There are three branches to the federal government. There are three branches to most levels of American government. As we learn sometime around the same age we’re working on fractions and word problems, there’s the legislative branch and the executive branch and the judicial branch.
You know—checks and balances. All that stuff.
In this post, we’re not going to be too political. It’s just a matter of deduction. Size constancy, even.
As the legislative and executive branches of the government shift to the political party that desires to shrink their activity, a void is created if we’re going to maintain the standard operations Americans have come to expect from their government.
It’s a vacuum that will be filled, at least in part, by the judiciary. And lawyers will play an integral role in determining just how much of that void is repaired or remains.
It’s in the obvious spots…and not
My mind immediately jumps to food safety lawyer Bill Marler—leader of a network of digital publications serving as a constant surveyor of our nation’s food supply and the fallout, potential or actual, if that supply becomes contaminated.
Here at LexBlog, we’ve started to take a closer look at network-wide traffic and you would be shocked, given the big-time firms publishing on the LexBlog Network on big-time subjects, how consistently Food Safety News and MarlerBlog appear at the top. And it’s not just that they’re consistently at the top—but by how much. They’re way out there.
We’ve said a number of times here at LexBlog that traffic isn’t the be-all and end-all in measuring success. Honestly, for a lawyer, it’s only a small part of it. It’s about making a name for yourself, building relationships and getting work.
The traffic numbers can be helpful though in seeing what resonates, what people are finding helpful. And it’s clear that Marler’s work is integral and important for so many folks. During an administration where the Food & Drug Administration’s reach will be diminished, that number will probably grow.
Others—they probably wish it didn’t exist.
“Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” the old journalism adage goes.
And it applies to places that go well beyond the obvious, though there’s still room to make serious hay with the obvious—like environmental law and the EPA, crypto and the SEC, air travel and the FAA.
Heck, if you started and ran the MarlerBlog of aviation law, you might be be doing national news on a weekly basis. Just look at Marc Elias and Democracy Docket in the wake of the 2020 election.
As mentioned, though, the opportunity to exist as a watchdog goes beyond the obvious areas. Speaking of blogs that do serious numbers in terms of traffic, Miami maritime lawyer Jim Walker’s Cruise Law News is often right there next to MarlerBlog and Food Safety News at the top of our traffic rankings.
I know, it seems weird, cruise law. But whew, that’s a watchdog operation if I’ve ever seen one. Not only does he run the wildly popular blog as a home base, Walker also has a Cruise Law News Facebook page with more than 240,000 followers. That’s marginally fewer followers than the area’s NHL team, the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers.
He uses the page to—in addition to share his own posts—curate and post relevant news stories from a number of outlets, mainstream and otherwise. On top of that, the page serves as a forum where cruise travelers and aficionados can then share back what they’re seeing, which Walker then can investigate and report on when appropriate.
This is probably sounding a lot like a post I had a ways back about how law blogging needs way more traditional plaintiffs’ lawyers and there is a lot of overlap there. Walker and Marler are examples.
But this opportunity isn’t limited to consumer-oriented lawyers and law firms. There will be areas for businesses and their advocates to keep an eye on.
Just earlier today while curating the front page of the LexBlog Network, I saw a piece from McCarter & English lawyer Maria Panichelli on their Government Contracts Law blog on advice for contractors who are being, well, stiffed by the United States government. If it’s as prevalent as described therein—”‘Don’t submit any future invoices until you hear from us’ is becoming a shockingly common refrain,” she writes—then there are probably entire industries of contractors who could use a watchdog.
I’m sure a number of sectors and their lawyers are closely watching the reported tug of war between Verizon and Elon Musk’s SpaceX over a highly lucrative contract with the FAA.
What would you and your firm do in such a situation? Might be worth weighing in.
How I’d do it
We’ll keep this short and simple but if this is getting the juices flowing, the wheels turning, here are the things I’d recommend doing in starting and running one of these watchdog blogs.
- The more focused, the better. I know we preach it a lot, but it’s important—choose a focused niche you can dominate. What’s a really narrow area of law that’s bound to be active in a deregulatory climate? What’s getting buzz? And how can you drill down within that. Think not, like, pollution law—but agriculture run-off law. Not crypto law—but The Crypto Reserve Blog.
- Curate, curate, curate. It isn’t your job to come up with subjects to write about, to brainstorm evergreen areas of guidance and tackle them one by one—no, not here. Just listen constantly and everywhere to what’s happening in your chosen area of coverage and highlight the stuff that gives you pause and make you think. Tackle the big stories in blog posts and share the other good stuff on socials.
- Engage influencers, mainstream and otherwise. Who are the big voices in the space? And how can you make sure they know you exist? Identify them and get their attention by genuinely engaging with their work. You can write a post for just one person. Do that successfully with enough folks and eventually you’ll be writing posts for lots of people.
- Shout your story. Well-intentioned watchdogs inherently have a good story to tell. They are keeping an eye out for malfeasance or wrong-doing and sharing that with people who’d want to know—often times, people who are underdogs. It’s very compelling. Revel in that.
- Write on the interesting stuff people want to read. While you want to be focused, I also have this simple concept I share often: if you want people to read what you write, you have to write about stuff that people want to read. Like I mentioned, watchdogs have a great story to tell. Just keep telling that story with big and interesting and impactful stuff.
Saying the obvious, if you’re curious and want to chat, that’s what we’re here for. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me personally. It’s colin at lexblog dot com.