Although I'm still a law student, I have been working on and off as a law clerk. I have not blogged, however, about anything related to my employment, and I've recently realized just how well-considered this decision has been.

There are many legal blogs out there now, and quite a few of them on intellectual property issues. If you take a look around, however, you'll start to realize that many of them are sponsored by a firm, and are fairly professional-feeling. Many offer only factual information, and no opinions on the merits of particular cases. It's somewhat ironic that the only ones opining about the merits of cases are non-lawyers...

But, as I've come to realize, it's all too easy to opine about a case and later come to realize that you or your firm are going to be involved in it. At that point, you may have already created a situation that will harm your case, especially if you've criticized that client's position, or even dismissed a theoretical legal point that you would need to argue for in the case.

I have already seen at least two cases in the news, which I thought about commenting upon, but did not, due to such concerns. I later discovered that in both cases, a firm I was working for had an interest in the outcome. To be perfectly clear, I expressed no opinion publicly regarding either case, but without being aware of such issues, an unsuspecting and less conservative (or trepidatious) law student could easily create a difficult situation.

So it's unfortunate, but the realities of legal ethics seem to dictate that I may only comment upon the most theoretical and general legal issues in public, or possibly on cases completely unrelated to my area of the law. Purely factual news would also seem to be fine (athough it could relate to issues of actual notice), but that just isn't as interesting to me.

I would like to hear the opinions of any legal bloggers on this subject as well.