CONTRIBUTORS
Denise Howell is a seasoned appellate and intellectual property litigator based in Los Angeles. Denise writes one of the first and most popular law-related blogs,
Bag and Baggage, coined the term "blawg" and helped pioneer podcasting for lawyers. Microcontent obsessed since 2001, she is frequently quoted in the media on legal issues involving intellectual property and technology law.
"Sound Policy" is Denise's show at
IT Conversations, and it's also what she hopes results from the briefs she submits to court. Email Denise at
dhowell@gmail.com.
Dennis Kennedy is a computer lawyer and legal technology expert based in St. Louis, Missouri. An award-winning author, a frequent speaker and a widely-read
blogger, he has more than 300 publications on legal, technology and Internet topics, many of which are collected in his e-books. Dennis has been described as someone who knows almost every rock song in existence and, more importantly, how they apply to technology and law. Email Dennis at his
gmail address.
Tom Mighell is Senior Counsel and Litigation Technology Support Coordinator at Cowles & Thompson in Dallas. He has published the Internet Legal Research Weekly newsletter since 2000 and blogged about the Internet and legal technology at Inter Alia since August of 2002. With Tom's singing, Ernie on guitar and Dennis' encylopedic knowledge of rock music, we may have the beginnings of a good band, if this whole blog thing doesn't work out. Email Tom at
tmighell@swbell.net.
Marty Schwimmer left a partnership in the largest trademark practice in the world and founded Schwimmer Mitchell, a full-service IP micro-boutique in Westchester County, New York, where he represents owners of famous and not yet famous trademarks. He founded
The Trademark Blog, the first IP law blog and the one with the most pictures. He is the first to come in and the last to leave in his firm. Email Marty at
marty@schwimmerlegal.com.
Ernest Svenson practices law with a mid-sized law firm in New Orleans, specializing in business-related lawsuits. Most of his practice takes place in federal court, especially the Eastern District. He is best known for his weblog
Ernie the Attorney, which he started as an experiment. Like many experiments it got out of control. Nevertheless, he continues to practice law and, occasionally,
to seek enlightenment. Email Ernest at
esvenson@gmail.com.
Denise Howell
Dennis M. Kennedy
Tom Mighell
Marty Schwimmer
Ernest Svenson
1. This Guy on November 20, 2005 8:15 AM writes...
Is this going to be a global initiative or a US-centric one?
Permalink to Comment2. Adam Rosi-Kessel on November 20, 2005 10:00 AM writes...
I've thought about this issue quite a bit as both a non-professional ("hobbyist") open source software developer and a professional intellectual property attorney. The vast majority of legal research most attorneys do has already been done by someone else, which is exactly the sort of situation where the open source model works best. Centralizing that information could be a great resource. With enough contributors, a legal information wiki could quickly approach and eventually exceed the quantity of information available in treatises, with the added advantage of being nearly instantly updated. Even more importantly, "bugs" would be corrected without having to wait for a new "release."
This approach, however, could cause problems for the billable hour model. There might be resistance from practicing attorneys, ironically, if it saves too much time. There is also an understandable tendency for firms to want to keep their knowledge "in house"--for example, I'm not aware of any firm that posts all of their past briefs on their website for everyone to reason, even if they are all on the public record.
There would, of course, also be a question of whether you could rely on such a resource consistent with your professional responsibility. For example, if I've shephardized or keycited all the caess I cite in a brief before submitting it to the court, but it turns out that Lexis and/or Westlaw erroneously omitted an opinion reversing a case I cited, I'm not likely to be sanctioned by the court or liable for malpractice. If I relied on a legal wiki to reach that result, however, I'm pretty sure I would be in some trouble.
Permalink to Comment3. Thomas R. Bruce on November 28, 2005 1:26 PM writes...
To answer This Guy: it'll be global to the degree that we attract volunteers competent to write on those topics. I suspect that the initial framework will appear dauntingly US-centric, since we're building on top of existing content that was predominantly oriented toward American law. Insofar as it's what we're best at, we will no doubt remain somewhat biased in that direction.
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