Deliberations In The ABA Journal Blawg 100

The ABA Journal's editors picked "100 best web sites by lawyers for lawyers" today, and it's an honor to say that Deliberations is on the list.  Now they're asking readers to vote for their favorites, by category.  I'm in a "toolkit" category with all the big general-interest law practice blogs:  Adam Smith, Esq., Amazing Firms, Amazing Practices, Bag and Baggage, Build a Solo Practice, and that's just the A's and B's.  So I have no expectation of finishing anywhere near the top, but still it would be nice to get some votes, which you can cast (one per blog, as many blogs as you like) by clicking the link above. 

"The height of folly"

I was in danger of getting really puffed up over this today until Kevin O'Keefe's post arrived with perfect timing:

Maybe it's lawyers' low self esteem that requires their egos to be stroked by being on someone's list of the 100 best this or that. Maybe lawyers are so bored that they love gimmicks. Maybe it's websites and organizations that are so starved for attention or relevance that they need to have contests to get their beauty pageant contestants to tell others of the website. I don't know.

But to get sucked into believing a contest like the ABA Journal's 100 best lawyer blogs means something is the height [of ] folly.

I've learned to trust most anything Kevin O'Keefe says about blogging, and I know he's right on this too.   Anyone can see that Blawgletter, New York Personal Injury Law Blog, Defending People, Drug and Device Law, Corrections Sentencing, and Kevin's own blog Real Lawyers Have Blogs are just a few of many blogs that are better than mine and aren't on the list.  More to Kevin's point, one of the strengths of the legal blogging world is that there's a different "best" blog out there for each reader.  "What's best and what's good," he says, "is determined by the value the blog offers a niche audience."  That message gave me hope and vision back when I was sure I'd never have more than seven readers, and it still shapes this blog today.

A map, at least

Kevin's real complaint is that the ABA Journal's recognition is "damaging to the growth of law blogs."  He argues that a handpicked list like this distracts readers from the real value of the blogosphere, which is the opposite of handpicked.  Your browser, he says, is a door to a democratic world where "a lawyer in a town with a water tower, an old grain elevator and 3 four way stops is on equal footing with a lawyer who clerked for a Supreme Court Judge." 

It's self-serving to say it, but I do think I differ with him here.  It's true that there are wonderful blogs that won't show up on any national "best" list, but at least in my own case, any map I could get was very helpful when I was first learning the territory.  You find blogs you trust when they're cited in other blogs you trust, and you have to start somewhere.  I've gotten a startling number of visitors today from the ABA Journal site, and I hope some of those visitors come to rely on other blogs they learn about here.

Bottom line . . .

So vote for Deliberations in the ABA Journal Blawg 100, if you're willing.  I've got to keep up with my dad's blog, and heaven knows I won't be in the next contest Kevin envisions.  "Why not have a contest as to which blogging lawyer looks best in a swim suit?" he asks.  Yikes. 

Comments

[Susan Cartier Liebel]

Anne, You are very funny! I won't be in a swim suit competition anytime soon, either. Thanks for the mention.

[Vickie Pynchon]

Anne,

You are TOO modest! This couldn't have happened to a more substantive and useful blog nor to a more dedicated and hard working blogger. NOT having made the list, I had about 60 seconds of a toddler's narcisstic and megolomanical hissy fit (why not ME?) and then chilled out -- happy to see my distance-blog-friends get this honor.

As to Kevin's balloon-popping pin, you are extremely gracious and modest to include it in your happy announcement.

Why are we (lawyers) like this? C'mon, who in their right mind would endure the rigors of law school followed by a three-day bar exam covering every topic studied over a three-year period and then learn to send just the right threatening letter, draft interrogatories that a Judge could reasonably ask someone to directly answer, take those first few humiliatingly bad depositions, negotiate settlements with lawyers with 30 more years experience than we have, try a case before a jury WITHOUT A SCREENWRITER in our pockets, lie awake crafting crafty lines of cross-examination only to have the witness outwit us or the Judge sustain opposing counsel's objection the following day; endure the rejection of countless fool-proof appellate arguments; and permit ourselves to be boxed around the ears or played with as a cat toy by a sadistic trial judge WITHOUT HAVING SOMEONE THROW CONFETTI IN THE AIR BEFORE US ONCE IN AWHILE. This is a well-deserved honor. Take at LEAST a day before you CONSUME and discount your great accomplishment. Your fans are real fans & that has NOTHING to do with whether a "top 100" list is a good or bad thing. You're simply ONE OF THE BEST!!

[Anne Reed]

Vickie, thanks so much for the kind words -- and the evocative description of a litigator's life! But I'll speak up for Kevin's concern, which really is the flip side of your closing point. If lists like this did have the effect of separating blogs into "A-List" and "B-List," they'd be unhealthy. Like you, I think and hope that won't be the case. The conversation out here is too energetic and substantive to be affected much by awards. But with luck, a list like the ABA's will give those unfamiliar with blogs a way to step into this new world.

[Bill Tyroler]

Anne:

I just took a careful survey of the only vote that counts (mine; well, that counts to me, anyway). The official result: Yours is hands' down the best-written, most thoughtful, consistently interesting among the entire universe of legal blogs. It's about as close a call as the Duke - UW game the other night. A pox on the ABA Journal's readership if they don't agree.

[Anne Reed]

If there were ever proof that there's a different "best" blog for every reader, it's in that over-the-top compliment. Thanks, Bill.

[Nathan Dosch]

Anne,

Congratulations on the Blawg 100 nod. You have a great blog here, don't be too hard on yourself. From my perspective one of the best things to come from the ABA list is that I have been introduced to your blawg. One can never have too many quality Wisconsin blawgs pouring into their reader.

I agree with you that there are a lot of great legal blogs out there and compacting them in one list is simply unreasonable. Kevin's point about the "best" blog being contingent on a specific reader is appropriate in my eyes. However, that does not detract from the honor bestowed on blawgers such as yourself that regularly publish excellent material. Congrats again.