Favorite Law Blogs and Most Useful Posts for Lawyers from 2012

One of my new year’s resolutions is to become a more thoughtful, consistent and “cogent” blogger. Not only do I want to write better posts for my audience’s sake, but I also hope to help my own practice as an attorney and litigation presentation specialist by taking time to blog. The whole process of blogging—which involves reading others’ blogs, staying informed and making time to reflect on issues—is not just essential for developing a blog, it’s also good for building and improving a law practice.

If you’re reading this, first I want to thank you for visiting my humble blog and hope you’ll subscribe if you haven’t already. Secondly, I’d like to use this post to share with you some personal recommendations of blogs that made the ABA Journal’s 2012 list of top 100 law blogs, or “blawgs.” I’m also including some blogs recommended by my colleague, patent attorney Michael Kelleher, who recently joined Cogent Legal as a litigation consultant. Finally, I’ll link back to a few of the posts I consider the best and most useful from this blog in 2012.

In return, I hope you’ll answer in the comments below: Which are your favorite blogs on the Top 100 Blog list? And/or, which law blogs do you recommend that did not make the Top 100?

I can’t deny my ego felt mildly bruised when I didn’t see my own blog among those in the ABA’s list. That mild disappointment lasted only about ten seconds, however, when I perused those that made the cut and realized how fierce the competition is. Of the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of law-related blogs published, these Top 100 stand out and are worth a busy lawyer’s time.

Some of my favorite blawgs

I subscribe by email to a handful of blogs that deal with trial practice, law firm management for small firms and solo attorneys, legal tech and law firm marketing. Some of my favorites that made the ABA list are multi-author news and opinion sites with numerous columns covering a variety of topics, such as Lawyerist, Above the Law and Attorney at Work. Two other must-reads in my feed, which made the Top 100 list, are Kevin O’Keefe’s Real Lawyers Have Blogs (about legal blogging, social media and law trends) and Jeff Richardson’s iPhone J.D. (about iPhone and iPad use for lawyers).

A new blog that I discovered through the ABA list and plan to follow is Litigation & Trial by Philadelphia plaintiffs lawyer Max Kennerly. He’s a thoughtful, readable writer who brings the story of a case to life while offering analysis and opinion of the law. If you too are a law blogger, be sure to read this great post about blogging.

On the topic of litigation persuasion and jury consulting, I’d recommend two high-quality blogs on the ABA list that also belong to the American Society of Trial Consultants’ Red Well blog aggregator (of which this blog is a member): Ken Broda-Bahm’s Persuasive Litigator, and Douglas Keene and Rita Handrich’s The Jury Room.

Michael’s favorite IP and Legal Tech blawgs

Michael Kelleher, a patent and tech attorney who recently joined our team, shares three of his personal favorites from the ABA’s Top 100 Blawgs. He writes:

• Patently-O: I read Patently-O daily because it’s an invaluable source of legal developments and policy analysis concerning patents. (For non-patent attorneys, the name, Patently O, refers to “patently obvious.”)
• Eric Goldman’s Technology & Marketing Law Blog: a technology and intellectual property law blog from Professor Eric Goldman of Santa Clara University School of Law in the heart of Silicon Valley. See, for a good example of his work, this recent post Two Challenges to Fixing Software Patents.
• Groklaw: a great open-source blog of intellectual property breaking news. As described in the ABA list, “Launched way back in the blogging pioneer days of 2003 … Groklaw has consistently covered the interaction of law and developing technologies, making the site a resource for those looking for sound information on litigation, news and analysis about free and open-source software.”

Five top Cogent Legal Blog posts from 2012 (in case you missed them)

If you’re new to my blog and want a sample of posts that I consider some of the most useful from the blog in 2012, I invite you to click through to these as a starting point for exploring the blog:

• Graphics to Better Build Your Construction Case
• A Guide to Effective, Engaging Graphics for Patent Litigation
• How to Use Technology Effectively for Mediation
• How Attorneys Should Use Graphics in a “David v. Goliath” Case
• The Best Way to Get Demonstrative Evidence Admitted at Trial

Happy reading, and happy holidays!

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