There was a time when the central focus of law school publishing was the law review. But over the years, as more law school professors, staff and alumni launched blogs, they have become a more essential medium for keeping up with legal news, trends and critical thinking.
In a reflection of this development, McGeorge School of Law has launched McGeorge Law Today, a publishing portal that brings together in one place the blogs, podcasts and other writings of McGeorge’s faculty, staff and alumni.
The McGeorge portal is built using the Syndication Journal product developed by the legal blogging and publishing company LexBlog. The Syndication Journal is a turnkey publishing product that gives organizations the ability to aggregate content from many blogs and sites into one online publication, including from LexBlog’s network of more than 30,000 legal bloggers.
While McGeorge is the first law school to launch such a portal, the technology already supports portals published by two bar associations, the State Bar of Texas and the Illinois State Bar Association (see prior post), and by law firms Sheppard Mullin, Proskauer and Robinson+Cole.
The “about” page describes the portal as a way to elevate the work and accomplishments of those associated with the school.
“It is a way to amplify McGeorge voices and for our community to share cutting-edge and otherwise significant legal issues, ideas, and materials, and it allows McGeorge alumni to connect and learn about each other’s practices and the law school.”
While drawing on content from the LexBlog network, McGeorge Law Today will also syndicate and curate content from the school’s existing publications and journals. McGeorge professors, students and alumni who wish to start a blog will be eligible to do so on LexBlog for free.
“I’m really excited about being the first school to launch a journal because I think it reflects something that’s really important about McGeorge — we are a forward- thinking law school,” Dean Michael Schwartz said in a statement. “This is just a great way to spotlight our alumni and support their efforts through blogging to advance themselves.”
Kevin O’Keefe, founder and CEO of LexBlog (and a McGeorge Law alumnus), said, “LexBlog strives to play a key role in preserving and advancing the commentary and analysis that is secondary law. These syndication journals play a big role in that, and we are just getting started.”
[Disclosure: I am a former employee of LexBlog and continue to receive compensation from the company as an independent contractor.]