I truly hate these things. The anonymous editor of Blawg Review (who I don’t hate) has started a meme he calls Simply the Best. He’s tagged his top 10 law blogs; each of them, in turn, is supposed to tag theirs, and so on, until we end up with one great big group hug. I’ve now been tagged — by both J. Craig Williams and Monica Bay — and had to think long and hard before joining in. (Legal Blog Watch, where I co-blog with Carolyn Elefant, has also been tagged.
Here’s the problem: My feedreader tells me that I subscribe to the RSS feeds of roughly 350 blogs. Those are the ones I at least scan on a regular basis. Almost every day, it seems, I discover yet another blog that I like. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of really good blogs out there. To pick 10 from among them is somewhat arbitrary and certainly capricious.
Then again, it is a question I am frequently asked when I give seminars — not my top 10, necessarily, but which blogs I consider to be among the best. There are a few I regularly point to, so let’s see if I can keep it to 10. (Since they tagged me already, I am omitting Williams and Bay so as not to appear biased; they’d otherwise be here.). In no particular order, they are:
- SCOTUSblog. I regularly cite this as the best demonstration of blogging’s potential as a legitimate source of news and commentary.
- beSpacific. Sabrina Pacifici knows her topic, knows her audience and knows her sources, allowing her to deliver day in and day out.
- MyShingle.com. Anyone who thinks I choose Carolyn Elefant just because she’s my co-blogger at Legal Blog Watch would be way wrong. Carolyn saw a need way back when for a blog that spoke to solo and small-firm lawyers, and she ran with it.
- LawBeat. Mark Obbie has staked out a blogging niche at the intersection of law and journalism, where he never writes a dull post.
- Real Lawyers Have Blogs. Kevin O’Keefe watches over trends in legal blogging with a combination of insight and attitude.
- f/k/a …. Some bloggers shoot from the hip, but never David Giacalone — his posts are always thoughtful and, like the poet he is, he finds universal truths in daily events.
- Legal Profession Blog. The stories reported here of ethical and professional misconduct never cease to amaze me.
- Overlawyered. Rarely do I see eye-to-eye with authors Walter Olson and Ted Frank, but darned if they don’t write one interesting blog.
- TalkLeft. Jeralyn Merritt keeps fighting the good fight against criminal and political injustice.
- How Appealing. Howard Bashman is the Energizer Bunny of legal blogging.
There. It was painful but I did it. Happy now, Blawg Review ed.?