@BlawgWhisperer

Around the Blawgosphere: Pruning Phony Web Client Reviews; What Does It Mean to Be a Virtual Lawyer?

Spotting Fakes At Small Firm Innovation, Washington, D.C., solo Carolyn Elefant notes a New York Times article about researchers at Cornell University who have developed an algorithm to distinguish fake reviews from real ones on websites like TripAdvisor. They ran the algorithm through 400 real hotel reviews and 400 hotels…

Sep 23, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Thank God I’m a Country Lawyer; Rebuffing Firms’ Family-Friendly Advances

Podunk Practices In July, Minnesota solo Bruce Cameron did a Rural Lawyer post listing eight misconceptions about rural law practice. This week, Cameron used email excerpts from his correspondence with “Thomas,” a 27-year-old lawyer who lives 40 miles from Dallas (“I still need to move farther out,” he writes), to…

Sep 16, 2011 1:36 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Student Blog Breaking Ethical Ground?; Funny Lawyer Videos; 10% Truth

Blogging Around an Ethical Issue At Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites, the Boston College Law School alum takes note of a new blogging venture at his alma mater. Anusia Hirsch, a 2L, started bclabstudent last month about her job at the school’s legal assistance bureau. She wants her blawg to be a…

Sep 9, 2011 1:33 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: NOLA Lawyer Remembers Katrina; On Not Seeking ‘Fun’ with Law Enforcement

‘Katrina Was one of the Best Experiences I Ever Had’ New Orleans solo Ernest Svenson, who was practicing in the city when Hurricane Katrina hit six years ago (and who tweeted Hurricane Gustav in 2008) wrote at Ernie the Attorney that “Katrina was one of the best experiences I ever…

Sep 2, 2011 1:43 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Law Prof Bloggers See Initial Anonymity of ‘LawProf’ as Strategic

The word got out last weekend that University of Colorado Law School professor Paul Campos is the author of the Inside the Law School Scam, a blog that offers his take on the cost of legal education and questions the quality of law professors’ teaching and the value of their…

Aug 26, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: ‘Vaporizing’ Labor Law Statutes; Is Being an ‘Evil Empire’ Really So Bad?

Last Friday at Overlawyered, Cato Institute senior fellow Walter Olson posed this question: “If I could press a button and instantly vaporize one sector of employment law …” noting that he explains how he himself would answer that question on a symposium at Reason.com. What would he vaporize? Age discrimination.…

Aug 19, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: A Law Prof Scamblogger?; Trying Cases and Doing Triathlons

‘Inside the Law School Scam’ An anonymous tenured “LawProf” at a school “located within a good regional university with some nationally recognized departments” who asserts that he is tenured has gone into the confessional to author Inside the Law School Scam, which launched this week and is six posts strong…

Aug 12, 2011 2:57 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Snitching Suffers a Blow; Lawyer’s Name-Your-Own-Price Experiment

Taking on Jailhouse Snitches and Confidential Informants The anonymous blogger “Gideon” at a public defender and Loyola Law School Los Angeles law professor Alexandra Natapoff at Snitching Blog both noted a bill signed by California Gov. Jerry Brown that requires testimony by witnesses in prison or police custody to be…

Aug 5, 2011 1:52 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: How Much Should a Solo Charge? Did Ex-Law Dean Make ‘Unfortunate Comment’?

How Much Should a Solo Charge? At My Shingle, Washington, D.C., solo Carolyn Elefant distinguishes between advice on how solos should price their services and actual benchmarks. For benchmarks, she has some suggestions: • The Laffey Matrix lists available reimbursement rates under fee-shifting statutes. Though the rates skew high and…

Jul 29, 2011 2:32 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Bloggers on New York Times’ Take on New York Law School, Its Outgoing Dean

The New York Times published a story last Saturday about law school economics—and New York Law School in particular. The article noted on the school’s large class size and $47,800 annual tuition and contrasted them with outgoing dean Richard Matasar’s statements in a 2009 speech that law schools are “exploiting”…

Jul 22, 2011 1:26 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: More Lawyers Working Via Smartphone; Can Poetry Help You Get to the Point?

Smartphones Taking Hold At iPhone J.D., Adams and Reese partner Jeff Richardson shared some stats from and thoughts on the results of the ABA’s Legal Technology Resource Center’s 2011 Legal Technology Survey Report. This year, 88 percent of the 838 lawyers who responded to the survey reported that they owned…

Jul 15, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Bloggers Sound off on Casey Anthony Trial, Verdict, ‘Caylee’s Law’ Proposal

Many legal bloggers took time this week to post on the wind-up, verdict and aftermath of Casey Anthony’s murder trial. Many expressed a degree of satisfaction that the tone of the extensive media coverage of the case didn’t have an impact on the jurors’ decision to acquit the 25-year-old mother…

Jul 8, 2011 1:30 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Google+ Tested by Bloggers; Which Headlines Will Make ‘SVU’?

Will Google+ Supplant Facebook? A few law bloggers managed to score invites and field test Google+, the company’s new Facebook-style social network—and most liked what they saw. “Google+ appears to be promising that you can gradate access/permissions/exposure by placing your peeps in different ‘circles,’ ” Seattle practitioner William Carleton wrote…

Jul 1, 2011 1:52 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Law Blog’s Haiku Contest Deadline Today; Grumbling About Legal Directories

Can You Haiku? We know our readers like to write haiku, so take note, because there may still be time: Bracewell & Giuliani’s bankruptcy blog, Basis Points, is having a haiku contest. The best single haiku that the blog receives by 5 p.m. ET today will win its author two…

Jun 24, 2011 1:57 PM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Shall You Use Another Word?; Bloggers Reflect on Debt, Small-Firm Ownership

Skip the Word, or You Shall Misuse It As one study questions U.S. Supreme Court justices’ increasing reliance on dictionaries, Lawyerist contributor Andy Mergendahl blogged Black’s Law Dictionary this week, pointing out its definition of shall (omitting examples): “Shall (vb). 1. Has a duty to; more broadly, is required to…2.…

Jun 17, 2011 1:30 PM CDT