by Ken Lopez
Founder/CEO
A2L Consulting

There are thousands of blogs in the legal industry, and as Dr. Ken Broada-Bahm, one of my favorite blog authors, alluded to recently, blogs are where a good deal of knowledge about trials and about lawyering can be found today.

The American Bar Association (ABA) recently named its top 100 blogs in its seventh annual ranking of the legal industry's best. Our blog, the Litigation Consulting Report, was ranked among the top 100 for the first time.

A number of us here at A2L contribute to this blog, We work very hard at it, and we are very excited about the ABA's recognition. The funny thing is that our blog almost never happened at all.

At the beginning of 2011, we were discussing launching a blog, and I remained very skeptical that anyone would take the time to read it. I knew we had interesting things to say, given our unique spot in the industry -- but I also know how busy our clients are. Yet three years later, every month 15,000 people read an article on our blog, and about 3,500 subscribe to be notified by email when new litigation blog articles are published.

The ABA broke down its top 100 legal industry blog list into categories. In the litigation category we are included among eight litigation blogs. I believe that the ABA chose this group wisely. I agree that these are great blogs. Indeed, many were previously recognized in my post last year, The Top 14 Blogs for Litigators & Litigation Support Professionals.

The ABA is now taking votes to pick the best in each law-related category. Here is the litigation blog list, plus what the ABA (or its readers) had to say about these blogs:

1. The Litigation Consulting Report: "it's hard to resist the infectious numbered-list headlines that keep us reading their chatty, first-person posts answering questions we hadn't yet thought to ask."

2. Arbitration Nation: "it has practical takeaways of interest to litigators, which is especially important for me, as an arbitrator, to be cognizant of."

3. Persuasive Litigator: "he is erudite and authoritative without being overbearing. He should be writing opening statements and closing arguments."

4. At Counsel Table: "Alex Craigie doesn't just tell his readers about how to wow a jury. He does a couple of posts a week covering all aspects and avenues of litigation."

5. The Velvet Hammer: "Karen Koehler gives voice to the realities of being a hard-driving trial attorney and a stretched-thin working mom."

6. The Jury Room: "this is a useful one for litigators and anyone interested in getting some insight into jury psychology."

7. Point of Law: "Posts cover securities litigation insofar as how the victorious plaintiffs, their law firms and the contract attorneys hired by those law firms get paid—and explore the fairness of it all."

8. Compelling Discovery: "if you're a civil litigator, you already know about this blog. But if you've missed its first year and a half, you need to acquaint yourself with it posthaste."

I hope you'll subscribe to each one of these blogs as there's much we can all learn from these authors. I also hope you'll consider voting – hopefully for the A2L blog --- to help the ABA make its choice of the top litigation blog.