Ken Womble of Fault Lines won the Simple Justice award for blog entry of 2015 and that is fitting. Scott Greenfield has been complaining about the lack of vibrancy in the criminal blogsphere and Womble is a refreshing new voice. Let’s hope he, Andrew Fleishman, and others at Fault Lines can keep it up. Greenfield is certainly right that the …
I was honored to be included again on the ABA Journal’s list of the top 100 law blogs, this time for 2013. The Journal is now taking popular votes to determine the top law blog in each of 13 different categories. My blog is listed in the Criminal Justice section, and I would greatly appreciate your vote. Although you do …
The Public Defender Service (PDS) has just begun a blog — the PDS Criminal Law Blog — that reviews recent D.C. Court of Appeals opinions. With Samia Fam, Nancy Glass, Jackie Frankfurt, and a handful of other public defenders sharing responsibility for the writing, the blog will certainly have some heavy hitters behind it. The most recent entry covers Vines …
This blog again received the most popular votes in the criminal justice category of the ABA Blawg 100. Thank you very much to everyone who nominated and/or voted for it. Here are the blogs that received the most votes in each category: Business of Law: Divorce Discourse Careers/Law Schools: Inside the Law School Scam Corporate: California Corporate & Securities Law …
In the Blawg Review I hosted last year, “Images from the Criminal Law Blawgosphere,” I took a look at the photographs bloggers use on their sites. I was intrigued, for example, by how bloggers portray themselves to their readers. Do they go for the formal headshot? A more informal shot in casual clothes? Or do they provide no picture at …
A while back, a criminal defense lawyer who was starting his own practice in D.C. called to ask me for advice on starting a blog. Great, I thought. Finally someone who wants to hear what I have to say about blogging! The first thing you need to think about, I told this guy, is what kind of blog you …
Many mornings before the start of a trial, I find myself writing a blog entry. This initially struck me as odd. Shouldn’t I be putting final touches on my opening statement and focusing on the issues I expect to arise at trial? Then it occurred to me: In addition to the many other reasons I blog, blogging serves as …
Thank you very much to everyone who voted in the 2011 ABA Journal Blawg 100. Included among the list of top 100 blogs overall, the Koehler Law Blog received the highest number of popular votes in the “Criminal Justice” category. As I am a big fan of the other blogs that were included in this category (many of which …
Last year I wrote about the ABA’s annual list of the top 100 legal blogs – the ABA Journal Blawg 100 – asking readers to vote for their (and my) favorite blogs for 2010. I repeat that request this year with the benefit of being able to ask you to vote for my blog as well. I was very honored …
Over at My Shingle, Carolyn Elefant muses about finding herself on the other end of the attorney-client relationship; in this case, as one of over 80 defendants in what started out as Rakofsky v. The Washington Post, what one wag dubbed Rakofsky v. The Internet, and, with Rakofsky’s lawyer giving notice to withdraw from the case, what now appears to …
Last month, in what has to be one of Daniel Snyder’s stupidest moves ever, the Washington Redskins’ owner filed suit against the City Paper for an article that was critical of Snyder and his stewardship of the team. The filing prompted an avalanche of other new reports and articles rehashing the criticisms contained in the City Paper and questioning Snyder’s …
My wife heard a lot of terrible and heart-wrenching stories while interviewing Iraqi victims of the Abu Ghraib torture. She was always completely spent whenever she got back from one of her trips to the Middle East, and I swear that experience took ten years off of her life. One of the stories I liked best was one that would …
A professional photographer and artist once told me the story about trying to photograph his mother. He had hoped for a candid shot, and was initially resistant when she insisted on fixing her hair and putting on makeup first. On thinking about it further, he decided that an arranged photograph would say far more about his mother than any spontaneous …
Norm Pattis was in town this weekend, and Mirriam Seddiq and I joined him last night for dinner at Oyamel restaurant. Seddiq’s brother works as the head bartender there, and he made sure we were treated like royalty. Pattis and Seddiq were in the bar area waiting for our table when I arrived. Pattis commented on how much smaller …
I first learned Norm Pattis’ lousy, stinking name through Scott Greenfield, who often uses something Pattis has written as the launching point for one of his own entries. And Greenfield writes about Pattis in reverential terms you don’t often see on Simple Justice. So what does Scott Greenfield know anyway? Mirriam Seddiq is more effusive in her praise. She …
In talking with another lawyer during my training in Houston, the other lawyer was surprised that I could know so much about the author of D.A. Confidential without being aware that he speaks with a British accent. That’s the thing about following a blog. You can find out an awful lot about the blog’s author without ever meeting the person …
There are two fairly new criminal law blogs that have recently been given a lot of attention in the blawgosphere: Liberty and Justice for Y’All and Affirmative Links. In both cases the attention is deserved. Each blog is written by a group of criminal defense attorneys. And each blog is able to maintain a consistent voice while benefitting from the …
Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice wrote a complimentary piece about this blog earlier this week. While I was very flattered to be described as “one of the newest and brightest additions to the blawgosphere,” Greenfield continued to encourage me to change the name of this blog. Wrote Greenfield in a postscript: “Jamison, attempting to straddle the marketing blawgosphere and the …
A couple of weeks ago, I complained about the lack of criminal law blogs done by women. I also bemoaned the fact that, with a few exceptions, there do not seem to be many public defender blogs that don’t sound preachy, sanctimonious, and put-upon. Yes, you’re a public defender. Yes, the caseload is overwhelming. Yes, the pay is pitiful. And …