The Time Blawg is perhaps only here today as a result of UK Blawg Roundup. Having agreed with Michael Scutt to host this edition before I actually had a suitable blog to host it on meant I had to create a blog before today: Thus A New Blawg Materialises…

Given The Time Blawg’s theme of the past, present and future of law I have decided to extend that, as best I can, to Edition #6 of the UK Blawg Roundup. Thus as well as looking at UK law blog posts over the past 3 months (since Paul Hajek’s UK Blawg Roundup #5) I will travel back in time and give you some from the early days of UK law blogging.

The Time Blawg Tardis can be a bit unpredictable so we may dart about a bit on our journey through UK blawgs. Apologies in advance if your blawg does not feature in this roundup. It will on the whole feature UK law blawgs that have come to my personal attention over the past 3 months and is not intended to be a comprehensive look at all the UK law blogs in existence. If you would like your blawg to feature in UKBR#7 then details of how to facilitate this will appear at the end of this post.

Where better to start than the Godfather of UK Law Blogging, Charon QC, who  is not keen on the term ‘Blawg’ and used it for years in parodic sense. His prolific and excellent blogging makes it very difficult to single out a specific post in the 3 month time span I am looking at today, let alone to choose one from the time traveling past. Charon QC’s posts are often humorous but he does serious as well. One very serious recent post, that stood out for me, was Law Review: This… is why we need the Rule of Law. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Charon QC recognises this and simply states “I don’t need to comment”. I showed this blog post to someone and it brought a tear to their eye. On a lighter note travel back in time to 25 September 2006 and Charon QC’s Muttley Dastardly LLP – a blog for the modern era.

Muttley Dastardly LLP took a high risk strategy by allowing their trainees to write a blog.

Clearly Muttley Dastardly LLP were well ahead of the curve with their 2006 blogging activities. Many law firms are only now, some 4 or 5 years later, entering the fray. This first mover advantage has helped Muttley Dastardly LLP go to ‘Strength & Profits’. The latest Muttley Dastardly LLP Episode (19 in the current series) is Retention of staff and human capital maximisation.

In Scotland, following in the footsteps of Muttley Dastardly LLP,  Trainee Solicitors have been blogging in The Scotsman about Life and times of a lawyer to be. Stuart Kelly of Harper Macleod LLP compares his seat rotation to the end of Cheryl and Ashley Coles’ marriage. Whilst Elika Taghizadeh of Tods Murray LLP looks at the significance of Networking. Elika’s post (from November 2010) was the most recent I could find in the series. Given the lively nature of the blogging style used by both her and Stuart it would be nice to see more frequent offerings from them.

No fear I reckon of another soon to be Trainee Solicitor in Scotland not posting frequently about her journey. Yes… I am of course referring to Michelle Hynes, who will be better known to many of you Twegals (Legals who Tweet – with apologies to those who prefer to be known simply as Twitterers) as @legaleagleMHM. Michelle has been blogging about her journey through the Diploma in Legal Practice at the University of Glasgow. As her Tutor in BEFPA (Business, Ethics, Finance and Practice Awareness) I have featured in those posts from time to time. Michelle’s posts are frequent and astute. A recent post is Lawyers TOP TIPS on video blogging : Guest On-line video guy @Kevoneil. Michelle interviews (on video of course) Kev O’Neil from Moviecom.TV about the future of video blogging for lawyers. Expect to see video blogs from Michelle and other lawyers (me included) using the Moviecom.TV platform in the very near future. I did predict this in Future Law: IT Predictions for 2011.

If Charon QC is the Godfather of UK law blogging then Tessa Shepperson is the Godmother. A pioneer of law blogging and membership law sites (Landlord Law) Tessa is also now video blogging: Landlord Law goes on You Tube and Podcasting: Landlord Law Podcast – interview with Kevin Firth, DPS Director. Tessa also blogs at The Solicitors Online Blog where she tells us about Storage solutions – Amazon web service and S3Stats for those multimedia video and podcasting files. Travel back in time (Tessa will like this – she is a Whovian) to 21 February 2006 and Tessa blogged: Legal bloggers unite.

