LAWPRO Magazine did an interview with Garry Wise, which mentioned OMG! Law Talk and Omar Ha-Redeye.  The issue focused on the use of social media by lawyers and law firms.

See more on Slaw.

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My nominations for the 2009 CLawBies Awards.

Despite being conflicted I have to start with Jordan Furlong, especially for posts like this:

Firms focus relentlessly on the students with the highest grades… even though these students can be one-dimensional performers with an affinity for the academic environment and no competing pressures outside the classroom. Contrast that with an older student, perhaps with a couple of kids and a part-time job, with or without a partner at home, who took an unorthodox route to law school and perhaps struggles to compete with the younger students — but who is still bright, hard-working, experienced and capable of being a standout lawyer. The firms never even look at graduates like that, and an opportunity is missed on both sides.

Then there’s always stories like this one which make the choices in a legal career really easy to make,

Nearly half of aboriginal and visible minority lawyers are associates, compared with one-third of white lawyers. And the minority groups are more likely to work as in-house lawyers, in government, in business or as sole practitioners.

As for pay, minority lawyers earned $40,000 less on average than did white lawyers… “This suggests the systemic exclusion of aboriginal and members of visible minorities from the most lucrative jobs.”

Instead, we make our own opportunities like getting involved in social media, becoming what Lawrence Gridin jokes as, “the most famous law student in Canada.”  The upside of my approach is that I get people like Dan Michaluk calling me “a fascinating guy.”

That’s not the reason why I’m nominating his site, All About Information, as one of my three, but it sure doesn’t hurt.  Instead, it stems out of my increasing interest in Internet and privacy law, despite never taking a single related course at law school, and my focus during articles in litigation.

Which leads me to my second nomination, also mentioned by Dan: Antonin Pribetic of The Trial Warrior.  Blogging really is my legal education outside of the classroom, and veterans like Pribetic are a gold mine of information.  You can get a better idea of his legal philosophy from a paper that explains the origin of the name of his blog.

Given the issues raised above, I would have to pick Donna Seale‘s Human Rights in the Workplace as my final pick.  In fact, Donna caught the above story about discrimination in her last episode of Twitter Talk.  Maybe we’ll get change in the Canadian workplace down the road.  Maybe we’ll even get change in the Canadian legal workplace too, eventually.  I’ll keep ClawBie’ing away along until it does.

I’m obviously conflicted out from Slaw, Law is Cool, and even Wise Law Blog, given the collaborative projects I’ve worked on with Garry.

OMG! Law Talk is launched today, with Omar Ha-Redeye, Michael Carabash, and Garry Wise.

The online video show features:

• Lawyers Who Blog;
• Managing the Public vs. the Private;
• Augmenting the Public with the Personal;
• Rants and Bones to Pick; and
• Search Engine Malpractice.

See the story behind the video on Slaw and Law is Cool.

From the Wise Law Blog:

…Michael also recently completed an interesting personal profile of intrepid law student and Slaw and Law is Cool blawger, Omar Ha-Redeye.

I have learned quite a bit over two recent dinner discussions with Michael and Omar, who are both extremely insightful and knowledgeable about just about everything.
They are among the leaders of a creative, new breed of tech-savvy legal thinkers who are guided by a genuine understanding of how emerging web-based technologies are changing the way lawyers and our clients can and will interact.
Quite a few ideas came out of those two discussions, and Omar, Michael and I will have something very interesting in store for you in the very near future… (shameless teaser alert)…

When we first launched Law is Cool in 2007, we were pleasantly surprised to receive a Canadian Law Blog Award (CLawBie) only months after being online.

This year Steve Matthews is asking that we nominate blogs that we read.

1. Without question my top pick would be Jordan Furlong‘s Law21.  Jordan has years of experience in the field, and provides unique insights and perspectives that can’t find anywhere else online.  He’s also been an incredible support for us law students starting out, sending us notes and updates on a number of issues.
2. My next pick would be Garry Wise, of the Wise Law Blog.  His site is updated with amazing frequency for a guy who runs his own practice.  He’s also been instrumental in trying out some new initiatives like a video series (featuring me), and the Wise Law Reader.  Innovation is always great in a conservative field like law, and early adopters will always catch my attention.
3. One of my more recent top picks would be David Canton’s e-legal, a lawyer here in London that I have yet to meet in person (we have to change that David).  He regularly publishes articles in newspapers on tech related issues, and his site is a great way to keep track of what he’s up to.

Donna Seale also mentioned some of the difficulties of just picking three, so I’ll note some honourable mentions, including her site:  Connie Crosby, The Court, Rob Hyndman, Michael Geist, Legal Post, Stem Legal, UofA Faculty (despite their politics)

Steve also mentions that through the nomination process we automatically submit our own site.  Please don’t consider this site at all, it’s used for personal use only.  Do consider Slaw and Law Is Cool though, and I will disclose that Jordan and David are contributors at Slaw, and The Court has contributors at Law Is Cool.  It’s really tough avoiding conflict of interests here.

Garry Wise, a Toronto lawyer, launched a law blog aggregator recently.  Omar covered the move on Slaw, noting similar developments in the PR field recently.

The best part about it was the video prominently featured on the launch page.

Garry was kind enough to say earlier this year that Omar would be an asset to any law firm he joined.

The video from the Progressive Bloggers Meetup has been posted by Garry Wise.

The video features Deb Prothero of Seeing Red in Southwest, Omar Ha-Redeye of Law is Cool and Slaw, and Jennifer Smith of Runesmith’s Canadian Content.

The topic of the interviews was the impending election in the U.S.  Everyone interviewed supported Obama of course.

The Progressive Bloggers held a meetup in Waterloo at the Waterloo Central Railway.

Attendees included Jeff Jedras of A BCer in Toronto, Jennifer Smith of Runesmith’s Canadian Content, the anonymous CC of Canadian Cynic, Toronto lawyer Garry Wise of Wise Law, Ruth Ellis Haworth of Yappa Ding Ding, and Deb Prothero of Seeing Red in Southwest.

Deb, who runs the Waterloo Railway, was kind enough to host the event.

Garry took some videos for his new video series that will be posted on his site soon.