Patent Baristas Serving #77

Our hosts for Blawg Review #77 are none other than Frost Brown Todd patent attorneys Stephen R. Albainy-Jenai and Karlyn A. Schnapp, who will be serving up a blawg rebrew at Patent Baristas. Those who have been following our blog carnival will remember these baristas served up a steaming hot Blawg Review #19 in the dog days of the summer of 2005. They're coming back with a special blend of the best of this week's law blog posts. Wake up and smell the coffee!

If you'd like something special served on Monday morning, these hard-working Patent Baristas would appreciate it if you'd get your orders and recommendations submitted as soon as possible following these submission guidelines. They're working on a new menu and would love to have your input. Without your help, preparing Blawg Review is a grind.


Blawg Review #77 is served, and Colin Samuels at Infamy or Praise has posted a thoughtful overview of this week's offering:

Highlights in this edition include discussions of the six metrics which all firms should track, the value of strong non-obviousness, and the inspiring commitment to total client service made by Anna Nicole Smith's attorney/baby-daddy.

One post conspicuous by its absence from the roundup is one from Wall Street Journal legal blogger Peter Lattman Latte-man. Latte-man noted last week that Starbucks faces an anti-trust suit "claiming the java giant engages in a range of anti-competitive practices, including entering exclusive lease agreements, buying out competitors, and, our personal favorite, the 'cluster bombing' of stores." I can only assume that the baristas chose not to include Latte-man's post as a gesture of professional courtesy towards Starbucks.

If, by chance, you find something particularly interesting in Blawg Review for readers of your own blog, be sure to make a note of it there, too.

Passion, People and Principles

David Maister is hosting Blawg Review #76 next at his extraordinary business blog, Passion, People and Principles. You can find out more about David Maister at his website.

David Maister has made quite an impression on the legal blogosphere with his business blog, Passion, People and Principles. Maister is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on the management of professional service firms. He began his teaching career at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and then joined the Harvard Business School faculty, where he taught courses in managing service businesses from 1979 until 1985.

For twenty-five years he has advised firms in a broad spectrum of professions, covering all strategic and managerial issues, building a global practice that finds him spending about 40% of his time in North America, 30% in western Europe, and 30% in the rest of the world. Before heading off to Copenhagen to speak at a conference, David Maister will host Blawg Review #76. That'll be our segue from a month of special issues of Blawg Review for "back to school" hosted by academics to the next group of practising attorneys, who are getting us back to business.

David Maister posted a call for submissions and recommendations for his Blawg Review #76, indicating the special focus of his upcoming special issue.

I am a business and management type and NOT a lawyer, so I particularly encourage bloggers (and blawgers) to submit articles on the realities of work and professional life, the business of law, firm management, marketing, strategy, and career development.

I will do my best, but it will be hard for me, a non-lawyer, to assess and interpret purely legal submissions. I ask for prior forgiveness for any errors I make!

Those in the legal community who already read Maister's business blog are looking forward to his thoughtful and insightful commentary on some of the best law blog posts that come to his attention by way of submissions and recommendations from law bloggers. Those who newly discover Passion, People and Principles will find a very helpful resource for their business and professional lives.

Law Revue 2006

David Jacobson, who hosted Blawg Review #66 Down Under at one of his blogs, sends us news that Law Revue 2006 at the University of Queensland was quite a success this year.


Peter Black, an associate lecturer in law at UQLS, reports on his blawg, Freedom to Differ, that it was a fantastic show, adding:

For me the highlights included How Not to be a Law Nemesis, the Queen Medley, the Staff Sketch, I Want to be a Partner Young and pretty much every video filler. Since seeing my first Law Revue about 10 years ago - and while I never cease to be impressed by how funny and talented law students can be - it is also amazing how the production quality has steadily increased. It was a very professional and orginal show. Congratulations to everyone involved.

David Starkoff has collected on his blog, Inchoate, links to all the videos from the University of Queensland's Law Revue 2006, which he found on YouTube.

