.  Even to the artist. . . .who, frankly, loves it like he loves death.  The blank sheet waits for you, beckons you, tempts you to take a risk. . .to use it up.

What is a blank sheet of paper to a lawyer?  A risk?  A threat?  A space within which to squeeze more words?  Perhaps to some it is an opportunity to carve beautiful text from nothing.  For others. . .a great place to start cutting and pasting."

Blank Sheet of Paper is a blog you will want to bookmark, add to your RSS feed, or just visit often.  Merrilyn has wonderful insights into the world of law firm management, marketing, creativity, innovation, business development, training, professional development.......

Thank you, Merrilyn, for sharing your thoughts with the rest of us. 

Law.com Blog Network

Watch for a change soon.  www.leadershipforlawyers.typepad.com will join the law.com affiliate network of blogs.  In exchange for posting law.com advertising on this site, this blog link will be listed on the home page of law.com and join a group of nifty bloggers, most of whom I read on a regular basis.  You can sign up to receive an overview of law.com blog posts on a daily basis here.

Strongest Client Service Blogs

Tom Mighell (http://www.inter-alia.net) lists a dozen "strongest links" in this month's Law Practice Today, including our very own LeadershipforLawyers.  The others are:

Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices

Associate Marketing Mentor

Creating Dominance

David Maister

Golden Practices

In Search of Perfect Client Service

Larry Bodine's Professional Services Marketing Blog

Legal Marketing

Marketing Catalyst

Rainmaker Best Practices

What About Clients?

Inter-alia.net named LeadershipforLawyers their "Blog of the Day" on January 8, 2006.  What an honor to be listed among these visionaries.  Thank you, Tom!