It's that time again. WBCOOP IS BACK and BIGGER THAN EVER

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! The WBCOOP is a free online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers, so register on WBCOOP to play.

Registration code: XXXXXX 580695

That's right, in an effort to repeat endlessly the same thing and hope to get different results I am once again entering PokerStars World Blogger Championship of On-line Poker. This year with over Sixty ($60K)Dollars in free Spring Championship of On-line Poker entries available I am hoping to snag at least a couple of free entries. You can follow me online (send me an e-mail and I will give you my name on line) or you can wait to see if my futility at the on-line felt continues. Or better yet, if you have an established blog YOU CAN JOIN AND PLAY.

Oh yeah BTW if you are a law blogger and would like to play in an On-line "Home Game" with others who do the same send me a request and I will help you into our Lawyer home game league on Pokerstars.

Either way, wish me luck!!
TLD

Four Blog Posts You Should Read: An interesting Day in the Blogosphere

Some days the quality of posting is just really good.

Check these out:

Love and Marriage is not for the Funky Brown Chick. Interesting comments.

Note to self...don't sarcastically ask if after a day of yelling and fighting with your toddler is it ok to smother her, at least not on Twitter. Some humorless follower may call the cops.
Hattip: Spin me I Pulsate

Wow US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald says you're guilty of something and we don't even have to have a trial. Man the kangaroos are jumping in Illinois. Dissenting Justice Darren Hutchinson says NO WAY. At least he believes there ought to be a trial.

Keeping it real. An adult,orphaned in childhood, recounts being reunited with her family on her last Birthday. It will move you.It moved me. Read "Me..Being Anonymous". This lady has a story to tell.


A day filled with new voices and ideas.

Tony(c) Award For Best NY Blawgger: JaneAnne Murray for NY Federal Criminal Practice Blog

The Tony(c) Award for the "Best NY Blawgger" (that is a writer who blogs about legal topics in NY) goes to JaneAnne Murray for her blog "NY Federal Criminal Practice Blog." JaneAnne's writing is crisp and understandable. The Blog reads like a law schoolstudent's recitation brief on a casebook case. Her analysis of the cases is clear and understandable. It is also a great niche blog.

I loved the way JaneAnne Murray covered Judge Weinstein's decision in US v. Polizzi which I covered in a post yesterday. She took a complex, 288 page, tome on sentencing and other issues, and whittled it down to a few paragraphs laid out brief style. The facts, holdings, and synthesis is clear to any attorney having to work with this case.

The fact that the blog is a little light on links and analysis on some of the bigger cases leaves room to improve. Covering the large amount of decisions she covers in the circuit (a circuit that has 2 of the most cited US District Courts and one of the top 3 cited US Circuit Courts of Appeal) Ms. Murray has a lot of cases to comb through and brief. Additionally, unlike most state court decisions(which generally run a few pages) these decisions are long and often tedious. I think her blog is a useful tool for research, and a definite worth-while read if one is just trying to keep up with criminal practice in one of the busiest US Circuits in the country.

Thus The Tony(c) Award for the Best NY Centric Legal Blog goes to NY Federal Criminal Practice Blog. Congratulations.

Around the Blogosphere the Week of 12/14/08-12/20/08:Part II- Law Office Management

Continuing my trip around the blogosphere with you, we move on to the Second Part of our Journey Law Office Management and Tech posts.

1. Cornell Univ. Legal Information Institute is a really great service providing case law and statutory law for no cost (but you should donate)to users. LII has a new beta program for attorneys to get referrals from other LII users. Go to the NYS General Practice Section Blog for more information. Oh by the way, did I mention that it is free?

2. Susan Cartier-Liebel's Build a Solo Practice Blogis one of the most popular blogs in the legal world. Susan is the founder of the Solo Practice University a great resource for CLE, "bridge the gap" and "develop a new practice area" learning.

In this blog post she shares a new service that can help a solo (or anyone else) organize the business cards they get, loose receipts, as well as other information. Really it is a scanning operation for your stuff, but if you don't have the time to do it yourself, or you just are not going to do it (or you don't own a scanner) then this service is cost effective. It is called Shoeboxed and it looks pretty interesting. I will be checking out myself before the year is out. You may want to do the same.

3. Susan also has a second post that is very important as money for legal services begins to dry up. In her post "When Pricing Your Legal Services, Remember Your Client" Susan suggests that we might want to start understanding what our potential clients are going through financially, and start to think about how we can help them through this difficult stage in their lives. I think if we are just looking at this problem now, we may be too late, but while not answering any questions, Susan raises the issues that are on our clients pricing minds and makes us think about these issues too. Which leads me too our next post:

4. The Dirty Thirteen, or as the post writer (the modestly named Greatest American Lawyer) calls it, the Thirteen Worst Things About Hourly Billing.

As a long time fan of "Value" billing I see the last two posts going hand in hand. I will have my own Value billing post up in a couple of days (weeks?) and will discuss it further, but I want to say one thing now: In a time of economic uncertainty, the two things a client wants most is a fee certain, and a fair shake. Value billing provides both.

5.Allison Shields is the President of Legal Ease Consulting and is a business consultant for law firms. She also writes another really great legal business blog by the name Legal Ease Blog.(What else would you call it if you were she?)

In her recent post she talks about "When E-mail Isn't Appropriate."

I have to say that I disagree to an extent with Allison. In a day and age where time is money, and money is scarce; where clients complain that lawyers do not communicate enough, I think E-mail, text messaging, and now Twitter Direct messaging, can really reduce client anxiety. I will agree with her on one point however, if you will be bringing important information to a client by electronic medium, it is only fair to the client to make yourself or another in your office available to answer any questions your client may have thereafter.

I find the best way to do this is to send the e-mail late in the day so that the client will get it in the morning (if it is more urgent than that, I pick up the phone.) I then ask that they respond with questions which I can peruse while waiting in court; answer from my blackberry; or call my secretary or associate to help me respond. Then I return calls at the end of the day, or at least I try to. I am not perfect but I am improving.

6.Your best source of new business is your present client. If you are in a practice area that doesn't lend itself to clients who have other legal matters you could work on (like Criminal law for example)then you need to constantly look for new work or referral sources. This post on the Rainmaker Blog gives some excellent suggestions and ideas. It is worth the read.

Well that is two posts down but I have a few more to go. I will have more for you in a little while.

Tony(c) Award for Best Legal Technology Blog: Dennis Kennedy & His Blog Get an Award and an Honor

From this day forward, the Tony(c)Award for Legal Technology Blogging is going to be named for its First recipient: Dennis Kennedy. Dennis is the author of the Dennis Kennedy.Blog

Dennis is responsible for starting me on blogging. It was an article he wrote for the Law Practice Management magazine, which talked about things that would be hot in 2004 that got me thinking about starting a blog of my own. Dennis was right about all of the things he said would be hot. Blogging was a great way for me to get my name out there and for others to think of me as an expert on the things I blogged about.

Over the years, Dennis became a friend. He encouraged my blog and my work. He continues to inform our profession about ideas, gadgets and processes to make our forays into the tech side of things easier. He makes technology fun for us non-techno geeks. He remains on the cutting edge of technology (see his twitter feed and his microblog) and he is a prolific author. He was actually holding tweet-ups before there was a Twitter by hosting blogger cocktail parties at the big tech shows.

