Posted on June 11, 2008 by Teri Rasmussen

My Favorite Ohio-Based Law Blogs

Now that I've been doing this law blog thing for about eight months, I've had a chance to get acquainted with my neighbors in the blogosphere.  There are of course my subject matter compatriots all across the country that I've enjoyed coming to know through their blogs (Chris Moander of the relatively new Wisconsin Business Law and Litigation blog and Rush Nigut of Rush on Business from Iowa (the home in my youth) especially come to mind).  But today I wanted to focus on my geographically proximate neighbors practicing law in Ohio while writing their blogs.  

Like anyone else I have my favorites.  I don't claim to be any arbiter of quality or worth so the following is really nothing more than what I've found I've liked the most so far. 

Perhaps my own personal favorite Ohio-based blog is The Briefcase which has been published by solo practitioner Russ Bensing for quite a while.   It promises to provide "commentary and analysis of Ohio law" and it certainly delivers.  Russ gives brief summaries and case updates of Ohio civil and criminal cases decided by the various Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court with a bit more criminal than civil cases.  While this is of course useful, his regular "Friday Roundup" feature focusing on the more entertaining legal cases out there is a must-read for me every week.  In addition, even the case updates and summaries are given with a definite bit of "attitude" that makes them much more interesting than the usual dry case summary.  And his "About" section is particularly well done.  Russ's stuff is not often the sort of thing I tend to link to (which may say more about me than him), but I certainly appreciate his contributions.

My other "substantive" favorite  Ohio-based blog is the Ohio Employer's Law Blog published by Jon Hyman of Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz  for more than a year.  Its tagline is  "Practical employment law information for businesses in Ohio and beyond."  What I like about this blog is Jon's well written, informative, and useful (even "practical") posts about important issues in the labor and employment law areas.  I also think Jon's analysis of the legal issues he covers is clear and seems right on point.  In addition, I like his regular "What I'm Rreading" series which features several quick links to other interesting posts around the blogosphere.  I don't practice in this area so I appreciate having such excellent resource available to keep me up to date about pertinent legal developments. 

Ohio Employer's Law Blog is one of two Ohio-based blogs focusing on employment and labor issues.  The other is Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur's Employer Law Report which says it will be "Reporting on recent legal developments and trends affecting employers".  It has been published sporadically over the last couple of years, but now seems to be adding new worthwhile posts more frequently. 

The D&O Diary published by Kevin M. LaCroix of Oakbridge Insurance Services, an insurance intermediary focused exclusively on management liability issues, focuses on perhaps the most complex issues of any Ohio-based law blog.  It is intended to be "A Periodic Journal Containing Items of Interest from the World of Directors and Officers Liability, with Occasional Commentary".  I haven't had much chance to become fully acquainted with this blog yet, but hope to so in the near future.

When it comes to coverage of both substantive and professional developments of interest to Ohio lawyers, I like the Cleveland Law Library Weblog the best.  It explains that "our goal is to inform local attorneys of major legal developments important to their practice".    I often find ideas for posts by reading this blog and appreciate the links usually provided.  The Cincinnati Law Library Blog  and the Moritz Legal Information Blog which provides "Legal Information and Research Resources Brought to You by The Michael E. Moritz Law Library at The Ohio State University" also provide these sort of services.

One of the newest Ohio-based law blogs is the Ohio Real Estate Blog published by the attorneys of the Real Estate Practice Group of Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz which started up only a couple of months ago in April.  In same real estate practice area is the Build on This! blog published by the attorneys of the Real Estate and Construction Practice Group of Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP which offers "Current news, information, and events affecting the real estate, construction and land use industry and its professionals".

Another recent addition to the blogosphere is the Reasonable Doubts blog published by Jeffrey Davis.  It started in March 2008 and, as its name would suggest, focuses on crminal law.  In addition, the Ohio Family Law Blog, published by Robert Mues of Holzfaster, Cecil, McKnight & Mues, LPA, began in December 2007 and tries to provide "Family Law and Divorce Information for Ohio Families Seeking Solutions".

Interestingly, there are TWO Ohio based law blogs called Sixth Circuit Blog.  One seems to focus on criminal law and offers "Case summaries and commentaries by federal defenders of the Sixth Circuit".  The other, published more sporadically by Eric Zagrans, focuses primarily on civil law and is "Devoted to Appellate Law and Practice Within the Sixth Circuit and Its Constituent States"

Rounding out the roster of Ohio-based law blogs (at least those I'm aware of) are the following with which I am less familar, in part because they relate to areas of law with which I have less experience in my day to day practice:

While there are several newer Ohio based law blogs, there are also many that have been published for two or three years or even longer.  There are also some earlier Ohio-based blogs that are no longer publishing.  In addition, there are several "business" blogs based in Ohio that touch on legal issues from time to time, but that's a subject for another day.

I hope I haven't forgotten anyone, but if I have, just add a comment with your URL and then we'll know about you too. 

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Posted on February 9, 2008 by Teri Rasmussen

Why Every Client Should Want an Attorney Who Blawgs

No one at my law firm, nor any of my attorney friends, really "gets" yet why I do this blog, or as some in the legal biz like to refer to  it -- in an effort to differentiate us from those who reveal the most intimate details of their personal life in the most scandalous way possible -- "blawg".  They understand that I like to write, but in the end, what does my blog/blawg have to do with actually getting clients?  And why else would you spend the time doing it anyway? 

