Blawg Review

It's not just a blog carnival; it's the law! ~ a fool in the forest

Carnivals for Lawyers

Blawg Review might be the blog carnival for law professors, law students and lawyers. But it's not the only blog carnival we're interested in. Recently, we hosted the 3rd Carnival of Trust, a new blog carnival that will be published on the first Monday of every month.

The fourth Carnival of Trust will be hosted by David Maister here, at his business blog Passion, People and Principles. Maister is the co-author of The Trusted Advisor, a book this editor frequently recommends to lawyers and law students. "This is a brilliant -- and practical -- book. In our 'world gone mad,' trust is, paradoxically, more important than ever," wrote Tom Peters in a dust-jacket review of the book that is now available in paperback, so even a law student can afford a personal copy. This seminal business book about building relationships as trusted advisors was co-written with Charles H. Green, the founder of the Carnival of Trust, who blogs now at Trust Matters. Charlie sets the stage in this call for submissions:
The fourth Carnival of Trust is fast approaching and will go live on Tuesday September 4th. The deadline for entries is this coming Thursday, August 30th. This edition will be hosted by David Maister, co-Author of The Trusted Advisor. David is perhaps the premier thinker in professional services managment, an industry whose entire business model is built around the idea of trusted advisor relationships, and as such I'm very much looking forward to reading his selection of articles.
David Maister is no stranger to the legal profession, and many lawyers follow his business blog regularly. Though not a lawyer, David Maister even hosted a law blog carnival for us -- Blawg Review #76 -- and is scheduled to host Blawg Review again on October 22, 2007.

Coincidentally, that same day we're hosting the grand-daddy of all business blog carnivals, the Carnival of the Capitalists, right here on this blog. That will be our third year in a row hosting the Carnival of the Capitalists on Blawg Review in the week following the founders' anniversary editions. In previous years, it worked out quite well, building new business blog readership for Blawg Review, and law blogs, when we hosted the Carnival of the Capitalists #107 and CotC #159 as our way of giving back to the CotC, the business blog carnival that inspired the carnival of law bloggers.

Participating in the Carnival of Trust and the Carnival of the Capitalists is a great way for lawyers who blog to get their best stuff read by business blog readers -- beyond the blawgosphere!

Hitting the Big Time

"Woo-Hoo! We’ve Hit the Big Time!" writes Greg May at The California Blog of Appeal announcing that his blog post on alternative fee arrangements in appellate practice is featured in Blawg Review #123 hosted by Todd Smith at Texas Appellate Law Blog.

That's one of the great things about Blawg Review; each week a different host selects some of the most interesting law blog posts from those recommended and submitted, and features them (including some blawgs we've never seen before) in an entertaining presentation that is unique to each host's perspective on the blawgosphere.
Todd is Board Certified in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and currently serves as editor of the State Bar Appellate Section newsletter, The Appellate Advocate. He has handled matters before many of the state’s fourteen intermediate appeals courts, the Texas Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
So, this week, appellate attorney Todd Smith, on the Texas Appellate Law Blog, presents Blawg Review #123, his final judgment in the case of In re Blawg Review.
This case presents issues involving patent infringement, trademark and copyright violations, defamation, free speech, arbitration, expert testimony, jury misconduct, cumulative error, attorney’s fees, and costs. The parties have provided extensive briefs, and we have received several amicus curiae submissions.
Check out this week's Blawg Review #123 to see who all he's included in his selection of the best submissions this week.

And be sure to send in your best blog post and recommendations for next week's extravaganza, Blawg Review #124 by George Lenard, who will attempt to outperform his previous Blawg Review #15 at the new and improved law blog George's Employment Blawg. Word is, he's already working on it to avoid another all-nighter like the one he pulled getting his previous Blawg Review together.

It's Not Just Fair Use

It's parody now, baby!



Nixon Peabody lawyers know that this is a permitted use of their copyrighted song, applying the doctrine of "fair use" as described in the law firm's published Copyright & Internet Law Glossary.
Fair use

The doctrine that permits use of copyrighted material without obtaining permission from the copyright owner. §107 of the Copyright Act contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered "fair," such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. §107 also outlines four factors that are considered to determine fair use:

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

"The idea of copyright law is that, after a time, every work comes back into the hands of the public, where it can be reused, recycled, and made part of new creativity without the artist having to pay a fee or call in the lawyers. Yet some copyright holders act as though copyright is both permanent and boundless, pressing claims that threaten even traditionally protected activities like making a parody. These claims strip-mine the public domain, robbing the next generation of artists of rich source materials for creativity." ~EFF

Judges Read Blawg Review

J. Craig Williams at May It Please the Court points to an article about judges blogging and reading blogs.
The National Judicial College magazine, Case In Point, published an article in its Spring/Summer 2007 edition: "Are You Out There? Blogging On The Bench" by Heather Singer, NJC Communications Specialist. The article features blogs that judges write, and blogs that judges read.
Check out the list of law blogs judges read.