Now I will be the first to admit, I don't always understand what Dennis is talking about. If you send him an e-mail however, he is always willing to help, which is actually a really good addition to a blog.

Finally, Dennis is a champion of bloggers. He started me on the idea of handing out an award for bloggers I file. His awards are called The Blawggies. That is what I mean, he has always championed the work of other bloggers. That is very cool, and generous.

I owe a lot to Dennis, and one of the ways I want to thank him for the difference he has made to my life, is to name an award after him, to honor his mentoring of me. So, from here on in, the Tony(c) award for Legal Technology Blogging is named the Dennis Kennedy Memorial Tony(c) Award for Legal Technology Blogging.

Announcing The Tony(c) Awards : That Lawyer Dude Honors His Favorite Blogs and Podcasts. Today We Honor The Agitator Blog

Over the course of the next 21 days I will be slowly, tantalizingly rolling out the Tony(c) Awards. Instead of one big post on all my favorites, I do it the way the Nobel Committee does it, over the course of a few days. Why?
1. It gives me a lot of posts and one never knows when I will announce another so maybe I will coerce a few potential winners into reading and commenting on the blog over the last few weeks of the year, and
2. It is my award and I can

Now, less anybody here believe that the (c) is a copyright or that I am laying claim to the Awards that honor Broadway's greatest shows (which btw is a far better show than the Oscars and Grammy's and all the other garbage award shows put together) I am not. It is just that as many of our readership knows I sign off on most of my e-mails with the end TonyC. and since that is my name and my sign off, I thought it would be apt to name these awards that way.

In case anyone is wondering why I of all people should have an award named after me, or better why anyone should care who I think blogged best this year, I will point you to this post by one of my Blogging mentors Dennis Kennedy who each year gives out his Blawggies. (Find it in the 12-26-04 post at the end.)

Now if you don't want to read the blogs I read, or if you think this is a bad idea, or a good idea, give out your own awards and give a link to a deserving blog or blogger.

For my First Tony(c) Award 2008, I am going to give a big Shout out to:(Cue the drum roll please)
The Agitator which is my favorite blog about Politics. If you aren't reading Radley Balko you ought to be. He is intelligent, conservative, and he is controversial without being shrill (Malkin you listening??). Most importantly he is funny. Funny is a good thing. I like a blog that can make me laugh and think at the same time.

So the very First Tony(c) award goes to Cato Institute and Reason Magazine's favorite bad boy The Agitator,and its real life voice Radley Balko.

PS. Help Radley to keep blogging buy the button/magnet shown on the top of this post by clicking here and following the instructions. It only costs a couple of dollars. Come on the kid needs to eat.

More Lists From That Lawyer Dude: Ten Poignant Final Photos and Two Lists of Important Blawgs. On One You Can Vote For Your Favorites!

This is a quick hit. I was sent the link to this site after my blog roundup on Sunday. I love lists. I don't know why. While I was looking around, I saw this list of the last photo's taken of famous people. Though they did not know they would die soon after taking these pictures, there is a haunting aura about them as we know what is about to happen. I don't like to be maudlin, but I liked these portraits very much. What do you think? Have you thought about what you would like to do in your Final Photo?? I

Let me know what you think your's will look like in the Comments Section below.

While we are on the topic of Lists, Two Lists came out yesterday featuring the best of the law Blogs or BLAWGS.
One by E-Justice is called "The Top 50 Internet & Digital Law Blogs"

You will see some duplication with the "Top 100 Blogs of 2008" by the ABA Journal Law News Now. If you go on the site, you can vote for your favorites. I am following about 35 of those blogs in my RSS feed (I use Google Reader for law and news, and Opera Feeds for everything else.)

Some Fun on the Blogosphere: Kicking Back

Photo courtesy of The Perrysteins (Congratulations on the Baby!!)


This has not been a relaxing start to the Christmas season. Today was the first Sunday of Advent and I am not thinking Christmas Music. I am thinking death, destruction and doom. Hence it is time to change the Music in my head. Here are my favorite pick me up posts from this week.

Speaking of Music this post teaches you how to pimp out Pandora which is a pretty neat music site. Entitled 15 ways to get more out of Pandora. The writer saves a little surprise for you if you read the article to the end.

Staying on lists I thought these two posts were interesting:

A. This one has 8 hints on how to be a better blog writer. I will do my best to follow each of these tips. Hattip Copyblogger.com

B. This Post gives you a list of things you need to know to map out a successful marketing strategy. I think this one is not meant for guys like me, but it has a few ideas if you are marketing against another firm. I try to stay above that and market with less focus. Maybe I ought to rethink that. Hattip: the Rainmaker Institute

Here is bonus list:

From Matt Homman comes the list of Ten Rules of Legal Technology. Remember this you techie lawyers. There is some sage advice in these rules
Hattip: The Billable hour, which is where these rules actually came from. To the Person or people who write that Paralegal Prof site, learn to attribute. It is one thing to link or even republish, it is a whole other thing to Plagiarize!


Ok, moving right along, Blawgger extraordinaire Robert Ambrogi's Lawsites blog has the Top Ten List of ESSENTIAL PODCASTS FOR LAWYERS. I know that Robert's podcast Lawyer2Lawyer is always a very interesting show and he also acknowledges Monica Bay's Law Tech Now and the ABA Litigation Sections podcast as well. I have an Apple Ipod. Time to start downloading.
Hattip: Robert Ambrogi's Legal Lines


My last list post is my favorite list. It is the Fifty Things You Need To Know How To Do. The post names the 50 things and then links you to websites that explain how to do them. I already know how to do 20 solid and 10 more I am more than familiar with, however I could brush up. See how many you know and see if you think there is anything that should be added to the list. Let me know how you did. Hattip Marc and Angel Hack Life

Updated to reflect Matt Homman and the Non-Billable Hour blog as the true author of the 10 Rules of Legal Technology. Sorry Matt, Thanks for letting me know.

Public Defenders, If You Don't Want Clients To Think They Get What They Pay For, Give Them Value: That Lawyer Dude responds to S.Greenfield and Gideon

All day there has been a lively discussion on blogs and on Twitter between myself, Scott Greenfield over at "Simple Justice" and Gideon's Trumpet over at "a public defender."*

What started this discussion was a combination of this post and the comments by the anti-lawyer marketing Mr. Greenfield and then my reply to this post on Accident Prone by Miriam. My sarcastic response to Miriam was then challenged simultaneously by Gideon and by Scott. Well it was almost simultaneous, Gideon got off to a late start.

So if you cared enough to follow all of this, and are still interested, this post is my response.

Miram in her original post (which was brought to my attention through Twitter about 3 weeks after she wrote it) was upset because a client came to her and told her that another lawyer (allegedly a paid or private lawyer) told him w/o knowing any facts that he (the pvt lawyer) could get him a misdemeanor. Now her client is giving her a hard time.

