Minnesota Lawyer Blog

The Minnesota Supreme Court is currently considering whether to allow cameras in the courtroom, and some trial judges are concerned. Are they worried about Jimmy Olsen coming in and snapping a picture for the Daily Planet? Hardly. A Mike Wallace wannabe kicking in the courtroom door with TV lights blazing? Not even close. No, it's the pernicious blogger who has struck fear deep into the hearts of some of the state's judiciary.

One of the judges' concerns I have heard raised about cameras in the courtroom is the specter of the "unshaven blogger" coming in with cell phone camera at the ready. Apparently the judges are worried about being made to look sinister or downright ridiculous by a slip of the tongue or out-of-context snippet of dialogue winding up as a video posted on a blog or YouTube.

It is an interesting twist to an old conflict between the Fourth Estate and the third branch of government. It used to be the argument was that cameras in the courtroom were too intrusive. Now, with technology giving absolutely anybody the ability to take pictures and video unnoticed at the drop of a hat, the problem might be that they are not intrusive enough

Meanwhile, Court Communications Director John Kostouros last night at the New Media Ethics Forum in St. Paul that judges and court personnel are still trying to figure how to deal with online media access issues.

It's a whole new world.

Please note this is a corrected version. See comments for details.

I was recently reading an online article on the The Rake site about the the growing importance of Web media ("All the News that Fits and Then Some.") Since Minnesota Lawyer is both a print and online information provider, it is with some interest that I read such thoughtful reflections on how the migration of readers to the Internet has affected the media industry.

The Rake included the results of a survey of "a bevy of local online media folks" asking them where they go on the Web for news. The Rake listed the top 25 responses or so, and lo and behold, there was the Minnesota Lawyer blog on the list! I felt pretty good about that until I tried the link to our blog in the article and discovered it was faulty. Sigh. Being an online news provider is all about being humble.

There is a quirky (relatively new) blog in cyberspace called "Who Am Us Anyway?" that purports to pertain to music and dogs. Among the "mandatory chords" listed on the blog for the musically inclined are: the Clash, the Dead, Bob Dylan, the Kinks, the Ramones and the Stones.

Why do I mention the blog here? It happens to be run by a local lawyer. I did get a kick out of his post describing his pilgrimage in New York to honor some Beatles memories. And, oh yes, true to his word, the author also squeezes a dog into the story.

You'll have to excuse me if I don't have a good wrap up for this one, but it's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a .... well, you know ...

Thanks to MinnPost for naming our post on "Diversity and the Minnesota high court" as its "Best of the Blogs" choice today. If you are accessing our site looking for that post, click here.

Lawyers USA, Minnesota Lawyer's national sister publication, recently started a blog called "DC Dicta."

The blog covers the U.S. Supreme Court, Congress, the federal agencies and all the legal players in the nation's capital.

In addition to the serious matter, reporter and blogger Kimberly Atkins plans to write about interesting exchanges between the justices and attorneys, funny or unusual things that happen and appearances of "legal celebrities."

We leave it to Kimberly -- and to you -- to determine which of our local legal luminaries qualify as "legal celebrities" when they are spotted arguing a U.S. Supreme Court case or, for that matter, eating at the Capital Grille. But the blog is worth checking out if you want to keep up on what is going on in the corridors of power.

I noticed that Minneapolis attorney Peter Swanson, whose comment appears on the post below, has launched a new version of his blog, Swanblog. Swanblog has been around since Feb. 22, 2003, which makes it a fairly respectable age in blog circles. By way of comparison, we only started the Minnesota Lawyer blog a scant three months ago.

Peter boldly promises that the new version of his blog -- aptly named Swanblog 2.0 -- "will not be like New Coke," which is probably good given that New Coke, in addition to being over-hyped and generally unpopular, was highly corrosive.

We endeavor to make this blog like the vegetable juice, V8. What do we mean by that, you ask? Are we pledging to make all the content healthy and good for you?

Nah, we just like the idea of being able to slap you on the forehead and say, "You could have visited the Minnesota Lawyer blog," when you foolishly forget to come here.

There were a couple of interesting posts on the Wall Street Journal Law blog Friday. One was about a 32-year-old former New York Legal Aid Lawyer charged with unlawfully videotaping his female colleagues in their offices. A motion-activated camera was found hidden inside an alarm clock in one woman's office, along with some video images on it. The defendant attorney -- a Georgetown graduate -- reportedly purchased the security camera at a Sharper Image store. (For more, click here.) Besides the gentleman's obviously boorish behavior (assuming the charges prove true), I find the most incredible part of the story the fact that a Legal Aid lawyer living in Manhattan could actually scrap together enough funds to buy something at the Sharper Image.

In a second item, the WSJ Law Blog announced it will be on vacation in Maine this week (Click here for details.) Who knew blogs take vacations? I wonder what a blog looks like in a bathing suit? .... Fortunately, the Minnesota Lawyer blog remains open for business. I will be in Stillwater for a bar association function on Thursday, but that is about as close as I will get to any coastline this week.

Since everyone reading this is presumably a blogger, I thought you might be interested in reading a little tidbit on the use of blogs from this week's Minnesota Lawyer.

How does a Minnesota attorney end up as a guest on Maine Public Radio’s “Maine Things Considered?”

Rider Bennett business law attorney Patrick Robben is convinced he got on the show because his law blog — the Minnesota Business Litigation Blog — attracted the attention of the show’s producers. Robben appeared on the show last month to discuss legal issues surrounding blogging in general.

Attorneys who maintain law blogs say they can be an effective marketing device that gets their names out to potential clients as well as other lawyers who may serve as referral sources.
Minneapolis attorney LaVern A. Pritchard, founder of the LawMoose legal search portal, said that law blogs can be particularly useful to attorneys who like to write and understand that it is a long-term rather than a short-term project.

“In principle, it can be a good idea if you actually have something to say and there is a defined niche area that you know a lot about,” he said. “The real successful ones are those with good writers, good thoughts and good ‘takes’ on things.”

For more, see Blogs as marketing tools in this week's Minnesota Lawyer. (Password required.)