My 2010 Canadian Law Blog Award Nominations

The Canadian Law Blog Awards (the Clawbies), are awarded once a year to recognize outstanding Canadian legal blogs.
The nomination process involves peer endorsement and from these a select number of blogs are chosen for recognition.  The Clawbies “started back in 2006 with the sole intention of creating exposure for the great blogs published by the Canadian legal industry. The results will again be released on New Year’s Eve, but as we strongly state each year, the “true value” of these awards is found in the nomination process.”  Last year I was fortunate enough to be awarded a Clawbie for best Canadian Practioner’s Blog.  This year I’m proud to have been nominated again.
I usually make my endorsements via twitter but thought I would repeat these in this short post.  This year the following great Blogs deserve consideration:
1) Best Canadian Law Blog (or Blogger) Award: Last year’s winner deserves consideration for a repeat.  The sheer number of quality contributors and posts on Slaw make this Canadian legal blog stand out nationally and internationally.
2) Best Practitioner Blog – Since the folks behind the Clawbies aren’t opposed to recognizing multiple winners I’m going to make multiple nominations for this competitive category.  Three blogs get my nod this year.  Antonin Pribetic’s The Trial Warrior Blog stands out not only for his bold views but also because he demonstrates that a legal blog can, in fact, be interesting.   Dan Michaluk’s All About Information is timely and authoritative and Donna Seale does a great job discussing human rights issues in the Canadian workplace.
3) Legal Culture and Non-Legal Audience Awards –Garry Wise’s Wise Law Blog is one of the first and best Canadian legal blogs.  He shares views that go well beyond his practice areas and caters to a wide national and international audience.  For these reasons Garry should be considered for an award in these two categories.
4) Friend of the North Awards – This award is intended to recognize US bloggers that look north of the border to network and exchange ideas.  While Eric Turkewitz’s New York Personal Injury Attorney Blog does not necessarily contain much (if any) Canadian content, he hands down authors one of the best personal injury blogs in the US and (to steal a line from the formidable Kevin O’Keefe) if he keeps it up much longer he may just give personal injury lawyers a good name.
6) EuroCan Connection Awards – This award recognizes European law blog friends who highlight and link to Canadian law blogs.  Last year’s winner Mike Semple Piggot keeps ahead of the competition and deserves yet another nod from his friends in the Great White North.
7) Practice Management and Best Legal Technology Award: Although these are two separate categories I thought I’d combine them and nominate both Jordan Furlong and David Bilinsky.   Lawyers young and old would be wise to pay attention to Jordan’s views as he, more than most any other Canadian, has his finger on the pulse of change in the legal profession.  David gets credit for being one of the forces inspiring this blog to get off the ground and has kept BC lawyers well appraised of all things legal tech.
8) Law Librarian Blog Award – Both Connie Crosbie and BC’s own The Stream deserve recognition here.  (full disclosure, I am an occasional guest blogger at The Stream, however, the blog stands on it’s own two feet quite well absent my contributions)
10) Best New Law Blog Award – There are no shortage of great new Canadian legal blogs thanks in large part to efforts of people like Steve Matthews.  I’ll leave it to others to make nominations in this competitive category.
11) Law Professor Blog Award – Two great professors get the nod here, first Michael Geist, who is a regular blogger and probably Canada’s foremost authority on Copyright issues.  A newcomer to the blogging world (and the first Canadian law school Dean I’m aware of blogging) is Lorne Sossin who has gotten off to a strong start on behalf of the Osgoode Hall Faculty of Law.
There are many others like Doug Jasinksi who deserve recognition for their contributions to the Canadian legal blogging landscape and I look forward to others nominations for the 2010 Canadian Law Blog Awards.