Her response was to scold all Private Counsel and tell us not to tell clients what we could do for her client if we are not going to take the case. I have some sympathy for her plight. After all I am a former Legal Aid Lawyer and I also still take a few Assigned counsel cases each year. On the other hand, it is not all lawyers who put down public lawyers and it is not even always private counsel's fault. I mean unless the lawyer is in the hallways offering unsolicited advice, and unless he is wrong about it, the client must have come to him and asked why his "League Aid" or "P.D." was giving his case such a short shrift. Not only did Miriam paint all of us non-public lawyers with the same broad brush, but she absolutely took no personal responsibility for her client's feelings.

I responded to her sarcastic open letter in kind. I pointed out that Private lawyers often have more experience with the law and with the Judges and Prosecutors than do Public lawyers. I also pointed out that we often engender more trust/value because the client is gets a value if he hires the right lawyer. For example, many, maybe most, public lawyers do not have after hour services. Most paid lawyers do. Many Public Defenders don't work on court holidays but most private lawyers do. Many PD's do not give cell phone numbers but most paid lawyers do.

In other words, I pointed out to Miriam and others that there is a value that paid lawyers provide a client. How many times does a person hear "You get what you pay for." In the context of law, clients who have public provided attorneys feel that they must not be getting very much. That is untrue. They feel that these public lawyers do not care, also not true. They feel like one of a herd of clients and that the free attorney doesn't have time for them. Sometimes true, but sometimes, that is an appearance. (see Miriam's response to my reply on her site).

Why does the client who is getting a free lawyer think that the lawyer he has is not on his side?

Well let's look at the reasons. The Client comes into the arrangement already thinking the worse about your ability. How many times are you able to spend more than a few minutes with the client? Do you work to meet the clients after hours? Do you stay more than three hours after the day is done? Do you have weekly after hours? How do you expect to engender trust in a person you barely know or only know as a file?

Do you or your office take the time to give the client a folder for his things? Do you copy him on all correspondence? Do you give him a chart or a letter explaining the system? How can a client think you know the system if you don't show him you know it? Is he supposed to go with sheer faith. When one is looking at a five year sentence that is asking an awful lot of faith.

How do you and the client best communicate? If he hasn't a computer, he cannot send you e-mail. If he doesn't have a cellphone, he cannot text you. Do you ask your clients if there is a relative? Someone else you can speak to? No? Do you not think that the client might be so scared he needs to have another person available to listen and help him make decisions? If you won't take the time to speak to his family, then why should he believe you care about him anywhere near as much as I do?

Have you gone with a client the first time you send him to Alcoholic's Anonymous meetings? The first time can be scary. Will the client think you are shoving him off to a meeting rather than help him with the problem yourself? Will he think that you are too busy to work with him so the meeting is an easy way for you to rid him of your schedule?

How active in the Bar are you? Do you write articles? Do you give lectures? Many PDs are fond of saying they have the most experience in the courthouse defending cases. That may be if sheer numbers are going to be our measure. If you are not however investing in your profession, then how does the client know if you are respected by your peers and the courts? How does the client know if you are as good as you say you are and not just robotically processing cases to plea?

I guess what I am saying is that public lawyers need to see what they did or didn't do that made her client doubt her. Too often Legal Aid lawyers think that the fact that they are a free lawyers is enough for the client to think them inferior. I do not agree. Even though they are skeptical of you, your clients want and need to believe in you. You however have to earn that belief.

One thing I will agree with, is that lawyers have no right to put down a Public lawyer's ability anonymously. On the few cases where I am approached by a Legal Aid Society client on a case, I obtain their permission to conference the case with their present counsel. On the other hand, do not expect me to back you up if your work has been less than stellar. Usually, thank goodness, the Legal Aid member has done a good job on the case, but hasn't built a relationship with the client. In my call I ask about that too, and I try to help them with that by both explaining the lawyer's position and by acknowledging their needs as well. That is not only good practice, but it is also good marketing. Which leads me to my next issue.

My friends Gideon and Scott think that when I write things like this I am marketing myself. That my interest in feeding my family and paying my staff "makes me dirty". Scott especially is of the opinion that marketing lawyers do a disservice to the profession. I heartily disagree. I think I am a very good lawyer. I also refer cases to lawyers I think are very good. I do not think most criminal clients have a clue as to who to ask for a recommendation nor what they need from the lawyer. If all I have is a website, that is no better than an ad. I am not teaching them anything about myself. On the other hand, my blogging and my tweeting and my question answering, all go to educate the client as to not only what I am writing about but also as to who I am. I am not saying "Hire Me I am good for you." I am saying "read what I write and see if that is what you want and if you will be comfortable with me." That is marketing, but is in my opinion talent related and legitimate. I feel I have a duty to help potential clients find a good lawyer.I am that person, and if I am not, I probably know who is.

I think Scott is deluding himself into believing that he is not marketing his talents by writing a blog. He says that since he is not trying to get clients from the blog, he isn't guilty of marketing. That marketing is but a by product of his more altruistic attempts to educate the masses.

Scott, if that is the case, Shut down the blog and write anonymously. Hell you know people are going to want to hire you. You have a disclaimer on the page that clearly says "

Nothing in this blog constitutes legal advice. This is free. Legal advice you have to pay for."

You then provide two links to your website one that links to a page where highlighted is the comment

"If your goal is to achieve the best possible outcome, you need a lawyer who can get the job done.

" That page lists your accomplishments including your AVVO.com rating and your Martindale rating. (Both very impressive btw)

Now Scott, Gideon, if I were marketing, wouldn't I link my blog to my Homepage? Nothing on the front of my blog links you directly to my website. Further, even if you click onto my name when I leave comments, it links you to a page on my site that links to my blogs and does not mention one of my accomplishments (Stop snickering I have one or two!)If I were using the post at Accident Prone or this post only to market, I am doing a lousy job of it.

No I wrote the post to help Miriam and other PDs to see that advice is not all that they are good for. That clients value a relationship and knowledge and clout. That your poor clients and my wealthy ones both want a value to the representation given them. Just because your client cannot afford me, does not mean he doesn't want that experience. I wrote "harshly" because that is how I felt she wrote her original post. I am sure she can take as good as she gives. Nice of you guys to come to her defense by completely misstating the motive of my reply though.

Funny but I am not seeking, nor are many lawyers I know seeking legal aid clients. If they can afford me, they shouldn't have Legal Aid to begin with.

By the way, I am far from perfect. I don't always provide the value that I have described. I try to however, on every case. At least I acknowledge what the value is. Miriam's original open letter didn't seem to me to even see that maybe she needed to engender a more supportive relationship with her client. I also took her letter to be offensive to hard working Private lawyers. Do not "paint" me with a broad brush if you don't want to be "Spackled" right back.
After all, I am from New York.

* This column is not about twitter or blogging, but it is interesting to note how we three bloggers have used both the blogs and Twitter to enhance the conversation. IF you want to read some of the back story you can follow Scott Greenfield at Twitter.com/ScottGreenfield and Gideon at Twitter.com/Gideonstrumpet. Of course you can follow me at Twitter.com/ThatLawyerDude. Get on Twitter and follow the discussions.

