[1]The ABA Journal has released third annual Blawg 100 [2] – the best legal blogs as selected by the Journal’s editors. This year’s list includes 40 blawgs that are new to the list.
In general, I’m uncomfortable in trying to put blogs into any kind of subjective ranking since many are narrowly tailored and have different priorities and audiences. There’s even the question of what is the definition of a blawg, such as, should the The Am Law Daily [3] by American Lawyer reporters be called a blawg or a commercial news site?
Even then, it’s quite subjective as what category to place a blawg. In the Journal’s rankings, just 16 blawgs are in the Practice Specific category. Paul Caron’s TaxProf Blog [4] is under the Legal Theory and not the Practice Specific category [Disclaimer: Paul lives directly across the street from me.]
Intellectual property law is heavily dominated by tech geeks so there are just flat out a lot of great blogs in the practice area (witness Gene Quinn’s earlier rankings [5]). Among IP listings, Dennis Crouch at Patently-O [6] and Gene Quinn at IP Watchdog [7] were recognized in the Practice Specific category.
Again this year, you can go vote for your favorite in each of the 10 categories [8]. They’ll be counting votes from Dec. 1st through Dec. 31st.
Having a short attention span, my personal favorites change weekly, if not daily, depending on my immediate mood and interests. Blogs I’m currently following closely include:
- 271 Patent Blog [9]
- Chicago IP Litigation [10]
- FDA Law Blog [11]
- Holman’s Biotech IP [12]
- Intellectual Asset Management [13]
- Invent Blog [14]
- IP Think Tank [15]
- Patent Docs [16]
- Pharmalot [17]
- Securing Innovation [18]
Of course, I also follow The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs [19] and PhotoshopDisasters [20] so you may not want to take advice from me.
Anyway, the winners of the Blawg 100 [2] will be announced in the February edition of the Journal.