[Note: Sometimes... they come back!!]
Last year about this time, I pushed out a list of blogs that were written by attorneys or others within BigLaw firms. Out of curiosity, and somewhat of a response to Jim Beck and Mark Herrmann at Drug & Device Law, I thought I'd review the list that both I put out and the great list that Kevin O'Keefe put out on BigLaw Blogs and see which ones no longer exist.After going through the two lists, and reviewing 200+ blogs, I found 73 that were either flat out dead, or were dying through the lack of recent posts. I defined "dying" as the lack of any blog post for at least a month. Perhaps labeling a blog as "dying" just because there hasn't been a posts in over a month may be harsh, but that's my guideline and I'm sticking to it!
There are a few on here that are dead for good reason (e.g., the firm no longer exists.) There are a few on here where the attorney moved on to other jobs and left BigLaw behind. And, there are a few that were clearly "short-term" blogs designed for a specific purpose.
One of the things that I was very impressed with when reviewing the 200+ blogs was the fact that most of these blogs were very active. In fact, many of the active blogs had posts that were put up this morning. And almost all of them had at least one post in the month of December. Although here is a list of BigLaw blogs that are dead or dying... there are still plenty more out there to enjoy.
| Law Firm | Blog Name | Date of Last Post |
| Alston & Bird | Securities Litigation Blog | 9/15/2009 |
| Arent Fox | AdvertisingLaw.com | No Longer Available |
| Baker & Daniels | Climate News Live | 10/21/2008 |
| Blackwell Sanders | Fair Use Blog | 11/2/2009 |
| Blank Rome | Maryland Intellectual Property Law Blog | 8/25/2009 |
| Bracewell & Giuliani | Financial Industry Task Force Blog | 6/16/2009 |
| Bradley Arant | Mississippi Law Blog | No Longer Available |
| Davis Wright Tremaine | Corporate Finance Law Blog | 8/18/2009 |
| Davis Wright Tremaine | Digital Media Law Blog | No Longer Available |
| Davis Wright Tremaine | Telecom Law Blog | No Longer Available |
| Davis Wright Tremaine | Washington Construction Law Blog | 8/18/2009 |
| Epstein Becker Greene | Executive Women's Networking Blog | 10/27/2009 |
| Fox Rothschild | Employee Free Choice Act Blog | No Longer Available |
| Fox Rothschild | Tax Litigation | No Longer Available |
| Frost Brown Todd | Ask the Legal Pro | No Longer Available |
| Frost Brown Todd | Employer Notes | Empty |
| Goodwin Procter | KM Space | 3/4/2009 (End of Blog) |
| Goodwin Procter | Real Estate Space | 2/23/2009 (End of Blog) |
| Holland & Hart | Climate Change Law Blog | 9/23/2009 |
| Holland & Hart | NASD, SEC and Regulatory Defense Blog | No Longer Available |
| Hughes Hubbard & Reed | White Collar Crime Blog | 5/21/2009 |
| Hunton & Williams | Reasonable Basis | No Longer Available |
| Ice Miller | Agribusiness Blog | 2/8/2008 |
| Ice Miller | Daily Dose of IP | 4/30/2009 |
| Ice Miller | Indiana CEO Survey | 10/9/2008 |
| Ice Miller | Indiana Trailblasers Blog | 11/26/2008 |
| Ice Miller | Japan Trade Mission | 9/12/2007 |
| Ice Miller | Life Sciences Blog - Harry Gonso | 2/24/2009 |
| | Entertainment Litigation Blog | 8/18/2009 |
| K&L Gates | Texas Non-Compete Law Blog | 5/16/2009 |
| Kilpatrick Stockton | EFCA Updates | No Longer Available |
| McGuireWoods | Suits in the Workplace | 9/23/2009 |
| McKenna Long | RFID Law Blog | 10/15/2009 |
| Michael Best & Friedrich | From Russia With Law | 5/4/2008 |
| Morris Manning & Martin | Open Source Law Blog | No Longer Available |
| Nixon Peabody | Financial Recovery Blog | 4/8/2009 |
| Perkins Coie | More Soft Money Hard Law | 8/21/2009 |
| Quarles & Brady | Summer Associate Blog | 7/6/2009 |
| Reinhart | Deliberations - Law, news, and thoughts on juries and jury trials | Announced End of Blog on 11/23/09 |
| Saul Ewing | Climate Change | 8/17/2009 |
| Saul Ewing | New Jersey Zoning Watch | No Longer Available |
| Sedgwick, Detert, Moran & Arnold | Legal Technology Blog | 8/28/2009 |
| Sheppard Mullin | Advertising & Promotions Law Blog | 9/15/2009 |
| Sheppard Mullin | Bankruptcy & Restructuring Blog | 10/16/2009 |
| Sheppard Mullin | Covering Your Ads | 9/15/2009 |
| Sheppard Mullin | ESOP Law Blog | 4/7/2008 |
| Sheppard Mullin | Fashion and Apparel Law Blog | 10/29/2009 |
| Sills Cummis & Gross | Redevelop NJ | 10/14/2009 |
| Sonnenschein | Health Care Privacy Law Blog | 8/3/2009 |
| Sonnenschein | ICDP Blog | 10/30/2009 |
| Stinson Morrison Hecker | TechKnowledgy | 10/23/2009 |