That Lawyer Dude Talks Tech,Law Office Management and Internet Marketing: Some Favorite Posts in the Blawgosphere

My friends and families think I am so tech savvy because I blog, tweet, and have done a few podcasts. I market through AVVO.com, The Virtual Loop, The Attorney Store and I use the computer for educational reasons. Some even think it is wild that I have 2 E-Mail Accounts. I have news for you all, I am a tech idiot. That is why I follow Blogs by Dennis Kennedy, and Tom Mighell among others.

I do however read tech blogs and blogs about the Internet, and sometimes even understand them. Here are my favorite posts from this last week:

1.I just received the gift of a great new computer from my mom(Thanks Mom.) One of the things that used to drive me nuts with my old one however, was how slow it would become over time. This post will help you to keep your computer from giving up all its memory to disk fragmentation and other useless waste of space.

2. Now as for taking up space on your computer... This post teaches you how to backup your Gmail account using a free app called aptly enough Gmail Backup. How convenient. I would suggest that rather than take up a lot of memory on your computer's hard drive you move all this stuff to a thumb drive. It is inexpensive and you can store it offsite... like in your pocket.

3. These three posts don't really qualify as techie per se, but I think they belong in this post so here they are;

a.) 100 blogs That Make You Smarter... ok they forgot That Lawyer Dude but the others are pretty good.

b) Speaking of learning stuff, Our friend Ernie the Attorney has another blog called PDF for Lawyers. In this post he speaks about production of Electronic Discovery (specifically e-mail). It is an important short little post. I found the decision interesting because the ability to search material has become so prevalent that paper is no longer considered a viable medium.

c.) And finally a review of VideoSurf.com which claims to surf videos and makes it easier to find video on sites like YOuTube.com etc. Seems the idea is good, but not that reliable. You can find the review here courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.com.


4.Understanding how to get your blog or website a lot of hits and learning to drive traffic to that site so that you can get potential clients to your site means understanding SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Here are a couple of posts that take the mystery out of the initials:

a).One of my Favorite Bloggers is Carolyn Elefant. Her post at Nolo's Legal Marketing Blog is about do it yourself Search Engine Optimization. Carolyn makes it seem easy to get better Google ranks ethically and without costing yourself thousands of dollars. You can follow Carolyn on Twitter by clicking twitter.com/carolynelefant


b.) Mike Fruchter has a post over at LouisGray.com that has a few ideas not covered in Carolyn's piece. You can follow Mike at twitter.com/fruchter. By the way, Louis Gray is a wonderful website if you want to stay on top of and ahead of what is happening on the Internet.

5.Speaking of Twitter.com, Twitter is one of my favorite tools and occasionally a pleasant diversion/distraction. It has been driving readers to this blog (thanks and welcome) and it has provided quick information and some real friends. If you don't know what Twitter is, go to Twitter.com and find out. It is really a lot more than what you think it is from watching the videocast. It is a way to connect, share information and let others know what interesting (and not so interesting things) you are doing. Yes, tweeters (people who use Twitter) want to know all about you, so keep it interesting.

Here are a few blog posts to make the whole Twitter.com experience more interesting.

a.)The beautiful and intelligent Sarah Evans has these two self-explanatory posts on how be a useful tweeter that others want to follow. These are the Do's and these are the Don'ts. pay attention, this is good advice and you will soon find out that you too can have a great Twitter following. That following will turn into readers and sooner or later many will become people who help your career.
Follow Sarah Evans at Twitter.com/PRsarahevans

b.) As you build your following, you can drive traffic to your blog and to your website. "Pro Blogger" Darren Rowse uses this post to teach you how to use Twitter to turn your website Go Viral.
Follow Problogger at twitter.com/problogger

c.)This post will help you find Government tweeters. I think you can use it to find people to follow who will educate and inform you.
Here is their mission statement:

We want the GovTwit directory (below) to include all facets of government: state and local, federal, contractors, reporters, academics and more. The list below will be a living list, and we hope to keep it updated via our own research, as well as your submissions.

To start, we have included only Twitter IDs and links to official government blogs and URLs noted in Twitter bios

And that is my Tour of Tech posts for now. Let me know if you found this helpful and I may make it a regular part of this blog, either monthly or weekly. Let me have your input.

Speaking of following people on Twitter...You can follow
Tom Mighell at Twitter.com/TomMighell You can follow Dennis Kennedy at Twitter.com/DennisKennedy, you can follow Ernie (The Attorney)Svenson at Twitter.com/ernieattorney And...

You can follow me on Twitter by going to Twitter.com/thatlawyerdude.

Simple Justice May Be Taking A Too Simple Approach To Lawyer Marketing: That Lawyer Dude Responds.

Scott Greenfield is the author of Simple Justice. His is a NY Criminal Law blog. Sometimes he comments about other things. I love the blog and I urge my readers to look at it. Scott writes well and posts often.

With that said, however I take umbrage. Scott seems to think that all lawyers do on the Internet is market themselves and that doing so makes us no more than "used car salesmen" (actually he thinks us lower than used car salesmen.) I do not agree. Not only do I think it is our right to market ourselves but I feel it is a duty. Here is my response to Scott's post.

Scott,
I doubt anybody who blogs for meaning does so only for the work, or only for the clients. For me, my blog and my tweets and my meetings, and my answering questions on Avvo and Lawguru and my time spent on Listserves and bulletin boards and writing articles and speaking at CLEs are all opportunities to teach others about something I love doing...practicing law.

I also like to post about my victories and good ideas (the few I have)because what we do is difficult and often demoralizing and reading about someones win or good idea is a way to encourage others to keep at it.

That said, I would not be able to do all of this other work without the fact that doing this stuff is a way to get clients.

There was never a time when lawyers didn't market. That is how Martindale-Hubbell came to be. The truth is that Big-law always had the upper-hand in marketing so they made the rules about lawyers not advertising. Not because there was some altruism to it but because that would have given "unworthies" (i.e. Jews, Italians and minorites) a chance to flourish. I remember my great uncle telling me the story of the first of his SCOTUS wins (he won 7 times) they wouldn't let him sit in the well because when they asked him his name, they couldn't believe he was really a lawyer. Legal advertising only evened the playing field a little. It allowed lawyers with money to invest to be seen. Of course we were limited to the Yellow Pages and those guys ripped off the young and solo lawyer with their ridiculous fees and bait and switches.

The Internet has been the great equalizer and any lawyer who is worth the work is cheating clients if he doesn't let them know about his services. Instead of seeing marketing as a bad thing for our profession, maybe we need to get off of our pedestals and see that it is the best thing that ever happened to consumers of legal services. Great lawyers who no one ever heard about now had a chance for small investment of time and funds can now compete with the biggest of the advertisers for clients and clients are getting to pick from among a greater and more diverse group of lawyers than ever before.

Clients are not stupid, they can tell the difference between someone who is trying to make a difference and someone who is trying to make a buck. Just like the guy on Twitter who tweets only his own blog or accomplishments is soon a very lonely tweeter, the lawyer who only pushes his own "brand" at people without backing it up will be seen as the fraud he is, now far sooner than in days of old. For the betterment of the profession and the consumers, long live the ethical & intelligent marketing lawyer.


