Congratulations to Slaw and The Court founder Simon Fodden for being featured in the article "The Paperless Chase" by Emily White in the July/August 2009 edition of National, the Canadian Bar Association magazine (see pages 38 & 39). Simon talks at length about Slaw, law blogging, and technological change.
In the article, Simon explains:
I think there are a good many lawyers who would like to write much more than they do…Of course, they write memos and opinions, but I think they'd like to expand on a topic. And blogs give them that opportunity to do that.
White also says:
Blogs like Slaw are taking the previously cloistered discussion of law and opening it up to a whole new field of writers like students, young associates and partners so busy they'd never have time to write a 10,000-word case analysis. The result, which Slaw captures, is a whole raft of new voices, opinions, and challenges from people with whom lawyers rarely interact.
…
"Many lawyers are stuck using email and Blackberries," says Fodden. Even as lawyers stay in place, however, the technology around them continues to develop. "It isn't going to stay with blogs," he says. "These technological developments and forms don't stay still. They just keep developing, with increasing rapidity." Lawyers who fail to pay at least some attention to blogs might be blindsided, as the most current legal research, commentary and cutting-edge information continues to migrate to the web.
Kudos, Simon!
Great article (my edition just arrived on my desk).
I had not realized the mention in the article that you wrote detective stories in the 1980's under the pseudonym Simon Ritchie (I just searched SLAW and clearly must have missed the earlier posting a few years ago mentioning your fiction writing in a comment).
That makes you one of the coolest people I know. However, perhaps that does not say much. One of my co-workers has an iPhone and that makes her one the coolest people I know!