And, if any judges are reading Blawg Review for this editor's personal recommendations of more blawgs that judges might find especially interesting, here's a list of law blogs also worthy of judicial notice.

Balkinization

Concurring Opinions

Deliberations

QuizLaw

f/k/a, and

Above the Law, edited by David Lat a.k.a. "Article III Groupie" and affectionately called A3G by some members of the bench.

Blawg Review's Big Hitters

This week's Blawg Review #122, a law school course catalog, is a big hit with lawyers, law professors, and law students alike thanks to an outpouring of link love from some of the most popular weblogs.

Professor Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit

Professor Jonathan Adler at The Volokh Conspiracy

David Lat at Above the Law

Evan Schaeffer at Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground

Denise Howell at Bag and Baggage

Bob Ambrogi at Law.com's Legal Blog Watch

Ron Coleman at Likelihood of Confusion

David Fischer at Antitrust Review

Seth Freilich at QuizLaw

Tom Welshonce at What About Clients?

Matt Johnston at Going to the Mat

David Giacalone at f/k/a

Colin Samuels at Infamy or Praise

and Todd Smith, at Texas Appellate Law Blog, who is hosting next week's Blawg Review #123.

Many thanks to everyone who supports Blawg Review by hosting, sending in recommendations and submissions, and pointing your readers to the current issue with a link and your comments. And our special thanks to everyone who supports this project with a link to this weblog in your blogroll. Thanks to those who spread the word and increase participation of a larger community of law bloggers, and who make this project one of the very best blog carnivals. Thank you so much.

Blawg Review Syllabus

David Gulbransen presents Blawg Review #122 in the form of a syllabus. Well done, Dave!

Law bloggers have come to expect a very creative presentation from Gulbransen since he broke into hosting Blawg Review back in 2005 with Blawg Review #23, coding his selection of law blog posts in a sortable table. This week's presentation is a creative twist on last year's "back to school special" Blawg Review #70. And so, for the third year in a row, law students, law professors, and lawyers, stand in awe of this dude's mad 'puter skillz!

Elbert Hubbard Blogger

Elbert Green Hubbard (June 19, 1856 – May 7, 1915) was an American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher in his day. In our time, he might well have been a blogger.
In 1908 he was the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of The Society in Dedham for Apprehending Horse Thieves. He spoke on the poetry of Robert Browning and said "a more refined and intelligent audience I never saw." He reported that the membership was limited to 350 men and that there was a perpetual waiting list to join with "the slighest fleck on your social record" being cause to be rejected.

In 1912, the famed passenger liner the Titanic was sunk after hitting an iceberg. Hubbard subsequently wrote of the disaster, singling out the story of the wife of Isador Straus, who as a woman was supposed to be placed on a lifeboat in precedence to the men. She refused to board the boat: "Not I—I will not leave my husband. All these years we've traveled together, and shall we part now? No, our fate is one."

Hubbard then added his own stirring commentary: "Mr. and Mrs. Straus, I envy you that legacy of love and loyalty left to your children and grandchildren. The calm courage that was yours all your long and useful career was your possession in death. You knew how to do three great things—you knew how to live, how to love and how to die.

"One thing is sure, there are just two respectable ways to die. One is of old age, and the other is by accident. All disease is indecent. Suicide is atrocious. But to pass out as did Mr. and Mrs. Isador Straus is glorious. Few have such a privilege. Happy lovers, both. In life they were never separated and in death they are not divided." Hubbard and his wife, though he knew it not then, were to have just such a privilege. Little more than three years after the sinking of the Titanic, the Hubbards boarded Lusitania in New York City on May 1, 1915. On May 7, 1915, while at sea, it was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine Unterseeboot 20.
Hubbard is remembered today for his many quotable quotes, among which one struck this editor as particularly apropos:

"Editor: a person employed by a newspaper, whose business it is to separate the wheat from the chaff, and to see that the chaff is printed." ~ Elbert Hubbard

Inspired Blawg Review

Professor Glenn Reynolds gave this week's host Sheryl Sisk Schelin some link love from Instapundit.

This week's Blawg Review #121 at The Inspired Solo is, ironically, uninspired. That's not to say it's not an excellent roundup of some of the best legal bloggage of the past week; it is.