In the name of being an ethical and hopefully intelligent marketing lawyer, you can find my website at www.colleluorilaw.com, and can follow me on twitter at http://twitter.com/thatlawyerdude

Around The Blogosphere The Week of November 11, 2008 Part III of III* : Of Women, Music and All That Jazz.

*I know I previously said four. I reserve the right to consolidate because I am tired.

Here is my last installment from the Week of November 11, 2008.

1.Two Sex-Workers Talk About the Sex Trade.(Links are NSFW).

I spend a lot of time representing men and women who are involved in the Business of Sex. Some of their pursuits are legal, some not legal, some straddle the boarder. Occasionally I write about the experience. I also however keep up with what some of the people in the provider and "hobbyist" side of the field are saying.

This week the New York City Sex Bloggers rolled out their 2009 "pinup"calendar to benefit the Sex Workers Awareness (an education and outreach program)which I am told is a non-profit organization I have seen the way people treat Sex workers. I have seen the way that police discount them and how they have been marginalized though many are smart and hard working mothers, caretakers, students, and just regular folk. I would not treat a dog the way our criminal justice system treats these people. Hence I am giving their calendar a shout out here. I would have been at the rollout party last night but for a pressing and late breaking personal issue.

Meanwhile I thought I would highlight two posts from Sex Workers blogs.

A. This one at "The Real Princess Diaries" is about the way most sex-workers view their clientele. It doesn't apply to all and it doesn't apply to the entire strata anymore than any opinion piece can sum up the position of all workers in any field. It is indicative of how most of the clients I have see the scene.

B. Renegade Evolution is a blog, and from what I can gather a person too. She is a sex blogger and worker. She is opinionated, blunt and usually succinct. In this post she talks about a fact in the sex field that makes it hard to help sex workers (providers) and stops them from uniting. It is the Sex Worker Caste System and I see it everyday.

Stop a topless dancer and tell her she is a sex worker, she will tell you she is involved in a legal business and she is a good girl but that escorts are whores. She will tell you all she does is expose her body and people give her money for the privilege of seeing the Hand of God in her beauty.

The High end Escort will tell you that the stripper is the real whore, selling her body and teasing her clients for a buck here or there. She on the other hand does not expose herself before countless others. She only "dates" nice wealthy men who she would likely sleep with anyway if they met under other circumstances. In addition unlike the Porn star or stripper, her work is done in private and is "confidential".

The Porn Star thinks they are both insane. She will tell you she sleeps with men she knows and many whom she loves, she makes a lot of money far more than the others and she is engaged in a safe and legal field where the women call a lot of the shots.

Renegade Evolution thinks they should put away the Bull and unite to help each other. I have to say I agree with her. It is about time workers in the field get out of each others way, acknowledge the business they are all in and try to improve conditions for all. The fight is like criminal lawyers not acknowledging the work of litigators or transactional lawyers. It is all law just different...

2..The Music Scene

A. Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC) have been celebrating Louis Armstrong and Thelonious Monk. Two of my all time favs. Here is a link to the post about the Armstrong speech and this one on e nights of Thelonious Monk tribute concerts.

B. Probation in Plea Deal for Blogger Who Leaked Guns N’ Roses Songs. Blogger streamed 9 G'n R songs on his blog, busted for the Copyright Infringement. Getting Probation, hasn't told where he got the songs from... still may however. I wonder if he had streamed only snippets of each song if that would have been protected speech??? IP Genius' any ideas?

C. "Tuba Man" Murdered by Teens, Seattle Mourns

Every city has a person or two who are as big if not bigger than that city itself. He is half village idiot, half sage, but he is beloved and the city adopts him. In NY it is the "Naked Cowboy", In San Francisco it's Frank Chu, In Washington DC it is President Bush, but in Seattle Washington it was Edward Scott McMichael aka "Tuba Man". He was a "busker" a man who made his living making his music on the streets. He was a guy who seemed to pop up everywhere, asking "DO YOU WANT TO BE A PART OF IT?? Who didn't want to be a part of it. He could take your worst day and make you smile with the "Um pa pa" of the Tuba.

"Tuba Man" was murdered allegedly by a group of teens who didn't recognize him. He didn't have his Tuba with him that day.
Story from the NY Times

Money Quote: “Ed would ask in his unmistakable baritone, ‘John, do you want to be a part of it tonight?’ ” Mr. Tangeman recalled. “This statement was part of the genius of Ed, as if contributing to Ed’s efforts, one was not only being a part of Ed’s life but being a part of something much larger, something almost unobtainable.”

That's it for now. I may or may not post another part later. If I do, consider this III of IV. Otherwise, who knows.

Round the Blogosphere Nov 11, 2008... Part two of four." Lawyers in Trouble the Good The Bad and The Stupid.

Part II of this little job around the Blogoshere is about Lawyers in trouble.

Here they are:

A.The Good:

From what people are telling me, this poor guy is getting screwed because the US Attorney in Southern Florida is still pissed off at Roy Black for winning a drug case where DEA Agents died. I may blog more about this as time goes on. At the recent NACDL meeting, this was all anyone could talk about. Maybe there should be a rule that prosecutions of Criminal Defense Lawyers can only be handled outside of the US Attorney's office which is handling the initial investigation.

Hat tip: MIAMICRIMLAW

B: The Bad:

This post is about a lawyer who had a gambling addiction and stole her clients money to fund her gaming...Then she sued the casinos for doing what casinos do, letting her bet. She lost her suit, and now she is indicted for stealing the money. If you are a lawyer and you have an addiction or a problem that is causing you to do things that will hurt your family, practice or yourself, then help is available to you. Just click this link and you will find people who care about your family and practice, clients and you. Please before it is too late.

C. The Stupid

This lawyer thinks he is a controversial freedom fighter. I think he is a scar and embarrassment to the practice of law on Long Island. He is a self aggrandizing publicity seeking buffoon.

He clearly overstepped his bounds in this case it seems, and is punished for it. In representing a client, and trying to get a quote in the newspaper, he over did it and may have slandered the victim suggesting that the client who embezzled money from his brother's law firm was only doing what the bosses there did. They sued the lawyer, he then improperly impleaded the plaintiff. The judge hit him with legal fees for having brought a frivolous action. The amount? FOURTEEN THOUSAND DOLLARS!!! STUPID.

Interesting Stories From the Blogosphere week of November 11, 2008 Part I of IV. Technology and You (and Pres-elect Obama too!)

I read a lot of blogs and online newspapers every week. I love the Internet and find it a source of information and relaxation. I get most of my ideas for my blog from other writers as I do not often have the time to run the stories down myself.
Sometimes I come across posts that would make a nice mini post on my blog, but I am not willing to write a whole post about them. I'd rather comment and link. I save them up for the week and put them into my around the Blogosphere posts. Still, I like to have themes. So for the first time, I have broken them up so you can look at the stuff that interests you most and ignore the rest (at your peril).


1. Obama the YouTube President"

This first post then for the Week beginning on November 11, 2008 deals with our President-elect Barack Obama. He is not only our first part Afro-American President, but also very tech savvy. Presidents since FDR have been doing regular radio addresses. Most of us only get snippets from new shows because we can 1. never find the actual address when it is played and 2. What's a radio??.

Obama however has solved the problem by doing a weekly podcast.