Many thanks to my legal blogger comrades from Family Lore, Human Law, and Infolaw… for their kind comments yesterday. Plus also I would not be blogging now had it not been for their inspiration. Blog on!

This leads us nicely onto John Bolch’s Family Lore. John reports on family law cases such as N v F: Taking pre-marital wealth into account and also provides humorous asides such as Above and beyond…

The latest gem from the mouth of the ever-entertaining Katie Price is that she’ll marry 40 times if she has to, in order to find “the right one”. I really think we divorce lawyers should get together and give this woman a medal…

John has been doing a series of family law podcasts with Natasha Phillips: e.g. Family LoreCast #38. Natasha blogs at Researching Reform where an interesting recent post is Sharia Law in England: Transparency.

Travel back in time to 11 October 2006 and John Bolch found Company in the blawgosphere!

It’s nice to know I’m not alone! Divorcesolicitor is by Lynne Bastow, a sole practitioner in Southampton.

Travel forward to 2011 and Lynne Bastow is still blogging: Credit Card Companies predict Divorce 2 years in Advance. I wonder whether the future will see ‘Tesco Law’ offering Divorces to those Tesco Clubcard Credit Card holders that they have so identified.

John Bolch discovered Lynne Bastow via Justin Patten of Human Law. As indicated above it was, of course, Human Law that Tessa Shepperson also mentioned in her Legal bloggers unite post on 21 February 2006. The blawgosphere was a cosy place in 2006. Justin Patten of Human Law is still blogging in 2011: Sacking Elderly Workers – Be Very Careful! Travel back in time to 25 October 2005 and Justin Patten blogged: We are all media players now.

But perhaps the biggest threat to the media profession is that all of us professionals can use media outlets about our areas of expertise (be it law, accountancy or whatever) as a means to communicate with our potential clients.

Previously we dreamt of appearing in local or national media to reach out to the wider world.

Now we are the media.

Justin Patten was well ahead of the curve with this post which mentions weblogs, podcasts and online video content. With only a small adjustment it would not look out of place as a blog post in 2011. It has taken many lawyers many years to cotton on to what Justin saw back then. Many more still have to see it.

Justin is an Employment Mediator and solver of workplace disputes. Also blogging about employment law is the founder of UK Blawg Roundup, Michael Scutt. Over at Jobsworth Michael advises that Misuse of Social Media Won’t Always be Grounds for Summary Dismissal. Michael also has another blog (‘There may be trouble ahead…’), specifically dealing with the Legal Services Act and the Tesco Law debate. Michael has posted on Law firms competing on quality rather than on price and, following on from The Ministry of Justice unveiling radical proposals for reforming litigation in England & Wales, on Litigation: What does the Future Hold?

On the UK Blawg Roundup blog, Michael asked Nick Holmes to do a Guest Blog spot on What is a Blawg? Nick makes reference to “the heady days of 2005/2006” which is the era I have so far traveled back in time to on Charon QC’s UK law blog, Landlord Law, Family Lore and Human Law. InfoLaw run by Nick Holmes was also mentioned by Tessa Shepperson in her Legal bloggers unite post on 21 February 2006. Nick blogs at Binary Law where he recently asked Are (law) ebooks the future? Travel back in time to 9 February 2004 and Nick posted: Law Blogging: What’s the fuss?

The diary format is also ideal for current awareness publishing and this tends to be their application in the better law blogs (also, unfortunately, known as blawgs). Legal blogging has taken off in the USA (too many lawyers?) – see The Blogbook for a listing – but in the UK only a handful have so far come to light, including:

• Keeping Legal – Legal issues affecting the information profession.
• Freedom of Information Act Weblog – news, views and updates on the UK Freedom of Information Act and worldwide FOI
• IPKat – intellectual property news and issues, particularly from the UK and Europe
• Law and Support’s Local Government Update – with roots in a newsletter intended for members of the Association of Larger Local Councils
• UK Criminal Justice Weblog – latest news about criminal justice issues from around the UK
• Bournemouth and Poole 6th Form Law Weblog

Law blogs are of various quality and utility. I’ll leave you to make your own mind up about the ones listed above; their only distinction is that they are the first. And, of course, some of the best specialist legal news sites are not blogs, though they share similar hallmarks; see, for example, Out-law.com’s IT and e-Commerce News.

