Lawyers and Sam Spade

A lot of legal practice involves investigating who, what, where, when, and why – and that means gathering information on all parties to the case (including one’s own client). Investigating in the 21st century adds a new dimension to what was done in the 20th century (pre-web and especially pre-database and pre-internet). This 12/24/07 PI Buzz post, The Armchair Investigator: Social Media and Teens, gives you a fair idea what you are up against – and I’m speaking primarily to those attorneys who think they don’t need to know what MySpace, Facebook, MyFace, wikiis, CHAT, IM, and all the other Web 2.0 tools, are.

Booknote: As you might have guessed from this post’s Title field, I’m reading Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, which is turning out to be even better and funnier than I imagined or certainly remembered. If you haven’t read it recently or at all, think about doing so. It’s worth it. I haven’t yet (!) seen the movie so can’t compare.