Let's face it, a lot of lawyers, law students and law professors are on holidays in August, or maybe we're all blogging less these days. So, this week, with fewer submissions and recommendations to work with, our host got back to basics with a theme-free Blawg Review. Some prefer it that way.

But, for those of us who enjoy an inspired theme now and again, there's more to look forward to in upcoming issues.

David Gulbransen, who put together Blawg Review #70, an inspired Back to School special, is hosting again next week for his third year in a row, so expect something special then.

Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends will host a Back to Business special on September 17th.

Mediators Diane Levin and Geoff Sharp will co-host a special for the week including Conflict Resolution Day.

And for something different, we've lined up Dr. Jillian Todd Weiss to host Blawg Review at the Transgender Workplace Diversity blog, a year after Jen Burke hosted her special Blawg Review #84 on Transgender Remembrance Day.

Next year, expect even more inspiration. Stephen Nipper will host Blawg Review at The Invent Blog on February 11th, which is coincidentally National Inventors Day in honor of the anniversary of the birth of the inventor Thomas Alva Edison who had over 1,000 patents. How inspired is that?

Kevin O'Keefe is hosting next St. Patrick's Day. "The glorious St. Patrick? Why he was the one who drove all the trolls out of Ireland," sure and begorrah!

Michael Fitzgibbon, a Canadian labour lawyer, will host on the National Day of Mourning observed in Canada on April 28th. It commemorates workers who have been killed, injured or suffered illness due to workplace related hazards and incidents.

The Mommy Blawg will host on International Midwives Day.

Whisteblower Law Blog is scheduled to host Blawg Review on May 12, 2008 to coincide with the second annual Whistelblower Week in Washington.

Moral Dilemma, an inspired blog by Australian lawyer, law blogger and author, Dr. Mirko Bagaric, will host on May 26, 2008, which is National Sorry Day, in remembrance of mistreatment of the Aboriginal people in Australia.

Dr Eoin O’Dell a Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the School of Law, Trinity College Dublin, has offered to host on his Irish law blog, cearta.ie, on June 16, 2008, Bloomsday. Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on June 16th in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904. The day is a secular holiday in Ireland. The name derives from Leopold Bloom, the protagonist of Ulysses, and June 16th was the date of Joyce's first outing with his wife-to-be, Nora Barnacle, when they walked to the Dublin village of Ringsend.

We're full of inspiration for themes for Blawg Review, you see. Just ask, and we'll help you come up with a theme or special day to host your own issue of Blawg Review.

If you feel inspired, you might want to host on Blackprof.com on Martin Luther King Jr. Day next year, although this year's special presentation of Blawg Review on MLK Day is a hard act to follow.

A healthcare law blogger might host on April 7th, World Health Day.

And we'd like to see someone special host on December 10th for Human Rights Day. Maybe someone who blogs on the ACLU law blog, or maybe you.

If you're an inspired lawyer, law student, or law professor, and you'd like to host a special issue of Blawg Review, just semd us an email and we'll help you find a theme that's just perfect for you and your blawg. All of the dates available to host Blawg Review are listed in the sidebar of the home page of this weblog, along with links to the Future Hosts of Blawg Review.

Trust me, you won't find a more inspired group of bloggers than right here hosting Blawg Review each week.

Best Post of the Week

Check out Political Calculations, which collects each week the best of the business blog carnivals in a regular Friday feature called "On the Moneyed Midways". This week, the Carnival of Trust, hosted here on the Blawg Review weblog, was found to contain the best post of the week, anywhere!
What happens to an anonymous blogger when the New York Times devotes its extensive news-gathering resources to outing the man behind a highly entertaining curtain? The Fake Steve Jobs shares his reaction in The Best Post of the Week, Anywhere!
Here's the Running Index for On the Moneyed Midways, the blogosphere's only roundup of the top posts from each week's blog carnivals dedicated to money, business, career and other related topics. You'll find all the editions assembled over the course of 2007, presented with the newest editions on top and the oldest at the bottom.

Selecting the best posts each week from all the business blog carnivals, On the Moneyed Midways is essential reading for lawyers who would like to follow all the best business blog carnivals, but only have a limited amount of time to read blogs that are not specifically law blogs.

Subliminal Seduction



Not unlike the law professors at Concurring Opinions, who prostitute their blog for untold advertising revenue, we have for some time been streaming messages in banner ads here on Blawg Review to increase traffic to our website. Can you see the hidden messages in the banner ads on this page? Look again!

Are we just trying to get readers to look at our banner ads, or is there a different sort of experiment going on here?

Carnival of Trust: 08/06/07


It is my great pleasure and distinct honor to host the third edition of the Carnival of Trust, conceived and launched recently by Charles H. Green of Trusted Advisor Associates.

