Michael Ferguson

LexBlog’s associate editor, Melissa Lin , shared on Twitter this week a blog post of mine on some of the reasons that lawyers blog – to learn, to join a conversation and to build a community. To which Josh King , the former general counsel of Avvo and the current general counsel of realself  added, “Also makes you a better lawyer. Also makes you a better lawyer. — Josh King (@joshuamking) September 27, 2019 I have been following King’s blog for years. He has a keen interest in the professional speech regulation of lawyers, and how that regulation may not serve the public interest. I’ve watched him pick up relevant news stories, whether from traditional media or legal bloggers, dissect the issue, analyze the law and share his commentary. Good stuff. I engaged him and others on many of his posts. King was doing exactly one of the things we were told in law school, and which the consumer of legal services would like to see in their lawyer, he was staying up to speed in relevant

Josh Lynch , our CTO, shared with the team last week an update of our product roadmap for this Fall. Any company obsessed with customers is going to be advancing technology all of the time, especially tech companies where we’re constantly shipping (delivering) software to customers. Software delivered in the form of core updates, features and user experience enhancements is not always apparent to the user and customer. That may not matter so long as the experience gets better and better. I suggested to the team though that we get better in sharing what we’re working on and what we’re thinking. Give you a look inside the factory to see what’s going on and to give us a little direction along the way. As a blogging company filled with bloggers, it’s not like all we have are press releases and a website to “communicate” with you. Short of detailed explanations, here’s our Fall roadmap. Roadmap Methodology A roadmap is a guide, not a detailed project plan , and this is a 666 Roadma

Imagine a “LexBlog Con” where leading legal brands from startups to traditional larger players to law firms are offered the opportunity to connect with legal bloggers. After all, legal bloggers are quickly supplanting reporters and traditional media as the influencers of our legal community. From a blogger attendee, today, at BlogHer19 in Brooklyn. Day 1 of @BlogHer was wonderful. So many amazing brands to connect with #blogher19 #blogherpro #blogherlife #blogherstyle #blogherhealth19 #womenslifestyle #lifestyleblogger #lifestyleblog pic.twitter.com/IIcVrg9apz — Mademoiselle Skinner (@guestlistblog) September 18, 2019 There may not be a better way for legal industry companies to connect with the biggest influencers in legal than a conference of legal bloggers, ala LexBlog Con. LexBlog Con could start as simple as BlogHer did years ago and, as we had discussed for this last year, as a larger meetup of legal bloggers for a day of blogger education and networking. But

On today’s anniversary of 9/11, I couldn’t help but to think back on twenty years ago. I draw inspiration from the challenges and adversity we face as a country and the heroes who rise on those occasions to help others – I got it from my Mom. On 9/11, eighteen years ago today, I was in a Boston hotel across the street from where the five terrorists who flew the American Airlines plane into the first World Trade Center stayed. I was in Boston after selling Prairielaw.com, a virtual legal community, to LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell. We were in Boston to do usability testing for lawyers.com, a consumer and small business law site which incorporated the community and content we created at Praielaw.com. My heart was only half in Martindale. My baby and my dream of helping lawyers and the people they served was sold to a large corporation. Today, thinking of 9/11, makes me wonder why average folks like me can’t rise to the occasion when it comes to the challenges we face as a country. W

LexBlog is making it’s aggregated and curated data base of legal blogs freely available to legal research providers (libraries, legal research companies/platforms, AI solutions) via an enhanced RSS feed. Providers will have open and free access to almost a half a million legal blog posts and ongoing feed of posts from 1,400 blogs and 23,000 blog authors. Legal blogs represent the leading source of legal insight and commentary on the law today. Articles from lawyers, law professors, law students and business professionals in the legal field that used to find their way into law reviews, journals, periodicals and even books are now predominately published on WordPress, an open source publishing solution which grew out of blog publishing. These articles, then annotated case law, codes and regulations, the things we classify as primary law. It was common practice for lawyers to cite at the trial and appellate level this secondary law as persuasive analysis of primary law – still is, ex