In the March 11, 2011 issue of The Lawyers Weekly, Luigi Benetton interviews Omar Ha-Redeye on his blogging experiences and tips for effective blogging.
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Luigi Benetton interviews Omar Ha-Redeye |
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| RUNNING A legal blog takes commitment | |
(Back, From Left: Andrew Feldstein, Omar Ha-Redeye, Bob Tarantino, Chris Jaglowitz, Lorraine Fleck, Connie Crosby, Syed Ali Ahmed (Front, From Left): Antonin Pribetic, Dan Pinnington, Monica Goyal, Michael Carabash, Garry Wise, Joel Welch, Adam Goodman
Roll call:
Omar Ha-Redeye was quoted in the November/December 2009 issue of Lexpert Magazine in The Virtual Legal Marketplace by Marzena Czarnecka of Falstaff Productions,
That’s the thinking behind Torys‘ new YouTube Channel (www.youtube.com/torysmedia). “We had the podcasts and videos on our website anyway,” says [Stuart] Wood. Cost and effort of putting them on YouTube? Minimal. The pay-off? Still under evaluation at Torys. The online legal community has given the venture a thumbs-up. Law is Cool (www.lawiscool.com). the law school blog and podcast from Canada, loves it. Writes founder Omar Ha-Redeye, “This is what I’ve been waiting for…. This project shows that the firm understands that students want a human face to firms that often appear intimidating.~ (He adds that the venture proves that “social media and viral videos are no longer for small firms or solo practices~ – if Torys is doing it, they’ve gone mainstream.)
A copy of the article can be found on the Davis LLP website.
Results from the 2009 Canadian Law Blog Awards (CLawBies) are in, and Law is Cool and Slaw are both winners:
1) Best Canadian Law Blog (or Blogger) Award: Slaw – As most readers will already know, Slaw is not only a huge presence on the Canadian law blog scene, but it’s also a testament to the innovative and creative vision of Simon Fodden. It’s often hard to see how Slaw could get better, but it did in 2009. Want proof? See this year’s guest blogging initiatives, which included major law firms, provincial ombudsmen from across Canada, plus five Justices from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Add a DK Blawggies recognition, and we have a winner! Runner ups: Canadian Privacy Law Blog, Wise Law Blog
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3) Legal Culture Award – Law is Cool – Two of the fastest rising stars in Canadian legal blogging just happen to be law students. Lawrence Gridin and Omar Ha-Redeye lead an impressive group of contributors at Law is Cool, and are seeding the queue with more law student bloggers for the future. Bravo! Culture doesn’t happen without a little sweat equity. Runner ups: Precedent, Dynamic Lawyers Parody Videos
A special thanks to those who gave a special mention to me (although I freely lend my authority to the other sites I’m affiliated with instead):
Antonin Pribetic – My Nominees for the 2009 Canadian Law Blog Awards (the “CLawBies”)
Omar Ha-Redeye Blog: http://www.omarha-redeye.com/): Omar Ha-Redeye is a J.D. candidate at the University of Western Law School and a leading light in the Canadian blawging community. His publications include scientific journals, trade magazines, and contributions to university textbooks. Ha-Redeye has served as a Senior Administrator for a tsunami relief team that operated in rural Aceh, Indonesia and consulted NGO’s and businesses on crisis communications. He has taken the lead in the field of reputation management law. A frequent contributor to Slaw.ca and Law Is Cool, I admire Omar’s dedication to law, justice and human rights.
Donna Seale – My Picks for the 2009 CLawBies
3. My last pick is Slaw. Slaw is a co-operative weblog covering pretty much anything that has a connection to Canadian law and it does that in spades. Since I started following this blog a few years ago it has grown leaps and bounds and now has so many contributors I’ve lost count. In fact, it has grown so much that I sometimes find it hard to keep up with the blog’s multitude of posts, but I always find something in my feedreader from Slaw that is of interest and use to me. I do have to admit, though, that because of the sheer volume of content coming from Slaw I have taken to scouting out posts from particular Slaw contributers — David Bilinsky, Dan Michaluk, Steve Matthews, Jordan Furlong, Omar Ha-Redeye always top my list because they produce content I find personally relevant.
Connie Crosby - My nominations for the Clawbies
Like almost everyone else who have blogged their picks, I can’t help but mention others who are well deserving and should be included in any “top Canadian law blogs list” – Library Boy by Michel-Adrien Sheppard, Law is Cool by an ever-growing slate of law students, created by the inimitable Omar Ha-Redeye, Thoughtful Legal Management by David Bilinsky, Canadian Privacy Law Blog by David Fraser, Michael Geist’s blog which has a reach far, far outside the legal community in Canada, and Halo Secretarial blog by Laurie Mapp who is a legal virtual assistant (or legal VA) and helps me stay on track in my day to day work. And so many others!
Blawger of the Year – Omar Ha-Redeye
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.
A new contributor on LawIsCool is attracting a lot of attention.
Ryan Venables is a former police officer from Vaughn who just started law school at the University of Western Ontario.
He has drawn on his unique experience to provide some very interesting commentary on a number of related subjects. He even got an interview with CFRB for one of his posts.
Check them out:
When the North American Summit Leaders’ Summit was held in Montebello, Quebec in August 2007, something came to the attention of Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.
Amidst a seemingly peaceful protest, Coles noticed that three bandana-clad “burly” men were attempting to incite the protestors to become violent toward riot police…
On May 23, when Anthony Bennett was captured on video camera stealing $60 worth of plants from David Chen’s, Mr. Chen’s Lucky Moose Market located in Toronto, it set off a chain of events that may lead to a reform of what is known as “citizen’s arrest” rights here in Canada. Ironically, it was Chen who was also arrested by the Toronto Police Service, and charges are being sought by the Ministry of the Attorney General and the Toronto Crown’s office. However, they are seeking a quick resolution and have offered Chen a guilty plea. Refusing Crown offer of a guilty plea, Chen is hedging his bets on a legal challenge. The Globe & Mail article spells out much of the previous facts…
On Sunday October 18th I woke up as I usually do, turning to the news to see what I missed while I was dreaming of something I would undoubtedly not remember… I recall rolling my eyes when I heard of another death in the Jane/Finch area, an area I visited on occasion in a past career and hear of often while watching the news. Then the pictures flashed across the screen. A BMW. A Honda Odessey. A seat. Engine. Bodies (yes that is PLURAL!). All strewn across a street that normally attracts attention for shell casings, and knife blades. I have seen fatal car accidents, dead bodies, but none of that amounted to the carnage inflicted to that minivan…
After learning of the arrest of University of Western Ontario student Irnes Zeljkovic on Wednesday October 14, 2009, I looked up The Toronto Star article which led me to two videos on YouTube. The comments there, unfortunately, like always, are quite polarizing. On one side, there are those who think that the police were well within their rights to arrest an actively resisting suspect, and there are those who feel that the police are overstepping the boundary and are assaulting Mr. Zeljkovic. After looking at all the available information, I am firmly in the middle of these two views.
I am fortunate enough to be able to dissect this video from the perspective of a former police officer…
This Magazine covered Lawrence Gridin‘s post on Law is Cool regarding the election debates on their site.
This Magazine is is one of Canada’s longest-publishing alternative journals, in circulation for over 40 years.
Alternative media is increasingly citing blogs and websites as sources, and slowly mainstream media are doing the same.
Several contributors from Law is Cool have been interviewed by larger media outlets based on their work and contribution to the site.
Jim Johnston, Green Party candidate for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, also picked up on this post on the Green Party website.
Law is Cool Slaw Canadian Health Law
