I was preparing what I figured would be my last post before Christmas, a thank-you card to everyone who reads and has linked to this blog since its inception in January. But then along came another reason to be grateful and another person whom I want to thank. Dennis Kennedy has released his 2008 Best of Law-Related Blogging Awards, or Blawggies, and I’m extremely delighted to say that Law21 received the Best New Law-Related Blog Award, as well as two runner-up selections in the Best Law Practice Management Blog Award and the Best Writing on a Legal Blog Award. If you follow legal blogs at all, you know that Dennis is, as I referred to him in a comment on the post, the grandmaster of law blogs, so as you can imagine, I’m deeply honoured by and grateful for these selections.
I started this blog almost a year ago, on January 8, 2008 — after stocking the shelves with older articles I’d written elsewhere, I wrote a short piece titled “Waking the neighbours,” the first of what would be scores of posts on a future legal profession that has been resolving itself into the present legal profession faster than anyone anticipated. I had no idea whether Law21 would catch or hold anyone’s attention, and I’m still more than a little amazed and touched that it has. My next post will be my 200th, but the thrill that came with the very first comment and the very first incoming link hasn’t gone away.
I’ve loved every second I’ve spent here, and I wanted to be able to properly and formally say thanks for that. So, thank you to Simon Fodden, who provided not just great encouragement and advice during Law21’s start-up phase, but also that first incoming link at Slaw (extremely deserving winner of the top Blawggie for Best Overall Law-Related Blog, by the way) that drove an extraordinary amount of traffic this way. Thanks to Steve Matthews of Stem Legal, who has been a tremendous advisor and supporter and was the first person to ask me when I was going to start blogging. Thanks to Merrilyn Astin Tarlton, whose encouragement during a talk at a 2007 conference made an incalculable difference. Thanks to Jesse Collins, whose wonderful redesign and re-engineering of Law21 over Canadian Thanksgiving made it a better blog in both form and function. Thank you to each of the bloggers below, who during the past year paid me the great compliment of a link and recommendation (sometimes more than once):
But mostly, thanks to you — to everyone who visits this blog, to the hundreds of people who’ve signed up for RSS or email feeds for new posts, and to the hundreds of people who’ve left tremendously helpful and welcome comments here. I’m immensely, off-the-charts grateful for your interest and patronage — it’s a cliché, but no less true for that, that you’re the reason I’m here and the reason I’ll keep coming back. I’m looking forward to giving you additional features and options at Law21 come next spring, and to take the small community of ideas we’ve started here to the next stage.
I hope to get one more post in before the end of the year — I’ll admit the symmetry of #200 appeals irrationally to me — but I didn’t want to let this season and this occasion pass by without thanking every one of you for giving me the best present possible: the gift of your time.
Connie Crosby
Congratulations, Jordan. Well deserved! And congratulations on an (almost) year of blogging.
Cheers,
Connie
Steve Matthews
Can’t wait for 2009! :)
Doug Cornelius
Jordan –
Thank you for a year of wonderful thoughts and insights.
Shaunna Mireau
Congratulations Jordan. Law21 is on my must read list.
Omar Ha-Redeye
Congrats, and without question well-deserved.
Laurie
What a great year 2008 has been – I wish you all the best in 2009!
D. Todd Smith
Jordan, Law21 is undoubtedly one of the best law blogs around. Your thoughtful commentary and insight is much appreciated. Look forward to reading your next 200 posts.
Merrilyn Astin Tarlt
OH . . . . . .thank you to *you*, Jordan, for proving me right!!! You are an extraordinary writer and a perceptive and intriguing thinker!!
Here’s to another 200!!!
Mary Abraham
Jordan –
The time has been well-spent, both by you and by those of us who read you regularly. Thanks for your thought-provoking posts, which help move the conversation into new and fruitful paths. I’m looking forward to more good conversation in 2009. Congratulations!
– Mary