The Blogosphere is agog with the use of the Internet by President Elect Obama. In its latest form. The President-Elect has started a weekly podcast. Here is an article concerning the podcast from WaPo and here is the actual podcast . Should be a very interesting Presidency for so many reasons.
HatTip:Laughingsquid.com

2. Speaking of Tech, Here is what the Internet has for the rest of us.

A. Since almost everyone who reads this blog voluntarily seems to have a better read blog than I do, I thought I'd help you all out. Here are 16 Essential PC Apps for Bloggers. No this is not about political correctness.
Hattip: ProBlogger

B.If you are on Twitter.com (and you probably ought to be) you will want to have friends follow you. Here are 10 suggestions on how to get a bigger following of "twitterati" from Alltop's Guy Kawasaki.

C. RSS is a useful tool for keeping track of things important to you. I use it for example to put all the blogs I want to track in one place. You just click the Rss box on top of the blog and add it to your reader (I use Google Reader) and viole` you have it all in one place. Here are 29 more uses for RSS.
Hattip: LouisGray.com Where you go if you want to stay ahead of the crowd, or the crowded Internet.

D. My final tidbit for this segment The Boys over at Gizmodo.com tell you about an I-Phone application that helps you figure out if you are too drunk to drive. I would tell you that it is an inacurrate calculation or rough calculation at best and if you are anywhere near danger (that is to say .o3 or less from an arrest situation) don't take the test. Yeah you will lose your license immediately for one year, but you can beat the case and save a small fortune. Not to mention how hard it is to get a job with a criminal conviction on your record...

Now onto the Legal part of our trip. Go to my next post.

That Lawyer Dude is Tweeting Over At Twitter.com

Ok so for the longest time I have been trying to figure out how in the heck I should use this MicroBlog spot named Twitter. I couldn't figure out how I could use this little son of a gun to help my practice. I have found a way.

Here is the deal. Twitter allows you to send out a "tweet" which is a short message, (like a text message) to everyone who "follows" you. I only have 18 followers right now. But say for example that I am going to be on TV tonight. I can send out a message on twitter saying "I will be on TV on the 6 O'clock News on Channels 2,4,5, & 7."

Presumably all my followers will now know this. Same when I publish a blog post. Same as if I hear or see something that is newsworthy I can send something in fast. My people will get it and hopefully tell their people and voile` People will go to what I am talking about. I guess I want to avoid Twittering and Tweeting too much. But I can see where this type of thing can be helpful. Especially when answering questions on Avvo.com or LawGuru.com or if I need to announce something.

You too can follow my "exploits" at http://twitter.com/ThatLawyerDude, sign up and follow me...
TLD

Around the Blawgosphere: The week of July 14 2008

Don't forget about 8:30PM tonight, I begin blogging once a week at Long Island (Criminal)Trial Law. Tonights topic: Voir Dire of the Prosecutions Expert.

Ok so what did I find interesting last week?

1.This article from CrimProf Blog about how Facebook can help prosecutors and defense attorney's destroy the character of young witnesses.

Word to the wise Attorney: do a screenshot of your client's Facebook/MySpace page and then have him take it down. Tell him not to let anyone take his picture and to be sure that no one "Tags" him. Then make sure he or a loved one monitors the page. Also be sure that you get him to "Friend" you.
BTW if you do not have a Facebook or MySpace page or know what they are... you need to adopt a high school kid.

2. Also from CrimProf blog: When in the Congo, don't do like the Congolese (or the Brazilians either) This one is one of the weirder ones. The US State Dept Hired a nudist (not just a nudist but a leader of the movement) made him a diplomat and then he went to the Congo and Brazil where he had sex with minors and had pictures of them on his laptop...Porno of course. His defense? This type of behavior is common and is acceptable in those countries...

By the way, check out the URL for the post on the CRIMPROF's blog... Poetic Justice??

3. Mike over at Crime and Federalism Blog takes NY Times columnist Adam Liptak to task for not having any idea about the true nature and effectiveness of the Exclusionary rule. Seems in Liptak's world we defense lawyers are winning these suppression motions so often that it is making the world an unsafe place. Title of the piece, Media Ignorance (of the Exclusionary Rule), sounds redundant to me.

4. If they were any good at science they Woulda been Doctors not Judges.

My friend and one of my favorite bloggers Lawrence Taylor blogs about how in a recent case, California appellate judges permitted a Driver to be found drunk even though the defense was stopped by the judge from showing that the science behind the machine was faulty. See his post in DUI BLOG. The law trumps the state of accurate science...

5. Another Fave of mine Doug Berman over at Sentencing Law and Policy Blog is wondering here if President Bush will grant more pardon's at the end of his term

My short answer? Don't hold your breath.

That is it for now. Hope you are having a nice summer.
TLD.

A Sunday Jog Around the Blogosphere

Wow what a busy week. 8 posts in one week!! Pretty good especially for me. I doubt I will be quite so prolific this week as I am going to be back on a suppression hearing on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday in People v. Ronald "Shorty" Rodriguez, before the Hon. Meryl Berkowitz in Nassau County Court. Later in the week I will be in NYC for the 50th Anniversary of the NACDL. I may do a few blogs from there. I am excited because I am serving on the Nomination committee. Fellow Law Blogger and President-elect John Wesley Hall asked me to serve and I am very honored.

So as it is Sunday, I am going to again jog around the blogoshere with you. Here are a few things that caught my eye this week that I didn't get to write more about but you may want to look into yourself:

1. That Exotic Darlin' of the Neo-Con set Michelle Malkin asks the blog question, are US banks Knowingly Laundering Drug Money for Mexican Drug Cartels?? Michelle's take is that illegals, are here, sending money there (Mexico) through non-banks called "casas di cambio." American banks wanting some of the action offer these CdiC's a place to put large amounts of money and will look the other way if some of the money comes from the drug trade.

Michelle's neo-con answer is of course to prosecute the banks the illegals and the democrats. MY answer is better. Legalize the Drugs and tax same, put the money to use to help people beat their addictions, and open the borders correctly with a sane immigration policy that will not cripple US businesses.

Hmmm... Deport workers, cripple our economy, jail Americans for trying to make a living, jail more people for feeding their addictions, ruin foreign governments by making Criminal's rich and cost the American Taxpayer gazillion dollars for a drug war we could end with the stroke of a pen versus A sane immigration policy and drug policy... Ok she is sexy (especially compared to that shrieking idiot of the rightamortis, Ann Coulter ) but her views are silly.

2. I will never figure out the Federal Prosecutor's fascination with rebuttal witnesses. I guess they feel that it gives them a chance at primacy and finality two forensic speaking techniques. On the other hand, watching a case go in over seven (7) weeks and then blowing up on rebuttal just makes me question two things: to they think the defense isn't aware of their games and can not counter them? and Why do they think the jury needs to hear the same stuff over and over again? Anyway, the Pellicano case in L.A. Federal court is about to go to a mistrial... seems that the rebuttal witness they called to contradict the defendant's testimony on a minor issue, committed perjury and will have to take the 5th amendment on Monday. She was to be the final witness. Shame on the US Attorney's office in L.A. for doing a shabby job of investigating their own witness. Talkleft has some coverage here.

