Miscellaneous

Stuff Worth Reading

By Robert Ambrogi

Here are some recent articles I recommend:

The SCOTUSblog Success Story

I’ve written several times about SCOTUSblog (most recently here and here), which stands out among legal blogs as one of the best, if not the best. Now, in the frenzy of the finish of the Supreme Court term, others outside the legal field are giving the blog what a Forbes article called its “star turn.” That article, Regardless of ObamaCare Decision, SCOTUSblog Has Already Won, by Dan Diamond, says the blog has become the “go-to source” for journalists, policymakers and anyone else who is interested in following the work of the court.

The blog’s star turn did not end there. Poynter’s MediaWire blog also featured SCOTUSblog, in a piece by Andrew Beaujon titled, SCOTUSblog spent about $10,000 to keep site running during final days of Supreme Court term. And then the blog’s ace Supreme Court reporter, Lyle Denniston, got his own star turn, as Yahoo! News profiled him (Lyle Denniston, icon of Supreme Court press corps, on health care case and being older than the justices) and journalists rallied to have #teamlyle trend on Twitter.

Lawyer Books That Don’t Waste Your Time

It seems there’s been a slew of books coming out on a variety of legal technology, management and marketing topics. But the problem with some books, says Neil J. Squillante, founder of TechnoLawyer, is that the author takes an article-length idea and stretches it into an entire book. That may be good for the author, but it’s bad for the reader, wasting your time and money.

So Squillante decided to compile a summer reading list for lawyers, searching for books he thought had “more than an article’s worth of helpful ideas and tips.” He didn’t stop there, however. He then asked each book’s author to explain why his or her book is worth the reader’s valuable time. That effort resulted in two lists, the first focused on technology and marketing books and the second on management and writing books:

• SmallLaw 2012 Summer Reading List Part 1: Technology and Marketing Books With More Than an Article’s Worth of Good Stuff.
• SmallLaw 2012 Summer Reading List Part 2: Law Firm Management and Legal Writing Books With More Than an Article’s Worth of Good Stuff.

It’s a good list for lawyers looking for practical reads for the summer — or any season.

Law Firms and Cybersecurity

Lawyers are getting smarter about cybersecurity — but not smart enough. An article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal by Jennifer Smith, Lawyers Get Vigilant on Cybersecurity, details how hackers are ramping up attacks on law firms and how law firms are ramping up security efforts. Perhaps even more interesting, the hackers are often targeting specific matters, as happened last year when several large Canadian firms involved in a big takeover deal were hacked.

Can’t happen to you? Read the article and then decide.

Full post as published by Lawsites on June 26, 2012 (boomark / email).