A podcast is a series of audio or video digital media files which is distributed over the Internet to portable media players and personal computers. According to Wikipedia, the word “podcast” stands for “Personal On Demand broadCASTING.”

Soon after I began blogging in 2008 I began noticing that more and more lawyers who blog were also using podcasts to provide content to viewers. Podcasting was one of the 2009 blogging goals that I identified. In pursuing that goal, I’ve been reading more about legal podcasting.

Law Technology News has a recent article about podcasts with a legal theme in which the writer identifies the “Top 10 podcasts essential for legal professionals.” Those 10 “essential” legal podcasts are:

1.  Legal Talk Network
2.  ABA Podcasts (ABA Litigation Podcast, ABA CLE Podcast, ABA Book Briefs Podcast, The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology, Law Practice Tips Blog)
3.  University of Chicago Law School podcast
4.  Law and Disorder
5.  Out-Law
6.  This Week in Law
7.  Hearsay Culture
8.  International Dispute Negotiation
9.  New Jersey Law Blog

The podcasts included in the New Jersey Law Blog, produced by the Stark & Stark law firm, are the only podcasts from New Jersey to make the list. The Stark & Stark podcasts are directed more at consumers than other lawyers, but the author of the article included them ” because they demonstrate how effectively a law firm can use podcasting as part of its overall marketing and positioning strategy.” The Stark & Stark law firm has often demonstrated its superior understanding of the use of technology for legal marketing, and the firm is far ahead of most other firms in New Jersey in the use of podcasting. There are few New Jersey blogging lawyers I know of who have also begun podcasting. Aside from Stark & Stark, one NJ podcaster is Yale Hauptman, Esq. who produces the Elder Law Today Podcast. If you know of other New Jersey legal podcasters, please let me know.

Shout-out to BigLaw 2.0 where I originally saw the list of the top 10 legal podcasts.