Futurelawyer

25 Blogs Guaranteed To Make You Smarter.

25 Blogs Guaranteed to Make You Smarter. I made Curt Harden's Cultural Offering list again this year, and I am honored again, as I have been each year he has run the list. Along with Execupundit, by Michael Wade, Curt has introduced me to some great blogs. Whoever said blogging is dying, and being killed by short attention span social media, is wrong. These blogs, along with others, have enriched my life, and, indeed, made me smarter. Kurt's take on Futurelawyer:

Future Lawyer - “Future Technology for the Lawyer of Today” is the moniker but you really get a site run with the swagger of a lawyer who has lived life to the fullest.  A long-time favorite and NOT a law blog.

Thanks, Kurt. I don't chase awards; but, I accept this one with gratitude. By the way, your Cultural Offering, and our friends at Execupundit and Ray Visotski's Mitigating Chaos, Stephen Landry, our resident New Jersey higher learning guru, Wally Bock’s Three Star Leadership Blog , Serpentine Sheldon Serpentine, Jonathan Turley , a brilliant man, and many others are some of my favorites that you have introduced me to. Thanks.

FutureLawyer Celebrates 25th Anniversary.

1997 FutureLawyer Web Page. Yes, children, 25 years ago this month, the FutureLawyer website was born. Early websites, however, were pretty static, and comprised a bio of the author, and recent article length features. Not exactly a reason to visit every day, unless you were my mother. In 2005, a seminar by Kevin O'Keefe in Chicago motivated me to convert it to a blog, with daily updates on topics of interest to me. It is difficult to believe that, with very few off days, I have been writing every day for 18 years. I love web.archive.org, which stores pages from millions of websites since the beginning. This screen grab of my original title page features art that I paid for, and a design created for me. I merely supplied the content. Happy Anniversary to me.

 

Kevin O'Keefe - The Law Blog Whisperer.

Kevin O'Keefe And Law Blogs.

When I met this guy, Kevin O'Keefe, at an event hosted by Matt Homan in 2005, he told me about this new way to communicate, called a blog. Until then, my website was nothing more than a few articles and a bio. Since that time, taking his advice, I have created a blog with over a million hits, and countless conversations with people all over the planet. I never did it to get clients; but, occasionally, I do. It turned into a Stoic kind of journaling, and I have done it almost every day for 17 years since. If I ever run across that guy, Kevin, I must remember to thank him.

 

Status is reachable

Kevin O'Keefe• 1stDigital legal publisher, connecting lawyers with people, for good.1d • Edited • 1 day ago

It’s become difficult, or impossible, to find quality legal blogs published by lawyers in small law firms in this country.

LexBlog’s library sciences intern, working on the Open Legal Blog Archive, backed by LexBlog, estimates over 75% - maybe even 90% - of legal blogs from small firms are spam. This sample from a survey nearing 20% of the country.

Most of the blogs are written on behalf of law firm by a legal marketing company, ghostwriter or agency.

A spam blog is used to game search engines to achieve higher rankings and to link to affiliated websites owned by the law firm.

The term spam blog or “splog” was popularized in 2005 by Mark Cuban.

Rather than blogs personally delivering insight and information to people, the blog was trying to influence search indexes and others by trying to use every relevant term in the dictionary.

The lawyers having someone else publish their blogs don’t care that doing so is unethical under any state’s rules of professional conduct.

This is really sad.

Lawyers are willing to put up junk that is nothing better than a sleezy yellow page ad.

Lawyers will unethically and fraudulently hold up information on a blog as written by themselves when they never wrote the content.

Legal marketing companies sell the junk to the lawyers in the name of a blog.

Heck, most lawyers probably think a blog is something you buy from a legal marketing company that goes on your website to get SEO and web traffic.

Lawyers have an awful reputation with average Americans.

This form of blogging is only making it worse.

The Internet and blogging represents a wonderful opportunity for lawyers to connect with people in a real and intimate way. For lawyers to build a reputation and book of business, while at same time helping people.

When I started LexBlog almost twenty years ago I thought there was no way lawyers could screw up this opportunity to connect with people and build a real reputation.

Man was I wrong.

Blogging Is The New Open Letter.

Rat is not impressed with people who write open letters. The Internet has exponentially increased the ability of the commentariat to publish their views on any topic. The irony of being a blogger like the FutureLawyer and this post is not lost on me. The beauty of following the Stoic principle of not giving a Rat's A** about what other people think is that you can pontificate in a blog all you want. Of course, no one cares what those who share their opinions think. The problem arises when we try to silence those who share opinions we don't agree with. Speech should be free for all. Like toxic people you remove from your life, if you don't like a particular brand of speech, don't read or listen to it. Problem solved. The recent Twitter and Facebook censoring flap reminds me of the kid at the playground when I was growing up, who owned the only baseballs in the neighborhood. If he got angry with you, he took his baseballs and went home. Rat has the right idea. If you get angry with other people's opinions, insult them, don't cancel them.

FutureLawyer's Message To His Readers.

This is a long delayed, but deserved, thank you to my readers. You inspire me every day. The keyboard and mouse will, someday, have to be pried from my cold, dead hands. But, not today. Today, I soldier on, in defense of the truth, justice, and the American way.

Call Me Prolific, Just Don't Call Me Late For Dinner.

This chart of law blog statistics from 2020 came across my twitter feed again this morning. I haven't seen the 2021 chart; but, it is likely that I am again atop the list. I knew that, one day, my ability to be "prolific" would outstretch my ability to be relevant, and substantive. Of course, it is easy to be a prolific law blogger when combining poetry, philosophy, law, technology, and my other avocations to the blogosphere. Thanks, LexBlog, and Bob Ambrogi, for calling attention to my addiction in a way that is positive and life affirming. Of course, calling me a "machine" is somewhat dehumanizing.

Find The FutureLawyer On Tumblr.

FutureLawyer On Tumblr. You can find me on Typepad. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on Twitter. You can find me on Facebook. You can find me on MeWe. You can get a daily email from me. You can find me on SubStack. You can find me at LawBlog. Now, you can get me on Tumblr. Pick your poison. The FutureLawyer is everywhere.

John Madden - Advice For Bloggers.

John Madden was successful in everything he did because he didn't try to impress anyone, or act like anyone else. He was authentic, and bloggers who want to be successful, or lawyers using social media, or any other person, for that matter, can take a lesson from him. Be yourself, all the time. Be authentic, and don't worry about what other people might think. Don't hire someone to write posts for you; in effect, to be you. Life is easier if you aren't trying to live it according to somebody else's blueprint.

A Message To FutureLawyer Readers.

After the blog was put on the 25 Blogs Guaranteed To Make You Smarter list, I have been getting some complaints. So, I have chosen to answer them. Here you go.

 

There Are Two Types Of Smart People.

Dilbert has a product that turns idiots into smart people, allegedly. Of course, FutureLawyer readers are either people who got smart reading it, or were smart already. Congratulations on your smartness.