The Readers' Choice: Voters' Top Blawg 100 Picks
Illustration by Raven Graphics
More than 8,000 law blog fans registered to vote for their favorite newsy, useful, fun or practice-specific blogs featured in our 5th Annual Blawg 100. The top vote-getters in our 12 categories are:
NEWS
Breaking Media’s Above the Law is developing into a legal publishing empire, featuring streams on BigLaw, small firms, in-house, law schools and legal technology.
TRIAL PRACTICE
Karen Koehler, a plaintiffs PI attorney in Seattle, offers her lawyer-readers trial tips, sometimes even posting transcripts from her trials to give readers the whole story. Koehler posts on small defeats and frustrations but emphasizes the importance, as a trial lawyer, of taking everything in stride.
LPM
Written by a slew of prominent bloggers, Small Firm Innovation is a resource for small firms and solos, with advice and anecdotes covering everything from technology to legal marketing.
TORTS
A witty, irreverent examination of products liability law, Abnormal Use posts every weekday, with Friday Links being a popular feature. Sarah Walling from Huntington, W.Va., adds, “The Abnormal Interview series and the film and television reviews provide insight into the legal profession from pop culture icons and law professors alike.”
NICHE
New York Law School students from the Program in Law and Journalism break down cases from the headlines, assessing both their merits and media coverage. The name pays homage to an incoherent 19th-century Portuguese guide to the English language, but these bloggers know how to write.
FOR FUN
Jeff Richardson of iPhone J.D. thinks Kevin Underhill “has a knack for finding the most absurd lawsuits and law-related events and then describing them with amazing wit.”
OPINION
D.C.-based constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley opines on the news of the day and isn’t always satisfied with the version recounted in media reports. Then there are random, off-topic posts, like the penguin videos he shared after his son Ben pointed them out.
BUSINESS LAW
Law student contributors summarize recent securities opinions while University of Denver law prof J. Robert Brown writes posts with more analysis about shareholder actions, corporate governance and self-regulatory organizations—with detours into posts about law schools or legal scholarship.
IP LAW
Robert P. Cogan of Continuum Law writes of Patently-O: “It provides news of the legal community, decisions, developing legal trends, pending legislation and agency announcements that affect my day-to-day practice.”
LABOR & EMPLOYMENT
Dallas lawyer Michael P. Maslanka’s employment law blog consistently publishes thoughtful, insightful pieces breaking down recent cases and discussing employment law issues in the news for this Texas Lawyer-hosted blog.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
For many, D.C. solo Jamison Koehler is a refreshing voice of humility in the criminal law blogosphere as well as an excellent writer. He highlights encounters with the criminal justice system, but strays to slice-of-life vignettes from his work as a defense lawyer.
LEGAL TECHNOLOGY
While in sixth grade, Big Easy lawyer Jeff Richardson learned how to program on an Apple II. Now he keeps readers up to the minute on OS updates; notes the latest apps relevant to lawyers, and walks his followers through all of it—complete with screenshots.
Updated Feb. 1 to correct an accidental deletion.