I've had this blog/blawg up since mid October of last year, although according to my "hits", basically nobody much noticed at all until sometime in November.  So I think in all fairness I can claim that I've only been doing this for about three or four months.  However, I now regularly have almost twice as many hits (daily, weekly, or monthly) than my law firm's website and generally come up far higher on subject matter Google searches.  If all goes well, I hope to get to 10,000 total hits by my birthday in late May.  But again, what does that have to do with anything?  And especially why does this matter to clients?

I began this blog/blawg with the idea that all of us are depending more and more on the internet and the web to get more and more essential information about pretty much anything affecting our personal and professional lives.  I noticed that I was resorting to the internet more and more frequently to find forms and other resources to help me answer questions posed by clients -- and perhaps equally, if not more, importantly, I was finding useful information and referrals at an exponentially expanding rate.  And I reasoned that, if I was finding the web an increasingly more beneficial and genuinely downright useful (not to mention exceedingly cost effective) resource, the people and companies I hoped to attract as clients must be doing the same thing. 

From there, it was an easy decision to find a way to be where these prospective clients are.  Serving those prospective clients by actually providing some useful information about legal issues thay might be facing is both fun and rewarding for me.  In addition, in doing the blog/blawg over the last few months, I have become even more convinced that blogging/blawging has made me a far better and more useful lawyer to my current and prospective clients.  Here's why:  

1.     Knowledge Entreprenuer.  I find time to actually go research those extra questions of clients to which I don't quite know the answer.  Why?  Now I think in broader terms about what I want to know and can offer to prospective clients.  What better source of inspiration for blog/blawg posts could there possibly be?  

 

Case in point - clients frequently ask my advice regarding what legal entity they should have for their business.  I have general factors they should consider, but when it comes to the effect of self-employment tax, I have usually been content to refer clients to their CPA.  Recently, I decided that this seemed like a terrific topic for my blog/blawg so I went to a seminar, read up on it, made a few phone calls to some subject matter experts I could access, and finally got it figured out so I could write a respectable post (forthcoming) for the blog/blawg -- and provide pragmatic advice to my clients. 

 

Who paid for that?  Well, it was me and, indirectly, my law firm because I spent the time to learn this, but didn't bill any client for that time.  Who benefits?  Every client I have from now on that wants to know all the factors worth considering in making this decision. 

 

And this I think is one of the greatest benefits of hiring a blogging/blawging lawyer.  We're naturally curious and love to learn new stuff -- how better to satisfy this than by actually exploring the questions that clients seem to ask most often!  The blogging/blawgging attorney is just going to know MORE about more issues because they have a concrete personal stake and commitment beyond the needs of any particular client to find stuff out.  And if I already know something, you the client won't have to pay me to go find out.

2.     Communication 101.  You'll have a fairly good idea whether you're going to understand a word I say or write and actually be able to use any of the expensive advice you pay me to give you.  Let's face it - in most cases, it doesn't much matter if I'm a brillant legal genius if you can't make any sense out of what I'm telling you or comprehend how to implement the counsel and advice you're paying me to provide.  If you are able to "connect" with what I write in my blog/blawg, then at least you know you'll get something of value when I communicate with you in writing, and hopefully face to face as well.

3.     Authenticity and "Real Voice".  One of the really "neat"/"cool" (OK, I've been around a while and don't really know the current "hip"/"in" phrase) things about blogs/blawgs is that the authors get to show at least a little personality.  Some of us are a little better at this than others (law is a rather conservative field) and I think I'm still finding my "authentic" voice, but blogs/blawgs are conducive to a level of informality.  So, when you read my blog/blawg,  you as client get at bit of a "sneak preview" of what I'm really like.  And if, as is likely, you're going to be spending some time with me once you ask me to represent you, that's got to be useful info.  BTW, I hope to be more irreverent in my blog/blawg in the future - it's a process.

4.    Quality and Competence.  There is at least some ability to actually assess the quality and competence of your would-be lawyer to be.  Those of us who blog/blawg are "out there".  You can take what we've written and ask your favorite friend attorney (who you don't want to hire because you don't want to mix personal and business or for some other reason), CPA, financial advisor, etc., what they think -- or even research us on the web by seeing what other folks have to say about the same topic, or even about we've said about particular subjects.  I've heard, and I suppose it's true (and I know it is with me and doctors), that clients generally can never really evaluate whether their lawyer actually knows anything so they try to decide that based on other factors.  Well now they can.  And I would suggest that those of us willing to chance that scrutiny ought to be high on the list of any client. 

5.     Commitment to "the Law" Made Practical.  Most of us would rather deal with someone who isn't just "in it for the money".  We all believe that someone who ultimately cares about the product or service being provided "just because" it's what they enjoy doing will offer superior service.  Well, no one cares more about "the law" "in the real world" than lawyers/attorneys who blog/blawg.  Who else would bother?  We really are the folks who became lawyers because we were philosophically attracted to the questions law poses and tries to address every day.  However, unlike our brethren and sistern who became law school professors, at the same time we desperately yearned to be always "relevant".  

 

Now, most of us have come to terms with the fact that our everyday existence and value to anyone has nothing much to do with the fundamental questions that attracted us to the profession in the first place.  But we actually still do think about those questions from time to time and blogging/blawging may be a way for us to focus on those questions in a way that will ultimately benefit society at large, as well as clients in particular instances.  Blogging/blawging is fundamentally more practical and pragmatic than traditional legal scholarship in the form of footnoted articles in law reviews and journals.  Yet I think it has a place that will become more obvious over time to both those in academia and to the clients who only want to know what they should do today.            

So there you have it.   The blog/blawg IS fun for me to do, hopefully offers something of value to others, and makes me a better and more effective lawyer.  What other reason would anyone need to do something?  And why would you the client want to have anyone else looking after your important questions and concerns?

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