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Yevgen Poltenko serves as the executive director of the Legal Development Network, an association of community-based non-governmental organizations that promotes people-centered justice in Ukraine. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss the organization’s efforts to assist Ukrainians amidst the Russian invasion of their country. You can donate directly to the organization here.

When University of the Pacific - McGeorge School of Law launched McGeorge Law Today in September of 2021, it became the first law school to have a LexBlog Syndication Portal. Pulling together blogs, podcasts and more, this Portal is home to insights from McGeorge faculty, staff and alumni. As we approach the half-year mark of the initiative’s launch, Dean of the law school Michael Hunter Schwartz joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss the project. The pair also discuss the state of legal academia at large and Schwartz’s own blog, What Great Law Schools Do.

Philip Segal finds the facts that most lawyers aren’t trained to find and does so with an unwavering commitment to ethics. Along with being the founder of Charles Griffin Intelligence, Segal is the founder of not one, but two blogs: The Ethical Investigator and The Divorce Assest Hunter. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to chart his path from journalism to law and eventually law blogging.

Much like the practice group that runs it, Robinson+Cole’s Manufacturing Law Blog covers the key areas of law relevant to manufacturers and does so in expert fashion. As an environmental lawyer, Megan Baroni brings her expertise from this specific area of law to both clients and to the blog posts she writes. She joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging and shares how this interdisciplinary approach to blogging has helped her and her colleagues establish themselves as thought-leaders within the manufacturing legal space.

Ben Shatz, the Co-Chair of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips Appellate Practice Group, has one of the more unique origin stories in legal blogging. His publication, Southern California Appellate News was not an intentional marketing effort on his or his firm’s part, but rather a passing of a torch. The blog was originally founded in June of 2010 by an Orange County Court of Appeals research attorney Nathan Scott. After blogging for a few years, Scott was appointed to the bench in 2013 and selected Shatz to be his successor and carry on the blog. While it still retains its same classic look and charm, Shatz has grown the blog and its audience over what has now been almost a decade. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging and shares his thoughts on blogging and his efforts to foster a community.

Through a mix of blogging, podcasting, social media and more, Jodi Daniels has propelled her boutique data privacy consultancy to new heights. As the Founder and CEO of Red Clover Advisors, Daniels has employed a unique and highly effective content marketing strategy that allows her to share her deep knowledge of data privacy with prospective clients, earn their trust and build real and meaningful relationships with them. She joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging and shares her entrepreneurial story and the advice she has for others.

The Marshall Project—named in honor of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall—is a nonprofit news outlet devoted to covering the U.S. criminal justice system. The organization focuses on deep investigative reporting which has earned it two Pulitzer Prizes since it launched in 2014. Susan Chira became the Editor-in-Chief of The Marshall Project after a successful career at The New York Times. She joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss The Marshall Project’s newest initiative in Cleveland, Ohio.

Lindsay Brandon says you can credit both blogging and Seattle sports to starting her on her career path in sports law. As a writer she focused much of her effort on covering the intersection of sports, social justice and the law and is now a practicing associate at the Law Offices of Howard L. Jacobs—a firm that primarily represents Olympic athletes in administrative proceedings. Along with that, she serves on Women in Sports Law’s (WISLaw) Communications Committee. She joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss her career path and the initiatives she and the members of WISLaw are working on.

Eric Fader has been blogging since 2012, but when he joined Rivkin Radler in 2018 he needed to prove to his new firm just how effective law blogs are. He told those at the firm if they started a new blog it would not fail under his watch. That turned out to be an understatement as Fader’s blog, Rivkin Rounds has been a resounding success—so much so that it has now moved off of the firm’s website and onto its own site on the LexBlog platform. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss his blog’s journey and how it became the place for “your prescribed dose of health law news.”

