Thanks to our friends at r2integrated, an online marketing and web design company out of the Emerging Technology Center in Canton, we’re pleased to bring you a social media “smash” page on the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor.

This is real-time social media coverage from microblogging service Twitter and the photo-sharing site Flickr. Click here – I promise, you won’t be able to look away.

Keep in mind: as the content is coming from Internet users such as yourselves, it’s not pre-screened.

Let us know what you think of this new, emerging technology!

I have a lot of fun browsing someecards.com, a goofy Web site with tongue-in-cheek cards for “when you care enough to hit ‘send’.”

The site’s good about picking up on topical news and current events — in this today’s case, the administration of the bar exam.

My favorite of their offerings reads: “May passing the bar exam be the first step in a brilliant legal career that will be publicly shredded if you’re ever nominated to the Supreme Court.”

Another funny one: “Once you pass the bar exam, you may want to warn future clients that after a few drinks you’ll divulge anything to anybody.”

There are also slightly more risque wishes.

If you’re up for a short break from the grind, check them out; but you might want to send them via your personal account, eh?

As an avid fan of the This American Life podcast series, my ears perked up when I saw the title of last week’s show: Pro Se. The hour-long episode told the stories of four people who took their legal fate into their own hands.

In talking with my colleagues and other lawyers, I’m aware that ‘pro se’ defense is more common of late, as the economy’s in the tank and many people can’t afford a lawyer. This is especially true for relatively minor civil matters and family law troubles, I gather.

But it’s unusual for a non-lawyer to represent himself in a criminal case, right? And it’s even more atypical for that non-lawyer to win, especially when he is up against an experienced prosecutor.

A prosecutor like Francisco Calderon, an assistant district attorney with Albany County District Attorney’s Office, who’s won over 500 cases in the last five years. Calderon granted an interview to Ira Glass, the host of This American Life, and tried to explain how a 52-year-old cocaine user who knew “nothing” about the law got the best of him.

Jorge Cruz faced a felony charge of cocaine possession with intent to distribute — which could have landed him in jail for a decade. As Calderon tells it, Cruz got an acquittal by eliciting sympathy from jurors, blurting out the sentence he faced when he was not testifying and portraying himself as a drug-addicted grandpa – a crime, sure, but a lesser one.

Calderon points out that opposing counsel often spar back and forth, but in this case, the jury’s impression was likely that Calderon was constantly berating a defenseless man.

You can stream the podcast here. “Disorder in the Court,” the story of Jorge Cruz, begins at the 30-minute mark.

A law school advertising en masse by way of the air? It sounds both expensive and slightly tacky, but that’s what I thought was the case as I basked in the sun on the Jersey shore this weekend. The beaches were packed like a can of sardines — just imagine all those young, impressionable college students scared they’ll never find their first job. That’s when the banner for Georgian Court University flew back and forth overhead.

It couldn’t be, I thought to myself. Everyone knows law schools are practically turning away admitted students. Christina Doran wrote about the University of Miami law school just last week. But as a Marylander – and a non-lawyer – Georgian Court University sounded like an offshore / online factory, churning out law students by the thousands.

Thankfully, I was wrong by a mile – or 10. Georgian Court University is a women’s college “located only 10 miles from the beautiful Jersey shore,” on a National Historic Landmark site and founded by the Sisters of Mercy of New Jersey.

May the case of the aerial-advertising law school rest in peace.

Once again, The Daily Record proudly sponsored the Young Lawyers’ Sun Run at the MSBA’s Annual Meeting in Ocean City. See Danny run!

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Flash video.

The bar for seersucker has been raised, possibly out of reach, by Chief Judge Robert M. Bell of the Court of Appeals.

The always-dapper Bell appeared Thursday at the Maryland State Bar Association’s annual meeting in Ocean City wearing a pink seersucker jacket.

Bell, who hosted the annual mid-morning reception for newly-appointed judges, complemented the jacket with a trademark bowtie.

The chief judge told me he has five or six seersucker suits in addition to his jacket and that he will wear all of them regularly throughout the summer. “It’s like any other suit,” he said.

Alright, so they’re my notes, not actual blueprints – but there were hard hats and toolbelts present at this morning’s workshop. “Business Development Blueprints: Laying the Foundation for Your Career” was sponsored by the Young Lawyers Section, though there was a mix of young and mature lawyers in attendance.

Self-promotion can make people uncomfortable, but as Denise Dewling, Marketing Director of Tydings & Rosenberg, pointed out – no one’s going to do it for you, especially if your firm doesn’t have a marketing manager.

Tips ranged from simple-yet-often-overlooked things to nuanced discussions of privacy settings on social networks. For example:

• Always hold a drink in your left hand at networking receptions – this frees up your right hand for handshakes, and avoids giving your new contact a handful of cold, clammy drink sweat!
• Take notes on your contacts (after they walk away) on the back of their business card. Write down tidbits like their hometown, kids’ names and school affiliations. Then enter these facts in Outlook back at the office so you’ll have easy-to-reference talking points at your fingertips.
• Do you have an email mailing list? You should. Populate it with your college buddies, law school friends, professors, and your alumni association. Send periodic updates on your life — including promotions and job changes.
• Take advantage of all networking opportunities. Don’t play golf? Learn! Or find a way to contribute to an outing – even if it’s as a drink runner or driving the golf cart.
• Simple, sincere gestures matter: Send someone an article you think they’d be interested in (hard copy, people!) with a handwritten note attached. Remember those?

Get your hands on a sample marketing plan and give it consideration. Program chair Laurie Wasserman (Tydings & Rosenberg) passed out samples this morning, but they’re also easily found on the Internet.

Karren Pope-Onwukwe, Esq. (left), and Jason Hessler, Esq. (incoming Young Lawyer Section president) also led and helped organize the workshop.

A fog hung over Ocean City, Maryland this afternoon, but there weren’t any complainers inside the exhibit hall at the MSBA’s annual meeting. Lawyers, organizers, vendors and friends simply seemed happy to be away from the office and to have a chance to catch up with old friends.

Here’s a few of the perspectives from those present on Wednesday afternoon – uploaded straight from the Clarion Hotel off Coastal Highway!

I’ll be heading to the beach tomorrow, books in tow – not that I’ll have much time to read them. I’ll be on the shore for the Maryland State Bar Association’s summer meeting in Ocean City, along with Reporter Danny Jacobs, Executive Editor Tom Linthicum and others from The Daily Record. If you’ll be there, plan to come say hello!

Back to the books. I’ll be toting a copy of “Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies” and “Womenomics: Write your own rules for success.” Yep, if it wasn’t already obvious – I’m your typical female Web editor.

Groundswell’s been on my list for months; it’s gotten rave reviews for its in-depth analysis of how the social media phenomenon has changed the way businesses connect with their customers. (Plus, I figure I’ll get a column or two out of it!)

Womenomics was a gift from my S.O. – either he’s being really considerate, or he’s trying to tell me something, eh?

What’s on your summer reading list?

If you need ideas, the Johns Hopkins University Press has a few – several of which are unsurprisingly locally-oriented.

Today, check out The Daily Record’s first-ever Money issue of Maryland Lawyer, which contains our annual associate salary survey, financial information on the nine firms in Maryland with revenues over $40 million, and stories on the state of the big-firm economy, new challenges for incoming associates, buying and selling a law practice, and living well on a public-interest law salary.