3. Pittsburgh Pa. has become an adoptive second home for us. We go there for some of my wife's medical treatments. The City is made up of many really nice people. Then of course there is their US Attorney, but she is a story for another post.

For now, here is a story about a guy who was arrested for complaining too much in a bad tone... A little subjective no?? Anyway he was convicted by a jury and it is on appeal... I can understand how one might want to be respected for working in public service. On the other hand I can also see how one might get fed up with the failure of certain public servants to do their jobs. What I cannot see is someone being convicted for complaining to a public servant about the job they do. Taking complaints is in the job description. As long as it is not abusive language tone shouldn't matter. (I am not sure abusive language should matter either but that too is another post.)

Hattip: to Radley Balko at The Agitator

In a related post over at the CrimProf Blog there is a story about a guy who got 15 years for sending governmental officials threatening letters.
4. "Romeo, Romeo, Where fore art thou Romeo..." Well both Romeo and Juliet are over at the Volokh Conspiracy this week where Professor Eugene Volokh, the head conspirator looks at the reason's behind Romeo and Juliet sex laws (laws that outlaw sex between adults and minors of a certain age but allows the sex if the lovers are born within a certain amount of time of each other. On first blush, it seems that Prof. Volokh is in favor of pedophiles, however when you look at his questions he does seem to put those laws under a light of logic and they do not come out all that well.

5. Some Good and Bad News about the Fourth Amendment in the news this week.
The blogosphere is abuzz with news out of California about the Ninth Circuit agreeing that laptops can be searched at screening at airport screening stations.

Meanwhile in NJ. the Supreme Court stunned prosecutors in ruling that people do have a fourth amendment protection in their ISP carriers information.

6. New and scary uses for DNA. Now it will be guilt by blood association. See this post for more information. Coming 0n the heels of Judge Weinstein's decision in , there may be a trend toward bringing Fourth Amendment law into the open and up to date with this century.

And that's our jog round the blogosphere. See you around. It should be an exciting week.
TLD.

Thank You Dennis Kennedy... And LawGuru.com

I have been very busy on the Internet, especially of late. I am in year three (3) of my Internet based Marketing Plan. I now market our firm's services through the Internet only. I use a Findlaw website, a blog (your reading it), and I answer questions posed on a few legal sites such as Findlaw's forums, Court TV forums, LinkedIn's Q & A andLawGuru.com. I find I like LawGuru.com the best (probably because of this thing they have called the Attorney Control Panel.)

I also like Lawguru and LinkedIn because nobody lights up after others. I hate flame wars.

Not only that, but I can attract 2 different, but important groups, through using both sites. Lawguru.com is a consumer site, LinkedIn a Business to Business site. Both reward good answers and recognize the free work I do in answering the questions of others. (Lawguru.com publishes a list of those that answer the most questions, LinkedIn allows questioners to extol the answers they like the most. I am uncomfortable with LinkedIn referring to the best answer as an "expert", but since I am not conferring this on myself, and have no power to stop it, and because the LinkedIn user is a sophisticated business user, I go along with it, though I am hoping they find another way to acknowledge good answers.)

Anyway, I have also been using Facebook.com because it is in my opinion one of the coolest sites. I keep up with a bunch of my favorite blawggers, my family members and co-workers. It is a lot better than MySpace in that it is less stalkable and requires a lot more maturity from its users. Again the demographic is good for my firm too. It hits college and High School students. These 4 groups (families, Businesses, College/HS students and the Tech savvy) are the main parts of my business (along with adult entertainment individuals and companies.)

The problem is that while I love blogging, it is not always the best way to attract my clientele(or at least most of it.)

Anyway, leave it to my friend Dennis Kennedy to spark an idea in my mind. We have been speaking about the future of blogging on a Facebook group Between Lawyers in a discussion entitled "Ask Between Lawyers for Blawg Advice." In the string, I spoke about my frustration with the lack of readership from blogging as opposed to answering queries on LinkedIn etc. Dennis noted that for non-business or Techie oriented law firms, blogging might not be the best answer for gaining business...

Then it hit me, I can do at least a column a week of my favorite Lawguru questions and answers. An extra Blog post, focused on my clientele, Dennis your brilliant Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!


THIS BLOG POST HAS UNDERGONE SUBSTANTIAL CHANGES. EVIDENTILY I POSTED A FIRST DRAFT. I APOLOGIZE FOR THE ERROR.

The Blogosphere At The New Year: Back From The Party

I don't know about all of you, but this last week felt like a whirlwind of hello's and goodbyes. It felt like a food orgy too. I am going walking tomorrow just to see if I still can.

In the meantime the blogosphere has been posting everything from Saddam's death to the Duke Rape case. Here are some of my favorites from the week that was, the last week of 2006:

On Tuesday, the Profs over at Crim Profs blog were talking about a potential bipartisan effort to pass the Second Chance legislation that might make it a little easier to help felons on parole succeed in moving on with their lives. Here's a thought on that, how about we get an expungment law on the books in NY?

In Wednesday Professor Berman brought our attention to a really good decision on Booker and the career offender guidelines by Judge Nancy Gertner of the US District Court's Mass.District. The judge evaluated the career offender requirements and noted how in the case before her it meant a big co-defendant disparity as well as a roll disparity and the incarceration of a very elderly defendant. The case is US v. Ennis, No. 03-cr-10298 (D. Mass. Dec. 21, 2006). You can link to the decision from Sentencing Law and Policy's post.

Wednesday also saw the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (F.I.R.E.) release it's end of year report on First Amendment freedoms on campus...pretty dismal reading. Between the Cartoon wars and college newspaper thefts and attacks on religious freedom on public campus's it was a pretty busy year, for Fire Volunteers.

In another example of bad cases making bad law, Talkleft's TChris blogged about a federal judge releasing Major League Baseball Drug testing results to US Prosecutors in the widening Balco Steroid case. Here is the warning quote:

Your employer wants you to submit to drug testing but assures you that the results will be kept confidential. Is your privacy protected? Don't count on it.

On Friday Eugene Volokh asks What's Wrong With Retired Federal Judges Filing a Friend-of-the-Court Brief?. Seems a bunch of former federal judges got together to suggest to the DC Circuit how to decide one of the Guantanamo cases attacking the new military tribunals law. The Circuit felt the judges were trading on their titles as former judges. What is interesting is that the chief judge who opposed taking their former colleagues amicus briefs (which the government did not oppose) was David Sentenelle who always would address Ken Starr as Judge Starr during the Clinton/Whitewater investigation.

On Saturday Harlan Protass over at Second Circuit Sentencing Blog blogs two cases seeking (and getting) significantly below guideline range sentences. Harlan worries that the amount under guidelines will set off an appeal in the Second Circuit.

Harlan is right back to us on Saturday morning with this post concerning whether the Second Circuit panel in United States v. Jones, No. 05-5312-CR, 2006 WL 3687530 (2d Cir. Dec. 12, 2006) has impermissible changed the standard of review of Booker sentences.

