I'm lawyered up!

I have retained the services of a fellow attorney to assist with this blawg -- Michael P. Masterson, Esq. Having Mike on board will help with some anticipated administration issues. Also, having an actual name affiliated with this blawg will give it some credibility/authenticity.

More importantly, assistance of counsel will greatly help keep this blawg truly pseudo-anonymous. I've asked Mr. Masterson to moderately "promote" this blawg. If I did this myself, people would more easily figure out who I am. Now there is a virtually immovable barrier between my identity and the public -- the attorney-client relationship. Only he -- and a few other trusted advisors -- knows my identity and unless he wants to get disbarred, he must maintain my confidentiality with the utmost care. (ABA Model Rule 1.6; Cali. Rule Prof. Conduct, 3-100.)

Without waiving any privileged communications, Mr. Masterson is in no way connected to any substantive content in this blawg. This blawg is mine and mine alone. Further, "[a] lawyer's representation of a client... does not constitute an endorsement of the client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities." (ABA Model Rule 1.2(b).) So, Mr. Masterson doesn't have to worry about this blawg dragging his name through the mud. In fact, he is actually fulfilling an ethical duty to take on a "fair share" of unpopular clients. (Comment 1 to ABA Model Rule 6.2.)

All of this is good for everyone. For me, I might otherwise find it hard ["that's what she said" -- Michael Scott, "The Office," Thursdays on NBC, 9/8 central] to find someone willing to associate with this potentially insane/offensive blawg. For the readers (if any), now that I'm free to blawg with impunity, this will definitely be the best and most entertaining blawg ever. (Mr. Masterson advises that the last sentence is mere "puffery" and you can't sue me if this blawg busts.)

"I did it, do you think I've gone too far?" -- Dave Matthews

I did it. I am the last person on Earth to start a blog. I'm going to grab myself a cookie... that was nice. Well, maybe that cookie was a little premature. I managed to make the first complete sentence of my first post not only overdramatic, but ambiguous! Did I mean: (a) I am the most recent creator of a blog; or, more boldly, (b) everyone on this planet, including me, now has their very own blog? Issues like these tend to define my professional life and hopefully this blog, which will actually be a law weblog, or blawg -- it will generally relate to the law and the legal profession.

Let's be clear -- my name for purposes of this blawg is Templeton "Face" Peck, Jr., but that is not my real name. What is real, however, is that I am a young lawyer practicing in San Diego, California. Why create a pseudonym to write a blog? What are you, some sort of weirdo? (Objection, compound; vague, ambiguous, overbroad as to "weirdo.") Actually, the beauty of anonymous blogging is the ability to write what you feel/think without accountability. It is especially helpful for lawyers -- in real life we're supposed to always be prepared and logical; but true blogging is less formal and thought-out. Also, now I can expose all those office sex scandals without fear of retribution.

Or maybe I just have a raging ego and like a young Marty McFly, "I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection" if this blawg busts. (That was a "Back to the Future" reference for you kids out there -- it's an oldie... where I come from.) I guarantee blogs have a lower "success" rate than restaurants. And the apparently false rumor is that nine out of ten restaurants close within the first year.