South Carolina Criminal Defense Blog

In a conversation sure to interest none of our readers except fellow bloggers, Sentencing Law and Policy, Simple Justice, and CrimLaw discuss the relationships between lawprof blogs and the "practical blawgosphere."

Greenfield's chief complaint seems to be that the lawprof's in general ignore the practitioner blogs, not linking to them and not engaging in dialogue when issues arise that both groups blog about, such as the Heller decision last week. Doug Berman responds at Sentencing Law and Policy that he has not seen such a great divide between lawprofs and practioner's blogs - in fact the blawgosphere seems to be a "terrific cyber-meeting-space for the academy and the bar (as well as the bench and law students and non-lawyers)."

On the one hand, I agree with Prof. Berman - one thing I love about the criminal blawgosphere is the "meeting" of many different types of lawyers and non-lawyers with shared interests in criminal law, whether academic or practical. I spend a few hours every day reading lawblogs of both types. On the other hand, Prof. Berman took the bait in a sense, as Greenfield also pointed out in his post that the only time lawprofs show up in the practical blawgosphere is when they are criticized and feel the need to respond.

At the heart of the issue seems to be recognition - who links to who in their blog posts, recognizing the other's ideas and building on them. Lawprofs don't often comment on practitioner's blogs, although practitioners often comment on lawprof's blogs. More often than not, lawprofs are commenting directly on appellate opinions, whereas practitioners are commenting on everything under the sun. If we are commenting on appellate opinions, it makes sense to also link to lawprof's opinions on the opinions because they are, after all, the academics. The practical blawgosphere's focus is usually commenting on daily life in the trenches, how the appellate opinions affect our work, and commentary on a wide variety of topics that impact the practice of law.

Although we would like to hear from the lawprofs on the topics we discuss, and would like recognition from time to time since, after all, academia is a wasted effort without the reality of the daily practice of law that it helps to shape, it doesn't always make sense for lawprofs to get involved in conversations from the practical blawgosphere. And, I don't see a problem with lawprofs getting but not giving recognition for excelling in an area (blogging) that is primarily academic in nature anyway.

Prof. Berman asks "if readers generally see relative harmony or a big divide between bloggers in the academy and in the bar?" I think harmony when you step back and look at the blawgosphere as a whole, but a big divide if you look at it in terms of reciprocity and recognition.