Here is the money quote from the decision:

What does the Second Circuit mean when it says it reviews sentences for "unreasonableness"? We know from cases like Fernandez and Rattoballi that the Second Circuit is deferential to sentencing court determinations. But does Jones indicate a higher level of deference? In other words, if the Second Circuit's review is only for "unreasonableness," is the Second Circuit indicating that a sentencing court's sentence is presumptively reasonable? And, if so, does that gut the entire purpose of reasonableness review?

Sunday saw the late night release of Justice Roberts report on the state of the Courts. Roberts basically demanded a raise for judges. I think he makes a very good point. Federal judges earn less than Law Professors and Law school deans. Roerts points out that if we don't start to give raises soon we are going to get judges who are so rich they are not in the same situation as the litigants before them or judges for whom the present salary is a pay raise. He points to the evidence of how many Government lawyers leave to go to the Judiciary. The guys over at the Wall Street Journal talk about it here. They see it differently. At over two hundred thousand a year they feel judges should be thankful for having their jobs.
I disagree and hope that a pay raise will attract some practicing criminal lawyers onto the bench.

Finally there is a rather mystical journey over at Blawg Review 89. Check it out. It was quite the travelogue.

Ok till next time, you can reach us with an email to me at Catlaw1@yahoo.com and enjoy a happy and healthy New Year's Day. Drive carefully.

Of HOPE and Charity: Some Interesting Stories & A Few Thoughts

,A few stories "ripped from the headlines." if you will:

I. Newsday Reports on Suffolk County New York Drug Dealers as Murderers Initiative
Yesterday's edition of Newsday had this story on a new policing initiative. Seems a lot of kids are dying of drug overdosing. Their stories do not get reported because the Cause of Death is normally reported as accidental. Parents and other family members do not want the publicity. Suffolk County NY however has decided to try to treat these cases as murders or manslaughter and seek to find the drug dealers who help these young people become corpses.
I have often wondered over the years why this wasn't done already. After all giving a kid "Smack" or "Dust" seems no different than handing a suicidal person a gun. In fact it is probably worse. At least the suicide wants to die, usually not the intent in the latter case.
On the other hand I am reminded of the John Belushi case where fellow user was accused of helping Belushi die by providing the drugs to him. The trick here is to use this charge against pushers. People who live their lives primarily in the sale of drugs. I am not talking about a fellow "hype" or user, I mean the prosecutions ought to be pointed at big dealers. The other positive of this is to get the serious nature of these drugs and of being involved in these drugs out in the open so maybe the deaths of these naive kids will not be in vain.

II. The Children of Hope Need YOU!!

Two abandoned infants are buried next to each other in Holy Rood Catholic Cemetery. Both carry the last name "HOPE."

My friend Tim Jaccard had the grim task of burying each infant. Tim is a hero in my book. He fought and obtained state approval for the safe haven program where young mothers can drop kids off at a site that will take the kids no questions asked. They can give up the kids and leave. It is saving lives. Getting the word out is still tough especially among minority and immigrant kids. Tim is in charge of the Children of Hope Foundation. He works with these young mothers and mothers to be and talks them down from the fear and into the world of adoption. He and his foundation have saved numerous kids, both Moms and infants. I hope this Christmas, Tim can focus on those he saved rather than the two he lost in the last month. Click here to send a donation.


III. Speaking of Donations, Only You can save Meals on Wheels

If you were a shut in and had no way to get food, what would you do? Who would you turn to?
About 100 people sick infirm and needy turn to Meals on Wheels Huntington, Inc. They are there day after day meal after meal helping to make a difference in the lives of these people.
They are about to go out of business. They have less than 60 days before they lose their home. Seems their building is dilapidated and the Red Cross (owner of the building)can't keep it up anymore.
"Meals" present rent is Two Hundred Fifty Dollars a month, their new rent in a new place will be a minimum of One Thousand Dollars a month, Unless... They can find an angel. A Horace P. Bogardus. A landlord who has say 300 sq. Feet of space that he can give or rent to them so they can keep up their life giving work. ARE YOU THAT ANGEL???? If so call them at 631-271-5150. Remember what Father O'Malley said about good deeds helping to cure an bad heart...

IV. A New Blog From A New Arena

I do not usually write about a new blog unless I see it putting out a lot of posts. On the other hand, most new blawgs do not start off with a mention in the venerable Volokh Conspiracy on of American BLawg lands most popular blogs.
So what makes this one different. Well it is written by former US District Court Judge H Lee Sorokin of the Jersey Branch of the US District Court. It is written in a no nonsense style and it appears the judge is not happy with the way the American government and especially the Executive branch is treating the US Constitution. So far the Blog X JUDGE is getting a lot of hits and a lot of comments. Some of which a judge would not usually hear. Welcome to the Blogoshpere your honor. Keep your helmet on and keep on writing.

V. THEY'RE CONGRESSMEN NOT TRIAL LAWYERS

What a surprise, the Congressman named to chair the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE (now there is an oxymoron if ever there was one) doesn't know the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni Muslim. He also doesn't know which one supplies Al Queda (Sunnis) and which ones support Hamas (Shiites). We're already off to a rollicking start...
Hattip: Volokh Conspiracy

VI Facebook Follies Can Hurt Your Job Prospects

DUH????!!!! Need we say more?

VI. Is the Rabbi "The Grinch That Stole Christmas??" NOPE! It's His Lawyer!!

Constitutional law is probably the hardest subject to grasp, especially when it comes to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

This story tells why lawyers who are not well schooled in the area of First amendment protections should stay away from giving advice on it to laymen, especially those that think they are aggrieved.

Seems the good people who run the Seattle-Tacoma airport wanted to spread a little seasonal cheer. They put up a couple of Christmas Tree displays. A local rabbi, rather than write to them and ask them to come up with some other displays next year, ran to the press and said "They better put up a Menorah or I am going to Sue!!"

The people who run the airport not having time to figure out the establishment clause issues, decided that they would just be Skipping Christmas this year.

His Lawyer a personal injury and sometimes criminal lawyer says ""They've darkened the hall instead of turning the lights up," said Bogomilsky's lawyer, Harvey Grad (this is a bad link but I just couldn't give him anymore free publicity, you'll have to get it yourself). "There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch."

No Harve the Jewish community isn't the grinch, it is the person who told Rabbi Bogomilsky that he could demand a Menorah.

You see, A Christmas Tree, Reindeer, Santa Claus, and Frosty the Snowman, are not religious symbols. They are symbols of the season. A Nativity Scene are Religious symbols, just as is a Menorah.

A Dreidel is not however a Religious symbol and is what the Rabbi should have asked for. Moreover, you should have advised the Rabbi not to make a federal case of it this year, but to ask and see how it went next year. If things were unchanged THEN you should have advised him to sue... Then again you and your client wouldn't have gotten any publicity...

I bet it sure seemed like a good idea at the time though. Next time leave the heavy lifting to the First amendment guys and stick with the winter's slip and falls...

UPDATE:
The Christmas Trees are back up in Seattle-Tacoma Airport. The Rabbi has agreed to drop his potential lawsuit and suprise: the trees reappeared. Hmmm I didn't know Christmas Trees were afraid of lawsuits... you learn something everyday.
Of course, maybe they all just read this post and they learned something about the establishment clause...Nah.