As I wrote about here, the State Bar Appellate Section sponsored a Twitter brief contest in conjunction with the recent Advanced Civil Appellate Practice Course in Austin. The winners were announced during the Section's annual meeting.
The official PowerPoint containing the winning entries and several honorable mentions is embedded below for everyone's enjoyment.
I intend to put up a couple more follow-up posts about the conference over the next few days. At least one of them will further demonstrate that appellate lawyers can have fun, too.
The State Bar Appellate Section and Texas Bar CLE are co-sponsoring the 25th Annual Advanced Civil Appellate Practice Course, which will take place September 8-9, 2011 in Austin. Related events are the popular Civil Appellate Practice 101 course (formerly known as Appellate Boot Camp) on September 7 and the Section's annual meeting on September 8, to be followed by a cocktail reception. A registration brochure is available here.
This has been one of my favorite CLEs since I started attending in the 1990s. I'm even more biased this year because, in addition to serving on the planning committee, I will be speaking on a topic important to any appellate lawyer: standards of review.
And to show that the folks putting on this program don't take themselves too seriously, the Section is sponsoring a Twitter brief contest, the details of which are available through this link. Results will be announced at the seminar and via the Section's Twitter feed, @TexAppOrg.
8/17/11 Update: @TexasBarCLE is promoting the course on Twitter and has created an event page on Facebook. Follow the hashtags #TBCLEappellate and #140brief for up-to-date information about the seminar and the Twitter brief contest.
This week's Texas Lawyer contains the third article in my series on technology issues and law practice, "How Lawyers Can Avoid Social Media Burnout" (subscription required). As the title suggests, the article discusses some ways in which lawyers delving into social media for business development can deal with the overabundance of information thrown at them. I hope readers find it useful.
10/21 Update: Law.com has picked up the article, which is now available here.
The State Bar of Texas Appellate Section (@TexAppOrg) and the Austin Bar Civil Appellate Law Section (@CivAppLaw), have launched their own Twitter feeds. The idea is to provide current and prospective members another way to keep up with section news, announcements, and events. If you're on Twitter and interested in either organization, I would encourage you to follow them.
The second article in my Texas Lawyer series on technology issues and law practice appears in this week’s issue and has been republished here through Law.com. For this installment, I look at the Advertising Review Department’s new Internal Interpretive Comment 17, which addresses the interplay between Part VII of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct (the advertising and solicitation rules) and websites, blogs, social media, and web-based display ads.
In the end, I conclude that Comment 17 doesn’t change much about the way Texas lawyers should approach these issues. Blogs and social media are just new ways of communicating. Regardless of the medium, we are each responsible for what we say.
Information about how the State Bar views these issues is available in an article that Advertising Review director Gene Major published in the new Texas Bar Journal. In his piece, Gene encourages lawyers to blog and use social media to promote their practices. He also provides some specific instructions on how to do so within the ethical rules.
Texas Lawyerapproached me once more to write about Twitter, this time to compile a "Top 20" list of interest to those who practice in the Lone Star State. The article appeared in yesterday's issue (paid subscription required, or click here for a PDF). The new digital edition—which is really cool, by the way—can be downloaded here.
Many tweeters not on this list deserve recognition for their useful and interesting contributions. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to include them all.
Having seen some of my blog posts about Twitter, the folks at Texas Lawyerapproached me about writing an article explaining it from a hands-on perspective. The result of my efforts, entitled "Marketing Your Practice in 140 Characters or Less," appears in today's issue. I hope readers find it informative.
1/13/09 Update: Law.com has picked up the article on its Legal Technology page and has added some helpful links. Thanks to all who have commented to me about it, both below and elsewhere.
Last Updated 1/12/09: Borrowing an idea from JD Scoop, I have decided to compile and maintain an index of Texas lawyers, legal professionals, and firms who actively use Twitter. The alphabetical list (by username) appears below.
Like everything else, Twitter is what you make of it. Though originally geared toward personal communications, it has evolved into a powerful networking and business-development tool. I hope this list helps Texans working in the legal field connect with each other in ways they wouldn't have otherwise.
I am starting the list off at 20, but I anticipate it will grow over time. The descriptive information comes from Twitter bios or other online sources. If you want to revise yours, or if you're not on the list and would like to be, tweet me.
@aellislegal: Recruiter placing bankruptcy attorneys nationwide and all attorneys within Texas.
@bigtkirk: Tom Kirkendall seeks freedom and justice in an increasingly regulated world.
@TheHRLawyer: San Antonio lawyer handling disputes involving overtime pay, discrimination, wrongful termination, noncompete & separation agreements, and other employment-related issues.
@TomMighell: All-around tech and collaboration guru.
1/12/09: My friends at LexBlog are offering a free service known as LexTweet that collects tweets from members of the legal community. It is an excellent source for identifying people to follow and is not limited by jurisdiction.
For a plain-English explanation of Twitter, watch the following video:
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