The March issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal features a very interesting piece by Bill Haltom of Thomason Hendrix Harvey Johnson and Mitchell in Memphis, Tennessee. The piece highlights the growing trend towards alternative dispute resolution and the effects on the vanishing trial, trial lawyer, and trial judge. I have attached a link to a .pdf version of this month's journal, and recommend you to page 31.

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It has felt like a very strange year in law school for me- particularly because all of my exams fall after Winter break. This is the first year it has been like this for me, and I don't really like it that much. Four exams (Jan 21st and 29th, Feb. 4th and 7th) seems like a bit much, and as each day approaches I feel more overwhelmed than the previous day. The exams are in business associations, conflicts of law, wills and trusts, and federal income taxation- not exactly the most exciting of topics. I have been working on outlines for all these exams for the past 4 weeks, and I am just about ready to start studying them and attempting to commit them all to memory. Wish me luck.

Anyways, I came across this brief article (or list) the other day titled "Five Indispensable Tips for Law Students and New Lawyers." The tips offered by the author seem to be very practicable and probably should be taken seriously as they could potentially help you more easily transition from a law student to a practicing attorney.

An attorney out of Oakland, California just recently founded LawLink.com, a social network site for attorneys. Close to 2,000 attorneys nationwide have signed up in just over two months. About 1,000 of those attorneys are Tennessee attorneys. Why? Because the Tennessee Bar Association (TBA) included an American Bar Association (ABA) article in its weekly online newsletter discussing LawLink. These numbers show that social networking is something that people of every age and profession want to engage in.

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Two appellant briefs in my second summer placement, tedious bar applications for two states and my graduate research assistant duties have each sank their claws into my free time a little bit. Sadly, I have neglected The Legal Scoop over the past couple weeks. But just in case I am not alone and any of you other "blawgers" out there need a little encouragement to keep on keepin’ on this summer, here is this from the National Law Journal.

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The current issue of Memphis Lawyer, published by the Memphis Bar Association, includes an article about lawyers who maintain blogs on the internet. Many of the blogs reviewed by the author provide links on their websites to The Legal Scoop, and some of the reviewed blogs we also link to from our website.

Blogging really is becoming another thing that lawyers do, and it is evidenced by its recognition in publications such as Memphis Lawyer. The biggest unkown is whether or not blogging is a trend, or is it just the evolution of technology? Lawyers who blog reach audiences that they otherwise would never be able to reach, and  I assume that this can be very empowering to a lawyer.

I have started a discussion thread on this topic. Please click here to contribute your thoughts and opinions to the discussion...