MyShingle Is Proud to Be Part of the 18 Percent
Solos comprise at least 60 percent of practicing lawyers, yet that’s not always apparent from mainstream legal publications which focus largely on the accomplishments of and matters relevant to large firm practice. Slowly, however, blogs are chipping away at the legal caste system that by giving solos a powerful megaphone to influence the law and our profession. This year’s ABA Blawg 100 is proof. Solo bloggers comprise 18 percent of the top 100; twenty percent if you eliminate the dozen blogs in the News and Opinions categories which are occupied by professional journalists and academics.
What’s more – if you look at the solo blogs included in the top 100 (the majority are in the criminal defense category with the remainder spread between LPM, Tech and Niche), you’ll find that most of them don’t just focus narrowly on legal issues or dutifully report on recent cases with nothing more. Instead, most solo bloggers are addressing big picture issues – from the ethics of lawyer marketing and conduct (six of the ABA Top 100 Blawgs, albeit not just solos, are defendants in Rakofsky Sues the Internet), the relevance of legal education the policy implications of Supreme Court decisions and most of all, what it’s like to practice as solo lawyer in today’s world. I am honored to be included in the 18 percent – and awed at MyShingle’s inclusion in the ABA Blawg 100 for the fifth year running.
My teenage daughter suggests fairly regularly I show that I’m “way old.” So, perhaps, here is more confirmation of her thinking….
At one point in the not too distant past the appropriate response of the “crowd” would be “you go girl!”
I continue. The ABA approach is very disappointing. Particularly at a time when the “technology” they effectively discourage in the law practice is becoming responsible for the popular notion that “lawyering” just isn’t relevant to many poeple (except of course to those who need the services of Skaddenized attorneys). Need a Will? Need to incorporate a business? Need a divorce? Need a contract? Need to file for a patent? The “legal” aspects of like that touch all most everyone. It is interesting to me that an organization that values so greatly its contribution to the needs of the “pro bono” community, approachesthe oo
I continue. …approaches the most significant shift in the world economy since the industrial revolution with eyes glued in the rearview mirror.
Congrats, Carolyn.