The other day I was once again lamenting the state of Chicago criminal defense bloggers—which is, basically, as I’ve complained before, that there aren’t any—when I had a shocking revelation: There is, in fact, one person in Chicago blogging about criminal defense issues: Me. Thus, by default, I, Windypundit, am The Greatest Criminal Defense Blogger in Chicago.
Really. And I’m not even a lawyer. That’s how bad it is around here.
You think I’m wrong? Then who will stand against me? It wouldn’t take much.
Rob Deters at the terrifically-named 26th St Bar Association was only a young lawyer just starting out with Albukerk and Associates, but he easily held the title of Greatest Criminal Defense Blogger in Chicago until he vanished from the scene in January with a post containing the immortal words “So, I’m going to be consistently posting, don’t worry!”
Steven F. Molo, editor of Your Witness: Lessons on Cross-Examination and Life From Great Chicago Trial Lawyers, has the local stature and visibility, but his publicist’s fake blog consisted entirely of quotes from the book, so it doesn’t count.
A little searching turns up a LexBlog blog by Denise Nalley called the Chicago Criminal Law Journal. I mentioned her last time when she showed up in a search but didn’t actually have a blog. She’s got a blog now, and it looks like a real one: Each of her posts ties to a news story, but all her posts seem to be original content…all five of them, the last one in March. It’s a pity, she writes pretty well—a little stilted, perhaps, but if she kept it up she probably would have found her voice.
Last time I mentioned that Denise Nalley’s office website used to have text passages in common with the website of local lawyer Michael J. Petro, and a commenter accused her (or, more likely, her website designer) of ripping off Petro, but it all looks different now.
Petro, by the way, publishes a weekly summary of 7th Circuit criminal law decisions. It’s probably interesting to criminal lawyers, but it’s not really a blog.
Speaking of people we’ve seen before, it’s been over a year, and Anthony W. Hill’s alleged blogging attempt has never materialized. The page is gone.
A Google search for “Chicago criminal defense blog” turns up a bunch of LexBlog links to Denise Nalley (nice SEO work, Kevin), then the Criminal Defense Chicago Blog which is one of those fake portal sites, and then my own post pleading for more Chicago criminal defense bloggers.
The ABA Journal blawg directory for Illinois lists 75 blogs (including Windypundit), but of course it’s state-wide and most of the blogs are about civil law—personal injury, business, and divorce. The Cook County Public Defenders Blog sounds promising, but it’s mostly about the goings on within the Cook County Public Defenders Association, including contract negotiations and misunderstandings over mileage reimbursements.
Really, when it comes to original commentary and participation in the conversation of the blogosphere, I think I’ve got them all beat.
That’s just so sad. Somebody please prove me wrong.
[Note: Technically, a couple of the Volokh Conspiracy contributors are located here in the windy city, which would probably make one of them the Greatest Criminal Defense Blogger In Chicago, but do any of them really identify themselves as Chicago legal bloggers? I mean, really, without checking their bio pages, can any of you name them?]
N.B. – this comment is about geography, and possibly about what “requirements” if any are necessary to be a “crim defense blogger”, not about quality, or rankings.
One of the links in your blogroll – Guither – might qualify, at least under the same rules that you do. Not a lawyer, but a blogger of things criminal law related that (I think?) lives in Chicago. More niche, obviously, than you; but his posts are more frequently (always?) criminal defense related, where yours cover more topics, and within crim-defense, a much broader range of topics.
Again, just making the case that someone else is arguably blogging criminal defense issues in the Windy City…
http://legaldefenders.blogspot.com/
?
You’re still the best, though.
Jamie, that’s a good point. Pete’s actually down in Normal, but I suppose 120 miles doesn’t seem like very far to you Texans. Pete does cover some Chicago issues, however. There are also other people like me whose postings include criminal defense issues, such as political bloggers.
I could get all legalistic by pointing out that I’m the only one who’s also listed in the ABA Journal or something like that, I suppose, but I’m really just trying to draw attention to the lack of serious criminal defense blogging (like you or Scott or Gideon or the other Mark or Norm) here in Chicago.
Thanks, other Mark. I’d spotted those guys myself a couple of hours ago, and I’ll definitely mention them in my followup post.