Blogs and social networks as free sources of information useful to law-departments

A huge source of information about the law resides in blogs. The ABA Journal, Vol. 94, Sept. 2008 at 54, drawing on responses of approximately 850 lawyers to a nationwide survey, states that two percent of American lawyers maintain a law blog. Since there are something like one million lawyers practicing in the United States, that would mean 20,000 law-related blawgs! If that number is even close to reality and a moderate portion of the blogs are active, it means an incredible amount of law-related material is available at no cost online.

The article adds that eight percent of all law firms in America “maintain a law blog.” The Journal may be confusing web sites and blogs, but either way it means that more explanations of statutes, regulations, and areas of law are online – not to mention tour de force blogs on law department management (See my post of March 9, 2007: the price of legal information is being driven to zero; Jan. 10, 2006: lawyer time online; Nov. 15, 2005: online resources; Jan. 13, 2006: free online information; Jan. 28, 2008: hard to find the right law firm through the internet; and Jan. 25, 2008: Martindale-Hubble and shared evaluations of law firms.).

Finally, the survey found that 15 percent of lawyers have joined a social network, while four percent of firms have joined one (See my post of Feb. 21, 2008: Texas Bar Circle network; Jan. 19, 2008: LinkedIn; Aug. 15, 2008: legal department management group on LinkedIn; Jan. 30, 2008 #2: LawLink; March 9, 2007: Legal OnRamp; March 25, 2008: PreCYdent; and March 16, 2008: Web 2.0 and in-house lawyers.).