Back to 2011 and Keeping Legal does not appear to exist anymore with the link taking you to a 403 Forbidden notice – or has it moved elsewhere?

On the other hand the Freedom of Information Act Blog (they have changed Weblog to Blog in their name) is still on the go: Campaign says measures to remove copyright restrictions on datasets could be easily circumvented.

IPKat is also still purring and interestingly retains the term weblog: A new Kat is born, while WIPO clamps down on dissident IP weblogs (1 April 2011)

I can only assume that Law and Support’s Local Government Update allowed their domain name registration to lapse and James Sheerin subsequently bought the domain as it does not look like a law blog to me!

The UK Criminal Justice Weblog is no longer there: “Server not found” – or has it moved elsewhere?

Good to see though that the 6th formers at Bournemouth and Poole College are keeping their Law Weblog (yes… like IPKat it is still a Weblog) going strong: Cornish Pasty must come from Cornwall

Of those law weblogs that are still on the go the oldest appears to be the Freedom of Information Act Blog who first posted on 3 February 2003 (over 8 years ago). But is that the earliest UK law blog? Well Nick Holmes may not have had his eyes on Scotland in 2004. Was Scotland perhaps the home of not only the telephone and television (golf if you must) but also UK law blogs? Edinburgh University (my own Alma mater I hasten to add) first posted at Scots Law News in June 1996: “Highly satisfactory” law faculties (whilst the date for that post is given as 28 September 1997 I am reliably informed that content on the site was given a fake date to allow for a shift from the old host on University systems and it was in fact written in June 1996). Fast forward to 2011 and Scots Law News extends its social network to Facebook.

So is Scots Law News the oldest UK law weblog, law blog or blawg? Do let me know if there is an older one and I will fire up the Time Rotor in The Time Blawg’s Tardis, pay it a visit and report back.

The Tardis featured in one of the early blog posts by Jon Dickins in his fairly new (December 2010) Digging the Dirt Blog: Overage – Can It Ever Be Future Proof?

The lesson is that you cannot, unless you are a Timelord (in which case I would venture to suggest you should probably have more interesting things to be doing), draft overage agreements to cover all future possibilities.

Any practical tips (apart from investing in a TARDIS)?

Outwith the Tardis Jon also tells us about nudge theory: ‘nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more, know what I mean?’

Jon is a common name for law bloggers. In addition to Jon Dickins there is, of course, Jon Busby, Jon Harman and Jon Bloor. When all four comment on a blog post (as has happened at The Time Blawg) it can start getting a bit confusing.

Jon Busby blogs at Legal 2.0: sharing + social = solving. Jon thinks Lawyers are bloody brilliant. Jon has also recently started shorter posts on Tumblr with Legal 2.0 Lite. Jon uses photos of his handwritten notes a lot at Legal 2.0 Lite to great effect, e.g. WANT TRAFFIC? Blog about… On that list is Quality Solicitors and Jon’s post today on Legal 2.0 gives his take on the Quality Solicitors & WH Smith link up.

Jon Harman blogs at Digital Adventures. Jon thankfully didn’t have Networking Tourettes when we met recently at the Lex2011 Tweetup. I have mentioned podcasts and videocasts. Jon does pencasts on his blog: Creativity: The Key To Our Future

Jon Bloor blogs at Peninsulawyer. Jon is well known for his Tweeting in Convoy post from 30 September 2009 which is often quoted when lawyers use of twitter is debated. Travel forward to 2011 and Jon tells us What not to Tweet. Jon also blogs at iPadLawyer where iPad 2 is go.

Laurie Anstis also contributes to iPadLawyer and blogs at Work/Life/Law where he gives us The (in)complete list of UK employment law blogs. I really should set up e-mail rules as Laurie suggests in E-mail and the lawyer.

Another lawyer mixing blogs on iPads (he sells iPad cases) with blogs on employment law is Steven Mather. Apparently Nearly half of businesses think new employment laws are good.

