Ever the Tough Editor, Am Law Founder Hits Publication’s Websites
The man who founded American Lawyer is still a tough editor.
Steven Brill has launched a new venture called Journalism Online that will allow its publishing clients to charge readers for online stories through an automated system. In an interview with the ABA Journal’s Legal Rebels tour, Brill managed to promote his venture and criticize his former publication, all at the same time.
Brill compared the American Lawyer’s websites with the legal gossip blog Above the Law, founded by David Lat, who conducted the interview for the ABA Journal.
“You guys have done a great job,” Brill told Lat. “I mean it is just a scandal that the American Lawyer’s websites aren’t successful the way, I mean you shouldn’t exist if the American lawyer is doing its job.”
Brill told Lat that his daughter, a second-year law student, is on the Above the Law website all the time to learn more about the law firms that have extended job offers. “You can’t tell me she wouldn’t pay you $2 a month” to read Above the Law, he said.
Recent Above the Law posts covered the bleak outlook for summer associates, how law firm fears about G-20 protesters are changing dress codes, and a law school’s letter warning alumni to donate now or risk a call during dinner time.
Brill’s comments were made in the second part of the interview, his most extensive interview about legal journalism since he sold American Lawyer Media 12 years ago.
