by Gaming Counsel, Dec 8, 2012 | 5:59 pm

Something a little different this time, folks. I want to set out some very brief thoughts on who I think deserves a Canadian legal blog award. Some (most?) of you in the poker world won’t care about this, but I will highlight some gaming-related recommendations, so I think it’s worth sticking with it.

Here are my three picks, with some honourable mentions thereafter:

1. Social Media for Law Firms — Samantha Collier gets the first nod. She’s a wealth of information for lawyers about blogging and Twitter in particular, and social media in general. Her posts are smart, crisp, and practical. I think the Law Society should invite her to the Solo & Small Firm Practitioners conference in the Spring to present; she’d have more insight than plenty of the folks there on effective use of social media. I contend that lawyers are generally not using social media to its fullest potential. Very few of us “get it.” Sam gets it.
2. Thorsteinssons Tax Blog — Thorsteinssons is a Canadian boutique tax law firm. I’m channeling my inner tax geek here, but they have an excellent tax blog. They cover Canadian, cross-border, and other international tax issues. Their posts are current and consistently engaging. They raise things that I hadn’t thought that much about and make me think about current cases in a new way. Tax is a tough specialty to stay up-to-date on in any country, and Thorsteinssons makes it easier to do so. (For other great American perspectives on tax, also look to Brad Polizzano‘s posts on Taxes in the Back (Brad’s also a great gaming attorney in New York) and Kelly Philips Erb‘s Taxgirl blog.)
3. Dickinson Wright’s Gaming Law Blog — These posts take the form of client alerts, and I would organize them differently, but it’s still a blog. (On the link, scroll down to the gaming law section.) DW is a multinational law firm that has great bench strength in gaming in several markets. Their Canadian attorneys include Michael Lipton, Q.C., Kevin Weber, and Jack Tadman (Jack was a former student of mine – he’s a sharp lawyer who’s going places). Their collective posts are relevant, timely, and get into the details of gaming law issues in Canada. If you’re amenable, it’s worth signing up to their newsletter. Same goes for getting on I. Nelson Rose‘s e-mail list for some international gaming law perspectives, particularly in the US.

This is only a smattering, of course. There are plenty of others worthy of an award, but I’m limited to three here. A listing of some other good sources — but by no means all of them, and I’m expressly not including my writing in this recommendation — is here. As an example of that list not being comprehensive, just note that Dickinson Wright isn’t among the sources listed.

One more thought: of course, I would commend many of the folks that I follow on Twitter to your attention. Collectively, they have great perspectives on the gaming industry. As only a few examples and in no order, check out the writings of Dan ‘Pokerati‘ Michalski, Jennifer Newell, Dave Behr, @Grange95, Kim Lund, @PokerLawyer, and the team at Calvin Ayre. (Calvin’s legal stuff should actually be up for a law blog award. The man himself is Canadian, after all. Let’s consider him an honourable mention) All great and insighful writers and wonderful people. Happy reading!