Laurie mentions Daniel Barnett’s Employment Law Archive. This is indeed an archive with blog posts going way back to Daniel’s first post on 20 April 1999: The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations. Back to 2011 and Daniel tells us about the Repeal of Retirement Age.

Also ‘saving your ass since 1999’ (but blogging since 2010) is Legal Bizzle aka The man who wasn’t there. The Bizzle often works alone at the weekend, Just me and the elves: a lawyer’s weekend, and has been known to be mistaken for @TheNakedLawyer.

Keeping Legal Bizzle company in his weekend endeavours, all be it from the safe distance of Twitter, is Oedipus Lex, who recently gave us a brief review of the inaugural #LawBlogs.

For me the event was confirmation of a suspicion I have long held – that lawyers are, in the main, frustrated writers. While the panel were excellent, as was to be expected, the real value for me was in the mingling afterwards. The diversity in attendance was heartening from law students to the professional press to well respected lawyers, what was lacking was any form of snobbery or superiority, what united most was a deep interest in the law and the need to write about it. I have never considered myself a law blogger having always thought there were many far more qualified to comment yet what I saw was that that there is a place for almost every level – as one of the panelists commented, bloggers are not in competition with the main stream media, they provide a check and balance function. – For me this translates as there being a place for everyone if they want it, even the wildly insane commenters we all seem to attract.

Ashley Connick also covered #LawBlogs: Newsflash: Legal Bloggers are real people! Reflections on the #LawBlogs seminar.

Legal blogging is certainly alive and well if the #LawBlogs event is to be a barometer. There are new blogs springing up all the time to augment the body of older ones – one member of the panel, Carl Gardner, set up his blog in what he called “ancient history in internet terms” (2006) – and covering all aspects of the market.

On the #LawBlogs panel were David Allen Green, Carl Gardner and Adam Wagner.

David Allen Green, on his Jack of Kent blog, reveals that he recently had problems with his trousers and a manbag at airport security. A more serious problem in March 1946 (no David Allen Green was not blogging then – he recently just turned 40 but does feel 80) was a difficulty encountered by the prosecutors at Nuremburg. A bit of time travel reveals that David Allen Green started his blog on 27 October 2007: An old story of Jack of Kent.

Carl Gardner is Head of Legal. One of the class of 2006: Replacing Trident. Back to 2011 and Carl blogs on a Government note on the legal basis for deployment in Libya.

Carl has been longlisted for the George Orwell blogging prize. As has Adam Wagner of the UK Human Rights Blog. Adam brings to our attention that the Secret foreign nationals detention policy was “serious abuse of power”. The UK Human Rights Blog was launched on 31 March 2010 and is written by members of 1 Crown Office Row barristers’ Chambers. Rosalind English and Angus McCullough QC join Adam on the Editorial Team. This is a great initiative from a set of Chambers. I rather think we will see this approach become more prevalent in the future from Chambers and (in Scotland) from Stables.

Whilst on the topic of Stables let’s take a look at blawging in Scotland. A good starting point is Iain Nisbet’s Eleven Scots blawggers worth keeping an eye on in 2011. Iain quite rightly counts his own blawg, Absolvitor: Scots Law Online, in that 11. A bit of time traveling reveals that Absolvitor’s first blog post back in February 2008 concerned Sheridan and witnesses charged with perjury. Three years later and Absolvitor keeps us posted on Tommy’s latest antics with Sheridan seeks silk to sack.

The other 10 Scottish blawgs listed by Absolvitor are:-

1.  Jonathan Mitchell QC: Unfortunately Jonathan has yet to post in 2011. However, as this is the Time Travel Edition I can take you to his second last post from 3 September 2010: Beyond parody: Miss World and South Lanarkshire.

2.  Scots Law News: Already discussed above as possibly the first UK blawg. As Absolvitor points out: “Aided ably by Scott Wortley, Professor MacQueen was blawgging before blawgs were a twinkle in a web developer’s eye.”