Blog Carnivals Coming & Going

Blawg Review is the blog carnival for everyone interested in law. A blog carnival is a traveling post about a topic or theme. For example, there's Carnival of the Capitalists, concerning business and economics, while Grand Rounds is about medicine and healthcare, and Blawg Review has topics discussed by lawyers, law students and law professors.

Also of interest to the legal community, especially in the United States, is "We the People: the Blog Carvnival of the Constitution" that has just been announced by Matt Barr at Socratic Rhythm Method. How timely that "We the People" is being announced today -- on Constitution Day -- with a Constitution Quiz for fun.

Blawg Review #75 will be hosted next at Concurring Opinions, which was recognized as the "best new blawg" by the Goddess of Justice and Law in the Blawg Review Awards 2005. Since then, Professor Daniel Solove and his distinguished colleagues, co-bloggers and guest-blogging professors have firmly established Concurring Opinions as one of the very best law blogs, bar none.

Blawg Review continues to grow in popularity, as more and more law blog readers discover the benefits of contributing to, and hosting, a blog carnival. Some wonder how long this blog carnival craze can go on! At 75 issues and counting, Blawg Review is still an upstart, if not the startup that is this new Carnival of the Constitution.

At first carnival, the blog carnival concept conceived by BigWig at Siflay Hraka four years ago just passed an unprecendented milestone this week with its 208th edition of Carnvial of the Vanities. With that achievement, the next issue will be its last, marking the end of Carnival of the Vanities. It's not surprising, perhaps, that the initial concept of the blog carnvial, based on submissions motivated by vanity, might point the way for "special interest" blog carnivals focussed on readers and hosts.

An interesting footnote, for followers of Blawg Review, is contained in the very first trackback to Carnival of the Vanities #1 where the Curmudgeonly Clerk noted that a student at Lewis & Clark Law School, blogging at Mellow-Drama, was planning to establish a legal version of Carnival of the Vanities to be called "Raising the Bar." A couple of years later, Kevin Heller got this party started with a blawg carnival he called "Belly Up to the Bar" and the rest, they say, is history.

Where's Ben Cowgill?

Ben Cowgill of SoloBlawg recently updated us on his legal ethics blog concerning how Kentucky's Attorney Advertising Commission is now treating blogs by Kentucky lawyers.

In this era of rapidly-emerging technology, agencies like the Advertising Commission are frequently confronted with issues of how they should apply their existing regulations to new kinds of activity. The advent of law-related blogs has created exactly that kind of challenge for agencies charged with the regulation of attorney advertising. Kentucky's Attorney Advertising Commission has met that challenge appropriately.

Cowgill played a central role in helping the Commission in Kentucky arrive at a working policy that strikes what he regards as a "sensible balance" between the Commission's responsibilites to enforce attorney advertising regulations in a fair and consistent manner and the constitutional rights to free speech in a blog.

Professor Volokh wonders if attorneys licensed to practice law in New York State will find it much harder to blog under new advertising rules proposed in that jurisdiction. The regulators have invited feedback on the proposed amendments, which are intended to bring the rules governing lawyer advertising into the computer age. Might lawyers in New York get a sensible resolution, too, like those in Kentucky?

Where's Ben Cowgill when you need him? Enjoying an extended summer vacation from blogging, working from his home office in his amicus briefs, no doubt.

Commemorating September 11

Case Western Reserve University School of Law, in Cleveland, Ohio, through its Institute for Global Security Law and Policy, will host three events in remembrance of September 11th -- four, if you count hosting Blawg Review #74, a special issue by Gregory S. McNeal and Amos N. Guiora.

Senior Fellow in Terrorism and Homeland Security and Assistant Director of the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy, Gregory S. McNeal is one of two law professors in the world (along with Institute Director Amos N. Guiora) supervising students working on legal assignments used by the Office of the Prosecutor for the Department of Defense Office of Military Commissions. The work relates to the Guantanamo detainees through the Institute's partnership with the Department of Defense.

