I Started The Antitrust Attorney Blog One Year Ago Today

I Started The Antitrust Attorney Blog One Year Ago Today http://ift.tt/1EiczgW

I Started The Antitrust Attorney Blog One Year Ago Today

One year ago, I wrote my first blog post for The Antitrust Attorney Blog. Time flies. A lot has changed since then. When I started this blog, I was with DLA Piper. Now I am with a firm called Bona Law PC. DLA Piper is much bigger, of course. But Bona Law is a much more pleasant place to work. And it has a better name.

So, you might ask whether I have any observations about a year of blogging? Or whether I have learned anything during this time? As a Minnesotan might say, you betcha.

I like blogging. I’ve always enjoyed writing, as you can probably tell from my publications. But what is great about having your own blog is that you can write about whatever you’d like. I can say what I want when I want. I can write long articles or short articles. It is entirely up to me, not some list of editorial standards. My preferred writing style is not formal (or stuffy, as I like to describe formal writing). Luckily, the editorial board at The Antitrust Attorney Blog doesn’t care. One other observation is that I have written less for other publications. That wasn’t purposeful, but when I get an idea, I typically write it here rather than for someone else. I will probably continue to write law-review type articles for other publications, but most of my shorter stuff will end up here.

Blogging while employed by a giant law firm is different than blogging when you have your own firm. I published often when I was with DLA Piper, so I had a good sense of what I could and couldn’t write about when I started this blog. But when you work for a firm that has a trillion employees and represents just about everyone, you have to be very careful that (1) you don’t write about a client; and (2) you don’t take a position that will prejudice a client. The former is easier than the latter. You just stay away from specific cases. With regard to taking positions, I typically wrote about issues where I knew we had already taken a position in a case or where I knew we would be unlikely to take the counter position (i.e. favoring a class-action plaintiff). That is not to say that big-firm employment biases one’s articles. But you have to select your topics wisely.

When I started my own firm, I was told by many that I probably wouldn’t be able to do antitrust work anymore. Well, thanks to this blog, I receive many calls about antitrust cases and matters. If you go to Google and type in “antitrust attorney,” you will see this blog in the first couple positions. That has been fortunate for my practice.

Many people search for “loyalty discounts” and “resale price maintenance.” I’ve noticed through Google Analytics that many people research these terms. I suppose I should write more articles on those issues because people seem to have questions about them. It isn’t a big surprise because antitrust law relating to both loyalty discounts and resale price maintenance is somewhat confused and conflicting.

Over time, I’ve learned that many readers are not antitrust experts, so I should make sure to explain complicated and jargon-filled antitrust concepts in ways that non-antitrust lawyers can understand. That isn’t always easy to do when you are deep into a profession of any sort. So it is a constant challenge. I’ve developed a compromise where I will write some articles at a more advanced antitrust level and others at a level that I think is easier to understand if you don’t spend hours each day obsessing over antitrust and competition law.

I still need to add a blogroll of antitrust and other legal blogs. I’ve been meaning to do that for months. So if you have an antitrust blog, my bad. I’ll get it up here at some point. Speaking of other antitrust blogs, I do read them (and other legal blogs, including the legal academic blogs). I should interact with their content more than I do. That is an area where I can improve.

Once a week is about the right schedule for my blogging. With actual work and other responsibilities, it is difficult to do more than one quality post each week. Fortunately, over the last year I have learned to write faster. That helps. I have also learned that I write best in the evening.

Before this post deteriorates to the point where I am telling you my favorite foods, I better end it here. But thank you for reading.

I am very appreciative of every person that stops by to read my ramblings. If you want to receive these posts by email, you can subscribe by putting your email address in the box on the right.