3.  TechnoLama: Andres Guadamuz has been blogging about Technology law since 20 October 2004: Cory Doctorow lecture. His latest post asks: Why have your friends gone quiet on Facebook? [Update – 10 April 2011: Andres Guadamuz tells me via Twitter that he is in Costa Rica now, but keeping the .co.uk domain. He wondered whether he still qualified as a UK blawger. I think so as Scotland was the birthplace of his blawg.]

4.  panGloss: A UK-based cyberlaw blog by Lilian Edwards. Started on 21 September 2005 this is yet another example of UK Blawging having its early roots in Scotland. Her latest post looks at The Internet In Society: Empowering or Censoring Citizens?

5.  Jennie Law: By a “Library Monkey for a law firm in Edinburgh”. Jennie has been wondering What’s in a name?

… I also don’t blog a huge amount about law: I’m not a lawyer, I just have the job of finding stuff for lawyers. Sometimes that process amuses me, sometimes it annoys me, and I blog about it. Sometimes I write about library issues, or technology stuff. Sometimes I post about entirely pointless things that entertain me. Zombies have also appeared in some posts. Lets just say I have eclectic tastes…

6.  Divorce Survivor: As Absolvitor points out ‘Fiona’ has not blogged for a while and he hopes she comes back. The Time Blawg can, of course, take you to her last blog post: Reaction to Review.

7.  Ramblings of a Scottish Law Student: Alistair Sloan has been keeping us all up to date on Cadder via Twitter. He also provides a Cadder Update on his blog. Alistair also blogs at Life of a Law Student and tells us, amongst other things, about Royalty visiting Stirling University.

8.  LegalEagleMHM: I have, of course, already looked at Michelle’s blawg earlier in this post.

9.  The Scots Law Student: Who Absolvitor describes as “an anonymous Scots law student, whose blog is subtitled “life and trials of learning law in Scotland” – with a nice line in righteous indignation.” A recent post looks at injunctions, super-injunctions and hyper-injunctions with a bit of patriotism thrown in.

10. WardBlawg: As Absolvitor says Gavin Ward’s “eponymous site has gone from a standing start to a “big presence” in a short period of time. Perhaps this is no surprise as his student dissertation is republished under the heading “How to dominate the Internet”.” Following on the theme of dominating the internet Gavin’s latest post is Top 7 SEO Tips for Law Firms. Gavin’s quest for world blawg domination sees him also blogging at GavWard, ScotsLawBlog, MusicBlawg, YouBlawg not to mention (and outwith the scope of this roundup) EuroBlawg, USBlawg, IndiaBlawg and AraBlawg. There may be more!

Other Scots Law Blogs of note would include:-

Lallands Peat Worrier who is “a member of the Scottish National Party, but who remains distinctly intellectually free floating”. His blog contains a good dose of Scottish Politics: Kerr & Gray at odds on the cost of Labour’s knife policy…

It can be a bit frightening for The Time Blawg to visit Love and Garbage given that the first image that greets you is a Dalek! And is that the hand of Love and Garbage touching the Dalek? Love and Garbage is also from the class of 2006 (which as we have seen was a popular year to start a blog). His very first post (from 19 June 2006) concerned Dr Who: Love and Monsters. In case you were wondering, Love and Garbage does do law: Prisoner votes in Scottish elections again – Are BBC journalists and government ministers bloody stupid?

The Lockerbie Case is a blog that does what it says on the tin by Professor Robert Black who I had the good fortune to study under at Edinburgh University. His latest post (published today) is Jim Swire on “Gaddafi Terror Victims Initiative” .

Ipse Dixit is a blog by The Legal Weasel: an “elderly Law student, double bassist, jazz freak, beer drinker, computer scientist, geographer, and father”. The Weasel studies at the University of Glasgow (a very fine establishment where I have the pleasure to Tutor). He has been mooting: It’s a legal matter. baby.

Over at the University of Strathclyde (another very fine establishment where I have the pleasure to Lecture) we have another student, Drew Long, giving us his Diary of a Pt LL.B Student. Drew asks Do lawyers really help people or do they just help themselves?

Valerie Surgenor blogs as The Techmeerkat. Her latest post is a very Scottish one: What’s in a name for the Stornoway Black Pudding?

