A Blueprint for Blogger Involvement in Academic Legal Symposia

Abstract

This essay reflects on my experience as the “featured blogger” at the 2012 Michigan State Law Review Symposium on “Gender and the Legal Profession’s Pipeline to Power” and maps out possible models for future blogger involvement in other academic legal symposia. Successful blogger involvement in live academic events requires contributors who will write under pressure and organizers who will cede control over the way the conference is interpreted and discussed by others. My involvement was an experiment at the intersection of scholarly dialogue, legal education and cyberspace. Blog-based conversations continued after the actual symposium and provided an alternate venue for perspectives that were not present at the live event. Some attorneys-to-be were reluctant to engage in live conversations about gender and power, and anonymous blog commentators labeled women who talk about discrimination as "whiners." While these silent or anonymous commentators suggest that issues of gender in the legal profession are not serious concerns for some, they indicate how difficult it is to have frank and open discussions about gender inequality.

Keywords: blogging, internet, legal scholarship, gender, legal profession

JEL Classification: K49, K19, K39