| Thelen Reid | Climate Law Update | No Longer Available |
| Thelen Reid | Daily News Blog | No Longer Available |
| Waller Landsen | Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) Forum | 6/23/2009 |
| Waller Landsen | Executive Compensation | 10/15/2009 |
| Waller Landsen | Healthcare | 6/17/2009 |
| Waller Landsen | Investment Scams | 6/12/2008 |
| Waller Landsen | Payment Systems | 6/12/2008 |
| WilmerHale | Anne McLaughlin's Blog | No Longer Available |
| WilmerHale | Julie Smolinski's Blog | No Longer Available |
| WilmerHale | Kevin Chambers' Blog | No Longer Available |
| WilmerHale | Ross Firsenbaum's Blog | No Longer Available |
| Wilson Sonsini | Semiconductor Law Blog | 10/18/2009 |
| Wilson Sonsini | Silicon Valley Media Law Blog | 4/8/2009 |
| Wilson Sonsini | Startup Company Lawyer Blog | 7/20/2009 |
| Womble Carlyle | China Practice Blog | 10/9/2009 |
| Womble Carlyle | Commlaw - Mass Media | 4/10/2007 |
| Womble Carlyle | Commlaw Source | 5/15/2008 |
| Womble Carlyle | Community Development and Affordable Housing Blog | 2/18/2009 |
| Womble Carlyle | Construction Industry Blog | 7/20/2009 |
| Womble Carlyle | Fair Labor Standards Act | 9/19/2009 |
| Womble Carlyle | Non-Compete and Restrictive Covenants Blog | 10/27/2009 |
| Womble Carlyle | South Carolina Appellate Law Blog | 12/13/2008 |
6 comments:
This is fascinating.
There is a terrific discussion on menwithpens.ca about the future of blogging.
I guess only the future will tell us if blogging is the wave of the future, or just a wave.
Interesting update to the list!
To me, blogging will always be a bit counter-culture. "Firm blogs" (particularly group blogs) are probably fighting an uphill battle. Lawyers at firms may get excited and decide to blog, but that's a different story. Those that have a passion will probably continue to do it, but it will always be driven by individuals (or by relatively small groups..even within a large firm).
At the end of the day, blogs are transient. All blogs, even 3 Geeks ;-)
Great list. As safety consultants, we read legal blogs for any workplace safety litigation. Although not necessarily legal related, The OSHA Underground blog has been taken down due to workplace safety "legalities". A shame as it was a good thought provoking source for regulatory news.
Check out the Alexa ratings on these blawgs.
http://southcarolinaappellatelaw.blogspot.com/
remains active, but it's got an Alexa rating over 9,000,000, meaning that it gets maybe a handful of visitors a week.
Great work.
I think you used the November 2008 report from Kevin instead of the more recent June 2009. http://kevin.lexblog.com/2009/06/articles/large-law/state-of-the-amlaw-200-blogosphere-june-2009/
My two dead blogs were in the earlier one and not in the later one. David Hobbie's Caselines kept the Goodwin Procter entry alive.
As the blogger behind two of the dead blogs (KM Space and Real Estate Space), I thinks its okay to end a blog. Focus changes, careers change. Every story has an end.
What surprised me was how many are no longer available. (To correct your list, KM Space and Real Estate Space are both still available.) Its a doubly hard result to stop blogging and to take all the blog content down.
In my view, if you are going to stop, keep the blog up for a while with a message that you have stopped blogging.
I had the advantage of using the free blogger platform so keeping the content up does not cost me anything. Even if you are hosting your own blog, the hosting fee is only a few dollars a month.
I wonder if Kevin and LexBlog offer an archive rate to keep a blog online but with no new content (or comments) being published?
Doug,
You are right! I forgot that Kevin updated that list this year. I got caught up in the nostalgia of the list that I put out this time last year, and Kevin's that came out about the same time. I thought it would be good to see what happened in the 12 months that followed.
I also think that some of the blogs definitely have ongoing value, and I'm glad that you continue to keep both of your old blogs up for us to find. I also think your suggestion to Kevin keeping and archival version of the blogs available is also a good idea. I'm wondering if the bloggers would allow the archived version to remain, though. I can imagine that some of them would object to it continuing to be available, while others (like yourself) would like to keep it available for others to find well after the last post was written.
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