Getting the Word Out to Lawyers

The American Bar Association Journal does a list of the best law-related blogs each year, and I thought I'd ask my readers to help get this list to work for a good cause: getting more lawyers to learn about local government ethics. City Ethics will get nothing out of being named to the list. To see last year's list (it's broken up into categories; City Ethics would fall under "niche"), click here.

This being the ABA, getting on the list is based on how many people fill out a form known as a Blawg 100 Amici. It only takes a minute to fill out. You can write up to 500 words about why you're "a fan" of the City Ethics blog, or just something short.

For what it's worth, here are the criteria for submitting an amici:

There are no specific criteria that a blawgger can meet to be guaranteed a spot on the Blawg 100. And we think our list would suffer if there were. A blawg’s whole can be greater than the sum of its parts, and a blawg that never fails to post that daily update, has a beautiful design and an unwavering topical focus can very often have less of an impact than another blawg that is less consistent on all fronts.

That said, please keep these criteria in mind when submitting Blawg 100 amici:

• We’re only interested in blawgs in which the author is recognizable as a lawyer or law student in the vast majority of his or her posts.

• The blawg should be written with an audience of lawyers or law students – rather than potential clients or potential law students – in mind.

• The majority of the blawg’s content should be unique to the blawg and not cross-posted or cut and pasted from other publications.
• We are not interested in blawgs that more or less exist to promote the author’s products and services.

Robert Wechsler
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics

203-859-1959