More on Judges and Blogs
At some level, every blog is built on shameless self-promotion. To that end, I'm happy to point out some attention generated by my recent post entitled Newsflash: Appellate Judges Read Blogs:
- The piece was picked up by the online version of the Wall Street Journal and mentioned over at the Sophistic Miltonian Serbonian Blog.
- The California Blog of Appeal's Greg May added to the discussion and has since posted a follow-up survey to get a feel for his readers' demographics.
- LexBlog's Kevin O'Keefe chimed in on Greg's survey and wrote his own piece, in which he predicted that "lawyers with well written blogs on niche litigation subjects are going to be called in as co-counsel on an appeal or brief" and further commented that "[t]he value of having a lawyer on your side whose material is regularly read by the court you're before is priceless."
Blogging has definitely helped me obtain broader exposure faster than any other medium could provide. Here's hoping that Kevin's prediction is accurate over the long haul.
Todd,
Your success has coattails. Everyone who posted about your post shows up in an "Other Articles Discussing this Story" section of the WSJ.com post.
Which brings us back to "shameless self-promotion." Commenting on other blogs and writing about other blogs pays off.
I hope Kevin's prediction is accurate, as well. In blogging to a legal niche, while quantity of exposure is nice, as your experience with the local appellate justice shows, it is the quality of the exposure that is the most meaningful metric. Now, how to capture that metric is another thing, altogether (aside from chance run-ins at bar functions and cocktail parties).