By Andy Howlett '10
Senior Staff Writer

Change almost always has a sense of irony. Case-in-point: this time last year, I used to rail for hours and hours about how farewell columns are stupid and narcissistic and a total waste of time and space. And yet here I am, about to write something that sounds a lot like a farewell column. So let me begin by saying that I am downright embarrassed.

In a few weeks, I will retire — not only from the Law Weekly and the Law School (well I guess the real word for that is graduate, but why start paying attention to semantics now?) — but also from running what has become the Law School’s (very) unofficial blog of record, UVA Law Blog. In a few short weeks, I’ll be done, and turn the blog over to the next generation of UVA Blawgers. Hopefully, that will mean less blatant trolling for Cornell Basketball, and more actual reporting.

When I started the blog at the beginning of my 1L year, pretty much no one read it. There was another, better blog around (I miss you, TJ’s Double Play) and people were pretty much content to read that. And the Law Weekly, of course. So, I would be pretty psyched when I would get 15 unique hits in a day.

By now, I think that UVA Law Blog has become not only a major source of news and opinion at the Law School, but also provides — through the ability of students to leave comments — a forum which students can criticize the Law School, its administration, and its organizations — anonymously if they wish. This is a controversial point, because one of the many, many criticisms of the site is that the anonymous comments bastardize the conversation.

(As an aside on this issue, moderating the comments — which is done heavily — is a challenging task: To take a line from that talkative kid sitting in the front of the classroom, it’s an issue of “where do we want to draw the line?” The truth is, the comments in the blog are moderated quite heavily. The editors try to nuke anything that constitutes ad homimem attack, as well as anything that is racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. That said, the ability to criticize the school and its organizations is important to us. As a result, it often ends up being a judgment call if someone wishes to do so in manner that is obviously disrespectful: sometimes those comments get deleted, and sometimes they do not.)

I wanted to use my final column to say that I am very proud of what UVA Law Blog has accomplished, particularly as many of those accomplishments came working together with the Law Weekly. In many cases, UVA Law Blog would “break” stories of great importance (and controversy) at the Law School, and the Law Weekly would follow suit with more in-depth reporting. To take one example — the coverage of OGIs in the last two years — the collaboration between the best law school newspaper in the country and the (what I humbly submit as) the best law school blog in the country provided a significant level of information and analysis that was not available at any other school.

Indeed, for a year I worked as both an editor at UVA Law Blog and the News Editor of Virginia Law Weekly – the editorial board of the latter organization agreed to waive any of conflict of interest issues, having no one else who would be willing do the job. During this time, many news stories that actually became major features in the Law Weekly began as investigations by UVA Law Blog. This is includes stories ranging from the changes in public interest funding to the controversy over a professor’s alleged remarks in class to events that run the gamut from moot court to guest speakers to softball. Each time, UVA Law Blog and the Law Weekly would deliver a 1–2 punch, and (I believe) the Law School community benefited as a result.

It is my hope that the UVA Law Blog and the Virginia Law Weekly can continue their tradition of successful collaboration in the future. That said, I think that blog can still do a lot of things the Law Weekly can’t, at least not yet. UVA Law Blog by its nature is better equipped to receive “tips” from readers, operates independently of the Law School, has a very low overhead cost, and, of course, can publish material at any time. These advantages mean that the blog will continue to have the opportunity to publish stories that no one else able to, or no one else wants to. This strikes me as a very important responsibility.

Now, of course, it’s not a perfect marriage. UVA Law Blog writers have criticized some of the silly columns and reporting in the Law Weekly. The Law Weekly columnists have in turned fired back with criticisms of their own. Neither organization is perfect — and in fact, both have a long way to go to get to the type of journalism that would serve the law school best. But, I do think that both have come a long way, and are on the right track. As someone who played a key role in both organizations over the past three years, I am optimistic.

Finally, I would be totally remiss if I didn’t thank the people who made all of this possible with their hard work and blood, sweat, and tears. So many folks on the Law Weekly are deserving of thanks for their hard work and patience, but especially Allen Abrams (Editor-in-Chief) and Tom Seider (columns editor and University of Tennessee graduate). On the other side, in no particular order, my thanks to Justin, Sante, and Fred (founder emeritus). Oh, and Jess Brown. I taught you how to play softball, you taught me love and compassion. I love you, Jess.