Charlie contacted me by email a few months ago with a great idea for a new blog carnival of trust-related commentary gleaned from weblogs, not just in the sense of his book, The Trusted Advisor, and his blog, Trust Matters, but touching on a wider range of topics under the rubric of trust. His concept intrigued me -- a monthly blog carnival where selected hosts feature ten of the most interesting blog posts they can find related to trust. Charlie wanted to host the first and second presentations of the Carnival of Trust himself, before trusting anyone else to have a turn hosting.

As I wrote here at the time, it was quite a surprise when one of the authors of a book titled The Trusted Advisor turned to me for advice how to manage a blog carnival. It must be the cologne I'm wearing.

Anyway, now that I have your rapt attention, let's get to my selections for this third edition of the Carnival of Trust.


"Many firms claim that what distinguishes their organization is that their people are client centric and act like trusted advisors. However, few of these organizations, when they hire, have programs to select for people who have basic friendship attitudes and skills and few have systematic programs to help their people develop them," writes David Maister (co-author of the book, The Trusted Advisor) at his business blog, Passion, People and Principles.

"We accept that trust is a key enabler of efficient and productive working relationships. We’re less sure about what it means to say we trust someone and even more perplexed by what it takes to engender trust," writes Jay Gordon Cone of Interaction Associates.

"When we go into the office in the morning, we do so trusting that we'll be safe there -- maybe not from professional upsets and personal knocks, but physically safe," writes Maureen Rogers in a compelling story of workplace violence at Pink Slip.


The New Oxford American Dictionary lists trust as: firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone. "Think about it…aren’t these the qualities you want in your business relationships? So do your clients. So how can you build greater trust with your target audience?" asks Dawud Miracle, who answers this question in a link-rich post titled "Are You Building Trust With Your Target Audience?"

Trust is invisible, but the symptoms of its absence are not. That is the theme of this week's column at Sticky Minds, in which Clarke Ching recounts the difficulty one of his clients went through to rebuild trust with a customer.

Michael Zimmer is a Post-Doctoral Associate in Law at Yale Law School. His research interests include social, political, and ethical dimensions of information and communication technologies, web search engines, and privacy and surveillance theory. On his eponymous blog, Zimmer exposes the emperor with no clothes in a post titled: Google’s Chief Privacy Counsel: "Don’t trust fat businessmen."


Charles Green, at Trust Matters, asks, "Does Trust Drive the Dow?"

Speaking on CBS News' Face the Nation program, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) gave Attorney General Alberto Gonzales one week to resolve perceived inconsistencies in his testimonies, saying, (as reported by the Jurist weblog) "...he answered under oath at great length. I think a lot of us, Republicans and Democrats, were incredulous at some of the answers. I told him, frankly, I don't trust him."


"Watching the media cover marijuana is fascinating, offering deep insight into conventional wisdom, bias and failure to properly place science in context. The coverage of a new study claiming that marijuana increases the risk of later psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia by 40% displays many of these flaws," writes Maia Szalavitz in an article headlined "Reefer Inanity: Never Trust the Media on Pot" on HuffPo.

I've had many discussions with readers of Blawg Review about issues of trust that come with anonymous blogging. So, it was of great interest to me, and the whole blogosphere it seems, when New York Times reporter Brad Stone uncovered Forbes senior editor Daniel Lyons in the Trial of Fake Steve Jobs. According to the Times:
The mysterious writer has used his blog, the Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, to lampoon Mr. Jobs and his reputation as a difficult and egotistical leader, as well as to skewer other high-tech companies, tech journalists, venture capitalists, open-source software fanatics and Silicon Valley’s overall aura of excess.
Damn, I am so busted, yo.

And the final word on trust, from one of my most trusted advisors, Hugh MacLeod.

Blawg Review #120

Professor Bainbridge was scheduled to host this week, but he's got better things to do, so I've been asked once again to substitute for him. As if I've not got a full schedule myself!

I'm Professor Kingsfield. Some might remember me from #60 and #80, or from the time I substituted for Steve Bainbridge with Blawg Review #107. Older readers here, and most of the law bloggers who will be called upon to contribute to the discussion today, might remember me better from my award-winning performance in The Paper Chase.

This week, our focus will be upon those who have not yet hosted Blawg Review. Our presentation includes interesting commentary by some of the brightest legal minds. Unfortunately, several of these excellent legal bloggers appear reluctant to lead a discussion of the most interesting legal topics of the day by stepping up and volunteering to host their own issue of Blawg Review. Today, like it or not, they will be called upon to participate.