Time now to leave Scotland and travel to Wales to visit Richard Moorhead’s Lawyer Watch.  In his latest post, Paradigm Shifts: Better by Design?, Richard tells us that “with ABS-day a-coming and the market already adapting to the freedoms given by a liberal approach to advertising and referral fees, there is a lot of talk about paradigm shifts”. Richard ponders whether market-based innovation may/should/will lead to innovation in the process.

Richard’s blog surely is not the only law blog in Wales? Unfortunately, I have not come across any others. If there are ones out there do alert UK Blawg Roundup to them so that they can be featured in the next (Summer) Roundup.

Staying with paradigm shifts in the legal profession we have Victoria Moffat musing on such things. Her latest post is Starbucks – a great example to us?

Our profession isn’t exactly known for giving things away for free, for innovation or for customer service. To me, Starbucks showed all of these things today. For that, I applaud them.

Can we do the same for our clients?

Jane Rapin on Janeslaw’s Blog also thinks It’s all About the Service!

Shireen Smith has been looking at the question of Differentiating a Law Firm over three blog posts. The second is Developing a USP and I am looking forward to the third installment.

Shireen is, along with Steve Williams, organising the next Twegals Tweetup in London on 7 June 2011. For details and to sign up visit TwtVite Twegals Tweetup. For an excellent account of the Lex 2011 Tweetup see Linda Cheung’s posts on the Connectegrity Blog: Lex2011Tweetup: All the leading tweeting lawyers in a bar. How could it not be fun? and the lead up to that: Twitter Clinic: A hashtag case study.

Steve Williams started his new blog this year: The Social Media Solicitor. Steve asks Should I Follow Other Lawyers on Twitter? I wondered this when I first started tweeting but there is now no doubt in my mind that you should and that for the same reasons that Steve gives in his post.

This brings us to the question of whether lawyers need a Social Media Strategy.  Tim Bratton has a good post on this at The Legal Brat Blawg: Social media strategies: #musthaves or #mya**e? Tim, in good humour, refers to The Time Blawg’s Twitteratigate post as being the social media equivalent of the Chilcot Inquiry (“well, someone made a wry comment along those lines over a drink after #LawBlogs”) . As I pass the 4,000 word count mark on this post I trust I am living up to my ‘Chilcot’ reputation!

Julian Summerhayes thinks Social Media is a must have for Lawyers. He blogs daily and lawyers should be reading his daily posts of wisdom. Today’s post from Julian is The Dot.2.Dot of Social Media Engagement.

At Accountancy Age (not a blawg, I know, but this timely post is interesting in this particular context and still relevant to lawyers) Kevin Wheeler thinks that social media may just be the Emperor’s new clothes. Heather Townsend in response thinks this viewpoint might be flawed. I would tend to agree with Heather.

On Clarinette’s blog the fact that social media can play a new role in the event of a natural disaster in spreading news quickly is considered in the Twitter effect on natural catastrophes.

Melanie Hatton blogs at In-House Lawyer where we learn What LinkedIn Maps tells us about Lawyers.

So, in summary: Lots of people use LinkedIn. Not many lawyers do.  Lawyers who do use social media are rapidly stealing a march on their counterparts who don’t.  In terms of making connections and cementing professional relationships, social media works.

Also in the know that social media works is Paul Hajek who gives you everything you need to know about buying and selling a property in 31 daily bite-sized chunks. Perhaps I should try the bite-sized approach as a change from the ‘Chilcot’ approach! You may well see this approach from time to time in my Crofting Law Blog which will be launching soon.

Crofting Law being part of Inksters Boutique Strategy which I will be blogging about in more detail at The Time Blawg soon. I always like to refer lawyers to John Flood’s post (from February 2010) on The Rise of Boutiques? More recently John has been sharing his thoughts on the BBC’s Silk: It’s a Dirty World in Chambers But Someones Got to Do It… A very recent post from John, with the advent of ABS, looks at New Structures for Law Firms?

Will such new structures involve lawyers being replaced by machines? Chris Dale considers this in Lawyers replaced by computers for ediscovery search – a retrospective.

