Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground

ISN'T THERE A HOLIDAY THIS WEEK? . . . Maybe so, but I'm stuck for now doing depositions in a hotel far from home without a broadband connection. Blogging is just too slow on dial-up, especially when I have exhibits to organize. So I'm giving it up today; I might be back tomorrow.

BLAWG REVIEW AT LAW.COM . . . According to a Law.com press release: "ALM's Law.com Expands Blog Network with Addition of Three Leading Legal Commentary Sites."

In addition to Blawg Review, Insurance Scrawl and the Silicon Valley Media Law Blog were also added to the Law.com network.

AT MY TRIAL PRACTICE WEBSITE . . . "An Easy Tip to Make Your Writing Look More Professional."

LEGAL UNDERGROUND PODCAST Episode #42 . . . On today's show: The Florida Supreme Court wrestles with pit bulls; Underneath Their Robes disappears; and law-student weblogs shine. Running time: 14 minutes.

Here are two alternative ways to listen: 

• Through Apple's iTunes. If you have Apple's free iTunes version 4.9 or higher, click on the button below to take you directly to the Legal Underground page to subscribe for free, or search in the podcast section of the iTunes Music Store for "Legal Underground."

• Direct from the Feed. Follow this link to my Feedburner page, which contains a list of all my podcasts in reverse chronological order. From there, you can simply click on the link you want to hear. As long as you have speakers, your computer should be able to play the show.

Additional show notes:

• A post from this weblog about the decision of the Florida Supreme Court's: "Just Don't Call Them Pit Bulls."
• The Underneath Their Robes screenshot, which quickly became this weblog's most-viewed post ever;
  
• How Appealing had the best reporting about the UTR controversy;
• Some recommended law-student weblogs and podcasts:
  • Ambivalent Imbroglio
  • Preaching to the Perverted
  • Will Work for Favorable Dicta
  • Pelican Barbeque and Buckeye Beer
  • Jeremy Richey's Blawg
  • Scoplaw
  • Becoming a Jackal
  • The Electric Commentary
  • SoapBox Law
  • Law School Podcast
  • Life of a Law Student Podcast
• Podsafe Music Network
• The Candy Butchers

OVERLAWYERED AND BLAWG REVIEW . . . Next week's Blawg Review will be hosted by Walter Olson and Ted Frank of Overlawyered. As a contributing editor of Blawg Review, I was asked to write a post at Blawg Review that previewed our upcoming hosts. Even though I'm very glad to have Olson and Frank participating in a project I helped to get off the ground, I disagree with them so strongly about tort reform and plaintiffs' lawyers (as regular readers know) that I didn't think I could give them a fair shake. So I politely declined.

Who did give them a fair shake? It was Jonathan Wilson of Point of Law, who wrote the preview of Overlawyered for Blawg Review. In addition, Mike Cernovich, another contributing editor of Blawg Review, did a separate preview at Crime & Federalism. So rather than getting one defective preview by me, they got two good ones by others. It's a story with a happy ending!

Good luck to Walter and Ted in putting together next week's Blawg Review. As is true every week, those of us involved in Blawg Review urge everyone to participate by helping select the law-related posts that will be included in next week's round-up. You'll find instructions here.

UPDATE: Here's Blawg Review #33 at Overlawyered.

AT MY TRIAL PRACTICE WEBSITE . . . "The Illinois Supreme Court on Forum: Was Yesterday's Gridley Decision Really All That Dramatic?"

JUST DON'T CALL THEM "PIT BULLS" . . . At f/k/a, David Giacalone weighs in on the decision by the Florida Supreme Court to discipline two lawyers for comparing themselves to pit bulls in their advertising:

When will the profession see that it will earn the respect of the public through the personal integrity of lawyers and the provision of quality services for reasonable fees -- not through some phony notion of "dignity" or by treating the public like children?

Indeed. On the other hand, this case of metaphor-gone-too-far reminds us how dangerous figures of speech can be if handled by those who lack the proper training. As an English major, I wasn't fooled into thinking that those Florida lawyers were really going to chew out the throats of their opponents. But what would an ordinary member of the public think? When you keep in mind that ordinary members of the public are generally untrained in the use of metaphor, you see things in a new light. Thank you, Florida Supreme Court! It's why at my firm, Schaeffer & Lamere, we're using the court's decision to rethink our entire "raging rooster" ad campaign. At two years in the development, that's a lot of photoshopping down the drain. But it's the price you pay for pledging not to use metaphor irresponsibly.

What's the next animal metaphor under consideration at the firm? Pack mules. Nothing inappropriate about pack mules.

Related post: "Note to Lawyers Who Advertise: Don't Compare Yourselves to Animals."

A YEAR AGO ON LEGAL UNDERGROUND . . . "Justice Antonin Scalia To Get Own Reality TV Show."

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THE STANKOWSKI REPORT #23: Do I Really Need This Anonymous Weblogging Gig?

by Stan Stankowski

So, it has been quite the fortnight or so for the anonymous legal blogging community. Opinionista, in an apparently planned escapade, essentially outed herself in a New York paper. Shortly thereafter, the clinically-disturbed David Lat did the same. This, of course, follows on the heels of Blachman and Dooce and that slut in D.C. (oh wait, she got paid .... so, that whore in D.C.). It just does not seem to be a good time to be an anonymous legal blogger.

What has lead to all of these outings?