The Socratic Method is a particularly good technique for drawing out reticent law bloggers and getting them involved in the discussion. Let's begin and end Blawg Review #120 with embedded YouTube videos about the Socratic Method, linked here and here for those of you following along in your RSS feed readers.



Before we begin the heavy legal stuff, I should mention that we've got a birthday to celebrate here.

Mr. Olson, "Would you like to review the role of media as enablers of the allegations of prosecutor Mike Nifong in the Duke lacrosse case?"

Mr. Volokh, "Is the restraining order against the self-described 'pedophile blogger' constitutional?"

Mr. Gratz, "Don't you just hate inflated copyright warnings?"

Ms. Kluger, "Are lawyers rats?"

"Wait, what's that? I see a gunner's hand up. Yes." Mr. Ambrogi.

Mr. Hyndman, "Is social media changing the way we think about celebrity?"

Mr. Lederman, "Over at Balkinization, you and Jack Balkin have been blogging up a storm about the new FISA bill and its ramafications. Could you give us a good overview of what you've written and read on the topic?"

Mr. Desai, "Are online service contracts binding on customers who have not received notice of changes to the terms of the contracts?"

Mr. Newton, "Why do good things happen to bad people?"

Mr. Goldman, "Can you go to jail for stealing a website?"

Mr. McCann, "Does the Americans With Disabilities Act entitle professional athletes, who were banned for life from playing a sport because of failing drug tests, to have their employment reinstated?"

Mr. Posner, "Should the U.S. support Canada's claim to the Northwest Passage?"

Ms. Brown-Dean, "Fight the power! But on behalf of whom?"

Mr. Berman, "Who survives on death row?"

Mr. Welsh, "Why do essentially the same demographics different countries have very different crime and incarceration rates?"

Mr. Farry, "Are RFID tags in humans okay?"

Mr. Carter, "What's this nonsense about Generation 9/11?"

Ms. Althouse, "Are you wearing sunglasses in class?"

"Imagine that you’re on a game show like Let’s Make a Deal. The host, Monty Hall, presents you with three doors. Behind one is a new car; behind the other two are goats. You choose door # 1. Monty then opens door # 3, behind which is a goat. Monty then offers you the chance to switch your choice to door # 2. Should you switch, or should you stick with door # 1?" Mr. Ward.

Mr. Lattman, "Have you seen any good movies about law school? No, this is not a trick question."

Mr. Hoffman, "Should you buy divorce insurance?"

Ms. Dowd, "Can a person get life in prison for being homeless?"

Mr. LaBovick, "Last week it was Michael Vick in the news, with allegations of criminal dog-fighting, and now we hear that dogs might have been involved in the death of a caretaker at the property of actor Ving Rhames. What's that about?"

Mr. Dillon, "What are your thoughts on litigation in business?"

Mr. Green, "As a businessman, would you like to share with us your personal experience with the legal system?"

Mr. Day, "Would it be difficult to recover damages from public authorities for the Minnesota bridge collapse if it were, say, in Tennessee?"

Mr. Reynolds, "Are you reading a book instead of following along here?" And you, Ms. Dayton, would you like to share that comment with everyone here?"

Mr. Odom, "Do you see the pendulum swinging in patent law?"

Mr. Calloway, "Did you read the cover story of the August, 2007 ABA Journal, Scott Turow's article, 'The Billable Hour Must Die'? Oh, hello there Mr. Giacalone, I see you just awoke. Did that article cause you agita?" And, yes, Ms. Elefant, "You had something to say, too, on the problem with the billable hour...or the problem with lawyers? And what do you think, Mr. Solove, "is the billable hour broke? Is there a better alternative?"

Ms. Graves, "Did you want to tell us about the first edition of the new Carnival of Open Records: Best posts from the FOIA-sphere?

Mr. Squillante, "Would you like to go over again the recommended reading for next week?"

Mr. Spencer, "Why should lawyers read blogs?"

"One last thought, for those of you still considering law school. How important are law school rankings in deciding where to apply and where to attend?" Ms. Levine.



That's our Blawg Review for this week. Be sure to check out the sidebar of the home page of this weblog for links to upcoming hosts. And if you're one of those we called upon to contribute, and can muster enough courage to volunteer and host your own issue of Blawg Review, I'm sure the Editor here would be happy to find a convenient date for you -- and, yes, that includes you, Bainbridge.

Oh, and one more thing before we go; the Editor of Blawg Review has asked me to repeat this announcement that he's hosting the August 6th edition of the Carnival of Trust. Probably a worthwhile read for lawyers, law students, and law professors, too. By the way, Mr. Frisch, "Who (Or Is It Whom) Do You Trust?"