Pardon the absence; life got in the way…!
Wed., Feb. 7, 2007 – attended a CLE seminar at the last minute at the City Bar – on “Blogs – Wave of the Future for the American Lawyer: Creation, Use, & Ethical Considerations.” Interesting – one of those programs that didn’t put me to sleep (uh, no, no, that never happens…) – three lawyers who blog about their subjects or about lawyers who blog. Kevin O’Keefe, Daniel Clement, and Troy Rosasco were the panelists.
According to O’Keefe, lawyer blogs, being specific to a legal subject, are “not advertising. Basis being that their primary purpose is not ‘the retention of the lawyer or law firm'” – and may be protected by Free Speech rights. Kind of a relief to know!
The program was very fascinating stuff. Observations were made on the idea of lawyer blogs as networking or an easy way to get oneself published (as alternatives to law review and law journals). I doubt we of Triscribe count under the state’s advertising restrictions, since we don’t advertise legal services. We just comment and, more often than not, we don’t even about the law. Personal blogging is all fine and dandy. Blogging, if nothing else, made us all Time People of the Year! Talk about societal change and being part of the wave of the future indeed.
Reading for last week: Arthur Miller’s The Crucible – gripping. I remembered reading it back in high school, and thinking it was creepy. Now with the outlook as adult and a lawyer – still creepy. The book managed to make me miss my subway stop.
How gripping it was – the Salem witch hunts going out of control and all the implications therein – the very harmfulness of theocracy; the rational mind losing out to the human flaws of jealousy, pride, and lust; the problem of witnesses with poor credibility – children or young women who had no power and then grabbing power by making the judges and the authorities listen to them.
Were they really possessed, or were they just playing with everyone? Abigail Williams pushing it too far by sending the Proctors to their doom; Mary Warren too weak-willed to resist; and John Proctor – poor man who wouldn’t give names, because the process was wrong. People believed in witches – and the way the girls were acting, how do you fight the irrational? The rule of law is nice, but what do you do when people are still… people?
This may have been associated with Miller’s times – the McCarthy witch hunts – but it was more than that – it’s timeless. The writing was great; as a movie or play – sure, that was nice (go ahead – watch the movie: the strangeness of seeing Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor – or, scarier – Wynona Ryder as Abigail), but there’s something of a difference in having the text itself.
A society in hysteria, Miller portrays and then there’s what we have these days: well, the whole Anna Nicole Smith thing – someone who invented herself for the media, and the media exploits back. It’s also wrong to compare Anna Nicole Smith to Miller’s ex-wife, Marilyn Monroe – Monroe actually had talent in acting. (umm, forgive me for noticing this about the dead). As Prof. Joanna Grossman notes on her Findlaw column: Smith’s “litigious life makes her unusual as well. Lawyers, courts, and perhaps juries will now be left to sort out the legal morass she left behind.” Ain’t that right. As FC notes: Smith’s litigious legacy is quite a bar exam question. 😀
Last but not least on a week in review: the passing of actor Ian Richardson.