Does Quality Solicitors demonstrate that you can carve your own path? Catrin Mills at The Law Coach considers this with Lawyers of the future…it’s ok to have vision.

Why risk falling amongst the herd of short-sighted lawyers who will be looking back in 10 years time thinking “Should have gone to Specsavers”?  Grasp the nettle.  Shape your own future – all you have to do is see it.

We all of course know that lawyers fear change. Neil Denny on his Lawyer 1.9 blog looks at this with The Joy in Domesday Thinking – Leading Change In Law Firms.

Whatever the makeup or structure of the Law Firm if your Job Hunting which firm do you choose? This question is answered by Travisthetrout.

Will the future see Barrister Sponsorship in court as imagined by Baby Barista?

Stephen Mayson is a new kid on the blogging scene. But with his wealth of experience and knowledge on the legal services market his blog was sure to get off to a flying start: Sole practitioners and regulation. His latest post looks at the fact “that profit per equity partner (PEP) is a distorted and distorting measure of law firm success“.

Another new kid on the blogging scene is Clare Rodway whose ‘The Conversation’ captures conversations with the interesting people she meets in the course of her work. This does, of course, include lawyers: No buses, then three come at once.

Another newcomer (December 2010) is Rob Bratby whose blog, Watching the Connectives, concerns the intersection of law, policy and regulation with telecoms and technology: DSAC an appropriate test for assessing LRIC cost-orientation.

Three new kids (and these ones are a tad younger than Stephen, Clare or Rob) on the law blogging scene are Leon Glenister, Justin Glenister and Yaaser Vanderman who together are Law Think. The focus of Law Think is “on human rights law, though content is by no means exclusive to this”. A recent post from Law Think: Is Ladies’ Night illegal? Nightclub entry policy and the Equality Act.

Another law blog that has a team of Editors is Conflict of Laws. A bit of time travel shows that this is another class of 2006 law blog. Set up by Martin George from the University of Birmingham it now boasts an international cast of editors in the field of International Private Law. Today’s post from Martin is UK Government Opts In to the Revision of the Brussels I Regulation. As Martin says himself “unsurprising news, perhaps, but news all the same”. Blogging of course does not have to be about the surprising but can simply be used to inform.

As it is a Time Travel edition I can mention a couple of blawgers who have not blogged this year and maybe this will tempt them back as when they do it they do it so well. Gabor Kovacs is The Hampshire Lawyer. I know Gabor has been busy with the move to a new job. He tells us of the impending change in ‘a rambling post about civil litigation for private clients dying on its feet‘. It would be nice to get an update post from Gabor on life in his new firm. Perhaps in time for UK Blawg Roundup #7. Likewise Chris Sherliker has not blogged for a while. I particularly liked his post from last May: Synchronicity, Plum Pudding and the Twitterverse. We need more of this Chris and more often. Again it would be good to see Chris back in action in time for UK Blawg Roundup #7.

So what does our time traveling journey around UK law blogs tell us? I think it is clear that all is well in the world of UK blawgs. The class of 2006 are mostly still around and blogging as much or more so than ever. New law blogs are springing into life all the time. Law students are taking a greater interest in blogging. Twitter probably encourages blogging rather than acting as a poor substitute for it. I can see this recently with asking Miriam Said, via Twitter, to Guest Blog on The Time Blawg. Her very well received post From the Outside Looking In is leading to Miriam setting up her own blog. I am sure that this experience is shared by many and indeed I came to blogging via Twitter.

[Update – 10 April 2011: Miriam Said has today launched her new blog with her first post: Welcome To The Awesome]

On that note I will conclude UK Blawg Roundup #6 and leave you with Something for the weekend: the quest for the perfect Legal Technology Cocktail by Charles Christian.

The next edition, UK Blawg Roundup #7, will be hosted by Tessa Shepperson on 17 June 2011. Submissions to be included in Tessa’s roundup should be made via the Blog Carnival by 3 June 2011. If you didn’t make it into #6 and would like to be in #7 then you simply have to make that submission.

Keep an eye on UK Blawg Roundup for information concerning all future Roundups and do, of course, follow @UKBlawgRoundup on Twitter.