about Slaw | our contributors | our columnists
Slaw is Canadian, co-operative, and about any and all things legal.
We began in 2005 as a blog with a focus on legal information and research, but we now consider any aspect of law our meat and drink. And our offerings have expanded: as well as blog posts, we publish columns, offer tools we've made, and link to a sister site that publishes daily tips. Our audience is primarily lawyers, law librarians, and others working in or studying law. As ever, our aim is to share knowledge, offer advice and instruction, and occasionally provoke. But please note: we do not offer legal advice, even in the most vague terms.
We operate with a core of regular contributors and a penumbra of occasional contributors, as well as a significant roster of regular columnists. We have published literally thousands of entries and have received many more thousands of comments from our readers, who are not only Canadians but can also be found in dozens of countries around the globe. We have been honoured with quite a few awards in our time: the 2008 and 2009 Blawgie for Best Overall Law-Related Blog, the 2009 Clawbie for Best Canadian Law Blog, and the Canadian Association of Law Libraries 2009 Hugh Lawford Award for Excellence in Legal Publishing, to mention a few.
I sent out the intitial invitation to participate in June of 2005 to five people, three of whom accepted. The roster quickly grew to half a dozen and we launched a month later. Most of the original members are still with us, and three — Simon Chester, Steve Matthews, and Connie Crosby — work with me as a managment committee to keep Slaw relevant and prospering.
Why “Slaw”? First of all because law.ca was already taken. But also because when I first conceived of the idea many years ago the hot e-zines all seemed to start with ’s’ — e.g. Salon, Slate… Then there’s the notion that a co-operative weblog with many contributors is bound to consist of a great many (nutritious) small pieces in rather a jumble. Finally, there’s something quintessentially Canadian about a salad metaphor… Besides, when you say “It’s Slaw,” you’ll see. That’s why.
We hope you enjoy our efforts and find them useful. Please respond to our entries with your comments: we love to hear from our readers. If you have any general comments, please feel free to send them to me using the contact link in the header.
Simon Fodden
November, 2010
about Slaw | our contributors | our columnists