Just over two years ago, Jaspan Schlesinger LLP decided they wanted to expand their media presence by launching blogs. Michael Ryan decided he wanted in. He volunteered to start The New York Trusts & Estates Blog, but knew from the start that he wanted to do things a little differently. Ryan is of counsel to Jaspan Schlesinger and chairs the firm’s trusts and estates and estate litigation practice groups. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to explain why he infuses his blog posts with stories about jazz legends like Charlie Parker and playwrights such as Shakespeare and why this element of ’human touch’ serves to set his blog posts apart.

Selecting a niche is key to the success of any legal blog and Aaron Lukken had no trouble finding and thriving in his. Lukken is one of the leading voices on transnational litigation and works with other attorneys everywhere from Canada to Mauritius. He launched the Hague Law Blog on the same day as his firm, Viking Advocates, LLC and credits much of his success to his decision to stick to blogging—partly on his wife’s insistence. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss cross-border litigation, his blogging journey and much more.

Back in 2015 Mark Nieds traded the cold and wind of Chicago for balmy Southwest Florida—but never stopped practicing IP law, or blogging. He helped build an intellectual property group at Henderson, Franklin, Starnes & Holt and also started writing for the firm’s Southwest Florida Business and IP Blog. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging and provides a number of insights on his own writing technique as well as the current state of IP law in Southwest Florida.

After a brief hiatus, This Week in Legal Blogging is back and we have a very special guest for our 51st episode. LexBlog Founder and CEO Kevin O’Keefe makes his debut on the show and discusses his new venture—the Open Legal Blog Archive. He joins Bob Ambrogi in this special episode and shares his vision for the archive and how he sees it benefiting lawyers, the public and the legal community at large.

New firm, new blog. That’s the story for tax attorney Lou Vlahos who joined Rivkin Radler LLP earlier this year and has just launched his brand new blog—TaxSlaw—”where those hungry for tax knowledge come to chow down.” While it’s a new blog for Vlahos, he is anything but a rookie legal blogger. A pillar of the legal blogging community since 2013, he joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to share his experiences and advice on everything from endnotes in blog posts to effectively infusing humor into your writing.

A decade ago, Jason Shinn was working at a firm, but already knew he wanted to start a blog. He advocated for the firm to start one, but was shut down and told it was not the best use of firm resources. This made him reevaluate his priorities and he decided to set out on his own and start his own practice. Present-day, he credits much of the success Shinn Legal now enjoys to his decision to launch his blog—the Michigan Employment Law Advisor—in the early days of his firm. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss why he still blogs and give insights into his process.

With blog post titles like “I’m Tired of Doctors Who Just Say Whatever the Employee Wants…” it is clear Fiona Ong isn’t afraid to—as she puts it—“be snarky.” Her ability and willingness to infuse her passion and voice into her writing has made her a key to the success of The Labor & Employment Report—the blog she edits at Shawe Rosenthal. She joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging and details how a smaller management-side firm can use blogging to grow their profile and compete with large national firms.

Raymond Lahoud—author of Norris McLaughlin's Immigration Matters—focuses his practice on immigration law and deportation defense. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to discuss where his passion for the law and immigration comes from as well as offer advice for bloggers who deal with subject matter that can be politically divisive.

Will was one of the editors behind the initial launch of Bradley's first blog— Labor & Employment Insights—six years ago. Now, it's doing better than ever, a success he attributes to the publication's consistent posting schedule, informal yet informative manner and a number of other factors. He joins Bob Ambrogi on This Week in Legal Blogging to go over key lessons he's learned over the years in regards to blogging and explains what the demographic for the firm's publication looks like.

Almost a decade ago, Tracey Diamond began the employment law blog, Hiring to Firing with her firm. Today, she still serves as the editor for Troutman Pepper's blog—responsible for approving post ideas, looking over articles and ensuring the blog runs smoothly. She joins Colin O'Keefe on This Week in Legal Blogging to offer a look behind the curtains on how to run a successful legal blog.  

We've got a different kind of perspective on legal blogging this week from Lee Peretz, the Director of Marketing & Business Development for Farrell Fritz. He explains the benefits the firm has reaped from the nine blogs, how the best blogging is all about listening and leaves us with some lessons he's learned.