Blawgers, meaning those people who actually have blawgs and actually blawg with some modicum of recognition in the blawgosphere, disagree a lot about the way to do it.  From the self-styled marketers to Kevin O’Keefe’s LexBlog to guys like me, there are many disagreements about how to do it and what makes for a viable blawg.  Weekly, if not daily, somebody puts out a list of really cool tips about blogging, and the blawgosphere loves a list, not matter how ridiculous the list or dubious the source.

But things never got as goofy as this promotion for a CLE by the New York State Bar Association that ended up in my email box.

NYSBACLE	Live Programs |  Online Programs |  Recorded Programs |  NYSBA Books
Telephone Seminar Internet Marketing for Law Firms How to Ramp Up Visibility and Build Clientele Wednesday, May 6, 2009 | 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. 2.0 MCLE Credits In an era when it is harder and harder to reach new clients, an increasing number of firms are using the Web to reach a wide audience quickly, inexpensively and effectively. Learn the secrets of Internet Marketing—not just having a website—but using the Web in a variety of ways to generate business legally and ethically. Learn what other firms are successfully doing and learn how to: Use the Internet as a cost effective tool to gain prominence in your field of practice Leverage Web-based communication tools to reach a wider audience and build your reputation Find and use opportunities to author online publications as a method to gain higher visibility How to use advertising on select Web sites to reach your target audience Keep up with your peers and learn what they are doing to market themselves Save time and money by avoiding the common pitfalls The Internet can raise a firm’s profile, signal credibility, attract clients, strengthen referral sources and garner media attention. Yet firms must know how to avoid the ethical and legal pitfalls. If firms, or those working on their behalf, are not careful, they might subject themselves to potential liability. This program will address: Ethical issues associated with online marketing under the revised New York Rules of Professional Conduct Other legal considerations implicated by presence on the Web Elements of risk that firms should understand when engaging in online activities Speakers: Adam Bialek, Partner Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP Stacy S. Salmon, Marketing, Phillips Nizer, LLP

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Now I don’t know the two speakers who are, in the NYSBA’s eyes, sufficiently versed in the subject of blogging to present a CLE on the subject, but I do know one thing:  In the blawgsphere, they don’t exist. 

They come from big firms, the type of law firms that the NYSBA loves to draw from when it looks for “credible” sources of information for its CLEs.  After all, if the firms are credible, then speakers from the firms must be credible as well.

Hello?  Are any of my fellow blawgers familiar with the brilliant and respected Wilson Elser blog?  No?  Well, what about the Phillips Nizer blog?  No, not that one either?  But they must have blogs, since the NYSBA is having them teach a CLE on how to blawg to its members, lawyers all.  They must.  Mustn’t they?

Apparently, no.  There are many out there who are abundantly competent to teach lawyers how to blawg.  Kevin O’Keefe, for one, is amazingly knowledgeable about the technology and what tends to distinguish the successful blawg from the thousands of blawgs that fade into obscurity.  What do Bialek and Salmon bring to the table?  Neither firm has a blog, and neither Bialek or Salmon are bloggers.  So what would possibly compel the NYSBA to select these two individuals to teach a CLE on the subject? 

To the extent that this reflects the absurdity of mandatory CLE (note that you get 2 credits for this particular one), it’s a doozy.  Is this what they had in mind when requiring lawyers to continue their legal education for the benefit of the public and to enhance their professional skills and qualifications? 

But from my blawging perspective, this promotes exactly what the blawgosphere doesn’t need.  We don’t need lawyers, who may have some real desire to join the blawgosphere by offering some worthwhile insight, being told how to do it by people who lack any indicia of knowledge or competence or who suggest that they can teach others how to “market themselves” as if that’s all the blawgosphere is good for,   

Should we have lawyers who have never tried a case teaching cross-examination?  Should we have lawyers who have never closed a deal teaching transactions?  Should we have lawyers who have never blawged teaching blawging?  I think not.

What a joke this is, and when the influx into the blawgosphere of self-promotional, worthless blawgs has so badly cluttered the blawgosphere that no one cares to sort through the chafe to find some wheat, remember that you have the NYSBA to thank for its help. 

Next week:  Twittering for Fun and Profit, brought to you by Skadden Arps.