Requiem for a Heavyweight - ethicalEsq? is shutting down

I was stunned when I read David Giacalone's post informing us that he is not going to post to ethicalEsq? anymore. David has a chronic fatigue syndrome, so it's understandable and it's unfortunate for David. However, it's also unfortunate for the blawgosphere.

I thought of David (as I often have done since I first found his weblog) twice yesterday --before I knew he was giving up his weblog postings. The first time I thought of David was when I unexpectedly ran into a very bright young lawyer who had once clerked for our firm. He is now working at a big firm in a large city. The work is exciting, but it is consuming his life. He has other interests besides law because he is a well rounded and intellectually curious person. He loves the law, and he is passionate about it. But he is realizing now that he hates the practice of law. His wife and I chatted briefly about it, and I didn't have to ask too many questions about why he might have come to hate it because I had read the 80 page law review article that David discussed and recommended in this post.

Since I read that article and David's post I've been thinking alot about how certain areas of the legal profession ensnare young lawyers and twist them into something that they would never voluntarily become. Well, some would. But many young lawyers are misled; they don't understand the rules of the road, or they take the wrong road. That was the first time yesterday that I thought about David.

The other one was when a lawyer blogger I know emailed me to say he was going to come up with an awards deal for lawyer blogs and asked me what I thought the top 5 law blogs were. I told him I'd have to think about it (even though I knew that would certainly say that the Volokh Conspiracy and How Appealing were at the top of the list). I didn't have to think long before I thought of David's weblog. That's the one that I really want to give the award to. And after I thought of David's weblog I really couldn't think of any other lawyer weblogs that I wanted to give an award to, not that there aren't other very fine lawyer weblogs out there. But David's is special in a way that others can't compare to. At least that's the way I see it.

I wish David the best, and I speak for a lot of people who care about the legal profession when I say his weblog will be greatly missed. Hopefully, some of us can take up some of the slack. I think we have --dare I say it?-- an ethical obligation to do so.

Comments

[David Giacalone]

Yikes, Ernest, you've done the impossible -- left me (almost) speechless.
Your encouragement and feedback were inspiring during ethicalEsq?'s short run, and your kind words leave me with both a cyber-blush of humility and a nice warm glow of gratitude.

Don't forget: the requiem is only for the weblog. The weblogger is still kicking.

[Scheherazade]

Ernie -- thanks for the post; David, thanks for the reassurance that you're not entirely gone.

[Jack Cliente]

Now that Mr. Editor has stopped posting, I'm unemployed and have time to leave Comments. So, you get my Two Cents for free, Ernie:

Don't send e-flowers to honor ethicalEsq, but actively work for the consumer of legal services both out in the real world, and through the power of weblogs:
(1) help make bar associations at the local and state level client-oriented, instead of guild-oriented;
(2) harness the power of the web to make the self-help-law revolution a reality, and
(3) with or without new laws or ethical rules, get more information to consumers about their rights and options -- with enough information, consumers can create their own powerful competitive forces for innovation, improved services, lower prices.

For ideas, see the Giacalone article "Counselors Oughtta Counsel (Not Conceal) http://www.prairielaw.com/articles/article.asp?channelId=29&subId=124&articleId=1586

ethicalEsq?'s Informing Consumers Page http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/stories/storyReader$35

and, its Access and Affordability Page http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/ethicalesq/stories/storyReader$36