On Monday September 11th, at 9:00 a.m., Amos N. Guiora, Professor of Law and Director of the Institute, will lead the campus in a moment of silence on the quad at the corner of Adelbert Road and Euclid Avenue. Following the moment of silence, those present will be invited to plant one of 3,000 flags as a memorial to the victims of 9/11.

At noon in the moot courtroom of the law school, Richard Rawlins, Deputy Director of Ohio Homeland Security, will deliver the day’s keynote speech. Rawlins oversees the Ohio Counter-terrorism Office, where he coordinates the overall effort to deter, detect and prevent terrorist attacks in Ohio. Rawlins also oversees the Strategic Analysis and Information Center and the Private Investigator and Security Guard Section. Rawlins will speak to students and members of the community about the impact of September 11th on the State of Ohio. This event is free and open to the public.

At 4:30 p.m., to conclude the day, the directors of other law school centers will discuss how September 11th impacted their area of the law. The centers represented include: the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, the Center for Business Law and Regulation, CISCDR (Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Conflict and Dispute Resolution), the Center for Law Technology and the Arts, The Law-Medicine Center, and the Institute for Global Security Law and Policy.

Submissions and recommendations for Blawg Review #74 are requested, in keeping with the commemorations of September 11, and the themes of the global war on terrorism and the impact of post-9/11 laws on business, civil liberties, and the administration of justice. Because of the special theme, our hosts will look beyond the previous few weeks of blawg posts for excellent law blog posts on the subject of terrorism, Homeland Security, The Patriot Act, and all matters of law relevant to the GWOT.

Professor Gregory S. McNeal, who also blogs on these topics on his personal blawg, Law, Terrorism and Homeland Security, is co-author of the forthcoming book, Saddam On Trial: Understanding and Debating the Iraqi High Tribunal.

As a special treat for those curious enough to have clicked on the image at the top of this post, or who have read through to the very end, there's a fabulous Tribute in Light 3D Panorama photograph, as an interactive World Trade Center memorial. Words can't do this justice.

Professors Blog Real Good

This weekend, while the rest of us kick back in celebration of orgainized labor, the law professors at Workplace Prof Blog will be toiling away in preparation of Blawg Review #73.

Next in our "back to school" series of academic hosts are the professors at the Case School of Law, who will be presenting Blawg Review #74 on the weblog of the Institute of Global Security Law and Policy on September 11th.

Blawg Review #75 will be hosted at Concurring Opinions, which was recognized as the "best new blawg" by the Goddess of Justice and Law in last year's Blawg Review Awards.

David Maister has made quite an impression on the legal blogosphere with his business blog, Passion, People and Principles. Maister is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading authorities on the management of professional service firms. He began his teaching career at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and then joined the Harvard Business School faculty, where he taught courses in managing service businesses from 1979 until 1985. For twenty-five years he has advised firms in a broad spectrum of professions, covering all strategic and managerial issues, building a global practice that finds him spending about 40% of his time in North America, 30% in western Europe, and 30% in the rest of the world. Before heading off to Copenhagen to speak at a conference, David Maister will host Blawg Review #76. That'll be our segue from academics to practising attorneys.

But law professors will be hosting Blawg Review again before long, as we've lined up special hosts to bookend the mid-term elections in the United States. Professor Bainbridge will present the pre-election Blawg Review and Professor Rick Hasen will host the post-election roundup of the blawgosphere at Election Law.

Gordon Smith was the first law professor to host Blawg Review, with back-to-back issues at Law & Entrepreneurship News and at the Conglomerate. James Maule hosted Blawg Review #53. And let's not forget Professor Kingsfield's Blawg Review #60.

If you know any other law professors who would be excellent hosts of Blawg Review, please send them a link to this post. Professors who are interested in hosting an upcoming issue of Blawg Review should email the Editor to schedule one of the available dates listed in the sidebar on the front page of this Blawg Review weblog, which serves as an organizational basecamp for the project.