As if Rich Baer, Qwest’s energetic and outspoken General Counsel, were not busy enough, he has seized the keyboard and joined the fray as a blogger. Please welcome Baer to blogdom and take a look at his Reliance on Counsel.
I like the first several posts, especially his self-effacing observations on how much being promoted to the GC pedestal increases everyone’s assumptions about your IQ and acumen. His thoughts on that and other elements of the chief lawyer position will be most welcome.
One aggregated post (what I call a metapost) and two individual posts since its appearance have noted and welcomed blogs by in-house counsel (See my post of Feb. 17, 2011: lists 11 blogs by in-house lawyers; March 1, 2011: Melanie Hatton blog; and March 3, 2011: Mr. Bizzle blawg.). A third in-house blog hove into view, The GC’s Eye View.
Tom Kilroy, chief lawyer of a listed UK software company, writes the blog. Kilroy is from the UK as are Tim Bratton, Melanie Hatton and the mysterious Mr. Bizzle, The GC’s Eye view offers the observations of a General Counsel. The site’s background says Kilroy began the blog early this year so it has not had much time to find its voice. Anyway, the chorus of law department blogs always welcomes new singers!
This newest find is cloaked in secrecy, since Mr. Bizzle blogs under cover of darkness. Why? “I blog anonymously because I feel less self-conscious that way. I haven’t covered my tracks that well, so I try to avoid controversy.” What is it with this penchant for secrecy among in-house bloggers?
Mr. Bizzle, a UK solicitor, does give some clues. “I’m an in house commercial/contracts lawyer, mostly doing outsourcing work. I trained in house, which means that in contrast to the rest of the profession I’m a relatively ordinary person with a sense of perspective and a social conscience. However, in common with all lawyers I am poorly socialised and have an enormous (and entirely unwarranted) self-regard.”
When I came across In-House Lawyer, I noticed Melanie Hatton’s credentials. She is the top lawyer for the UK company Latitude, an online digital marketing company. She started blogging in mid-2009 and has put up 49 posts since then.
In Melanie’s words, “I post about legal and business issues that interest me, mostly related to my day job. Because I’m an in house lawyer, there’s probably more of the business and not so much of the law. I also do requests.”
Her site has sharp visuals, good comments, and Melanie is a welcome addition to the in-house blawgosphere.
On my first day of this blog, Feb. 20, 2005, I published seven posts. Since then, 6,174 more posts have trailed along over six years, including more than 500 metaposts and nearly 600 comments.
The very first post, about groups general counsel might join, appears as a reference in four later posts. The second post, gently chiding the notion of trends in law department management, earned only one reference in the following half-dozen years. I also noticed that 13 days passed before I published four more posts.
Sigh. Time passes and blogs grow up. Happy Birthday, Law Department Management Blog!
At the risk of overlooking someone, a scouring of my posts turned up nearly a dozen in-house lawyers, past or current, who host a blog, or in one case the equivalent of one. I welcome hearing about additions to this list.
James Bartlett, senior attorney with Northrop Grumman (See my post of Jan. 24, 2010: export-import laws as a listserv mailing list.).
Tim Bratton, general counsel of the Financial Times (See my post of Feb. 14, 2011: LegalBrat.).
My approach for the newsletter is to start with what RSS readers of my blog chose most frequently to view. Feedburner identified the ten posts published during January that had the most views and clicks. My newsletter reprints those top ten posts in declining order and adds two more comments about each one. It challenges me to push beyond what I originally wrote and the combination hopefully engages readers.
You can subscribe through the sign-up block on the right or drop me an email (See my post of Feb. 22, 2010: first issue of newsletter; July 26, 2010: nearly 300 subscribers; and Nov. 22, 2010: five most frequently chosen posts.).
When Tim Bratton, the general counsel of the prestigious Financial Times, casts his pen into the ring of blogging, it is good to take note and doff the hat. Even if Bratton disagrees with my earlier “tossed off” post about DLA Piper and its minimum fees requirement, I am delighted to welcome him to the small fold of law department bloggers (See my post of Sept. 22, 2010: Jon Olson’s General Counsel Diary; and Feb. 8, 2011: Perry Cone and Leading Inhouse.).
Bratton broke the bottle on his blog ship in November 2010 and has posted about a dozen times since then. Welcome, Tim!
Perry Cone, the former general counsel of Citizen’s Insurance and now with GrayRobinson, has inaugurated his blog on leadership and coaching for in-house lawyers. He draws on his experience managing in-house teams as well as his wide-ranging reading. The blog looks very good and already has quite a stock of thoughtful comments. I encourage you to visit his blog site and say hello to Perry.
Another in my series of thanks and gratitude (See my post of Nov. 15, 2009: history of this series; Jan. 4, 2010: seventh set; and May 28, 2010: eighth set.). I very much appreciate all those who let their readers know about my blog.
Law Department Management Blog