BEMUSED ABOUT BLOGGING
Web Logs May Make You Popular, But Some See Problems Ahead

BY STEPHANIE FRANCIS WARD

On her Web log–known popularly as a "blog"–Stephanie Tai criticizes Short Cuts, a collection of stories by Raymond Carver turned into a movie by Robert Altman. She also reports on bands she likes, plays she’s attended and other events in her life.

Tai, an environmental lawyer with the U.S. Justice Department, also discusses legal issues, but not as much as she used to. It’s for fear that opposing counsel may use these legal musings against her in future cases.

As blogs become more popular, many lawyers are using the online diaries as vehicles for posting information and updates about their cases and law practices. Blogs also have come to be seen as effective marketing tools.

But even as blogs flourish as an easy way to share information, online authors are starting to become concerned that the information could be misused.

Tai declined to comment further; calls to the Justice Department were not returned. But Catherine E. Reuben, a Boston employment lawyer, says she worries about the consequences of posting random musings on the Internet.

Among Reuben’s concerns are that unsuspecting readers may view musings about the law as legal advice. "Any smart lawyer will have all sorts of disclaimers, and that will help, but if the person is opining about legal issues, and someone reads that and relies on it, there could be trouble for the firm," she says.

Tai’s blog, for example, characterizes her writings as "the personal, nonviewpoint-attributable-to-the-United-States blog of a young government environmental lawyer (and when I say that, I really mean it–the views expressed here are not attributable to the United States)."

But Reuben says she also worries that opposing counsel could use such information to put the blogging lawyer at a disadvantage. Reuben notes that she was once quoted in a print legal publication, and opposing counsel have brought the article to court three times, stating that the position she was arguing conflicted with what she had said in print. Although it wasn’t a blog, Reuben fears that the same could happen with cavalier statements posted on the Internet.

Christopher Wolf, a Washington, D.C., antitrust lawyer, also notes the risk. Although he knows of no law firm that has a policy on blogging, he thinks that will change, in part because the activity may detract from billable hours.

"Random musings on subjects, legal or not, are just accidents waiting to happen," Wolf says. "People exercise undue informality when it comes to Internet postings. When they write, they should reflect and edit what they publish, especially lawyers."

Despite the concerns, many lawyers keep on blogging. Some have even attracted attention and gained an audience. Denise M. Howell, a Los Angeles lawyer cited in a March ABA Journal article on the practice, says that she has discussed the issue of blogging with her firm, Reed Smith Crosby Heafey. The managing attorneys think her blog, Bag and Baggage, is "exciting and interesting," she says. She started the blog in November 2001, and estimates that it gets around 400 hits a day.

"I’ve been pretty clear that although I’m a lawyer, I can’t give you legal advice," Howell says. "To the extent that people have trouble understanding big, abstract legal issues, I don’t see a problem with that. Lawyers write about those all the time."

Howard J. Bashman, who chairs the appellate group at Buchanan Ingersoll, also runs a popular blog about appellate litigation. How Appealing gets approximately 10,000 hits each weekday and has been mentioned in numerous publications besides the ABA Journal, including The New York Times.

"When others from my firm go out and meet new people, oftentimes they’re met with the comment, ‘Isn’t Howard Bashman with that firm?’ " he says. How Appealing is not mentioned on Buchanan Ingersoll’s firm site, but Bashman is thinking about making the request.

Bashman does not discuss personal issues on his blog, but Howell does. Recent posts detail a trip to northern California, with information about restaurants she visited, and the hotel where she stayed. If her page was limited to the law, Howell says, it would be boring.

"Very few of us decide, ‘OK, over dinner, we're only going to discuss the law.’ If we do, most people don’t want to have dinner with us anymore."

It probably makes sense–or at least doesn’t hurt–to post some personal information on a law blog, says Michael T. Reynvaan, a Seattle employment lawyer. Hobbies such as bridge, marathon training or sailing may be interesting to clients who share similar interests.

But other interests, such as professional wrestling or NASCAR racing, could seem unlawyerly. "It might be like acid rainmaking," he says. "It would personalize the attorney, but for most clients, what they’re looking for is somebody who is very professional. Something like that is not going to come across very well." ...

July 2003 shows continued emergence of weblogs as mainstream content platform

There's been a wash of articles this month that appear to solidify the position of weblogs as an online content platform for politics, business and public information. This continued level of acceptance will hopefully enable more conservative institutions (like courts) to embrace the platform more widely. [Rory Perry's Weblog]