In-House Lawyer Blogs

Blogs by in-house counsel are few and far between, as suggested by this recent article on Law.com that points to Microsoft Corporation lawyer and blogger David Rudin, Sun Microsystems GC Mike Dillon, and Web.com's Jonathan B. Wilson, who hosted Blawg Review #41.

Dillon's blog, the legal thing, opened with lawyerly circumspection. "It will be at times challenging to be as open as I would like," he wrote. Despite the cautious start, Dillon's subsequent posts have been increasingly substantive, particularly a detailed piece -- "The 'Tax' on Innovation" -- on patent reform, which was replete with links and reader comments. Other entries range from humor to personal reflections. Dillon, who leads a team of 190 lawyers in 25 countries, says he spent about a year and a half toying with the idea of a blog and determining who his target audience would be. One goal was to create a sense of community among his far-flung staff. Self-expression was also a draw. "All of us lawyers are closet authors and want to be Grisham or Thoreau (sic) [Turow]," he says.

Some in-house lawyers who blog, like the hosts of Blawg Review #86 and Blawg Review #37, prefer to keep a really low profile in the blawgosphere.

Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, associate GC of Greensboro, North Carolina -- based Lorillard Tobacco Company, is also a regular poster. Her blog, Legal Literacy, first appeared in January. She uses it to update her book, "A Business Guide to Legal Literacy," which is aimed primarily at business-side readers. Hasl-Kelchner says she keeps the blog separate from her day job. "As in-house counsel, we have to keep a lower profile," she says.

Now that she's been featured in an article in Law.com's Legal Technology on in-house legal bloggers, it's time to see how hosting Blawg Review #87 helps to lower the profile of Hanna Hasl-Kelchner, who's recently published The Business Guide to Legal Literacy: What Every Manager Should Know About the Law.


The Business Guide to Legal Literacy bridges the gap between law and business by translating legalese into language that makes business sense and offers a new way to think about the law -- as a useful business tool.