Three-Year Anniversary of TaxProf Blog

Yesterday (April 15) marked the 3-year anniversary of TaxProf Blog (and the 12-year anniversary of the TaxProf Email Discussion Group). I hope the blog has at least partially succeeded in its mission (announced in my very first post here) to provide both (1) permanent resources & links, and (2) daily news & information, of interest to law school tax professors and students, tax lawyers in private practice and government, and others in the tax community. The following chart shows the blog's dramatic across-the-board growth over these three years [click on chart to enlarge]:

During our three-year run, we have:

• Become the most popular law-focused blog published by a sole law professor
• Enjoyed support from our sponsors (Thomson-West, Foundation Press, and LexisNexis in our first year, LexisNexis in our second year, and Thomson-RIA, Thomson-West, and Foundation Press in our third year)
• Profiled over 150 of our tax colleagues in a weekly spotlight series
• Said premature goodbyes to too many of our colleagues
• Launched a law school rankings web site with Brian Leiter
• Published weekly rankings of the Top 5 Tax Paper Downloads
• Published monthly rankings by SSRN downloads of the
  • Top 25 Tax Professors
  • Top 25 Tax Faculties
  • Top 15 Graduate Tax Faculties
• Organized a symposium on The Next Generation of Law School Rankings at Indiana-Bloomington, with the papers and commentary published in the Indiana Law Journal
• Organized a symposium on Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship at Harvard Law School, with the papers and commentaries published in the Washington university Law Review

I am especially delighted that the Law Professor Blogs Network I started with Joe Hodnicki has grown to 46 blogs, either existing or in development:

• AntitrustProf Blog (Shubha Ghosh (SMU) & D. Daniel Sokol (Wisconsin))
• Aviation Law Prof Blog (Brian Havel (DePaul), Michael Jacobs (DePaul) & Andrew Eastmond)
• Banking Law Prof Blog (Ann Graham (Texas Tech))
• Business Law Prof Blog (Dale Oesterle (Ohio State))
• Chinese Law Prof Blog (Donald Clarke (George Washington))
• Civil Procedure Prof Blog (W. Jeremy Counsellor (Baylor) & Rory Ryan (Baylor))
• ContractsProf Blog (Carol Chomsky (Minnesota) & Frank Snyder (Texas-Wesleyan))
• CrimProf Blog (Mark Godsey (Cincinnati))
• Elder Law Prof Blog (Kim Dayton (William Mitchell))
• Environmental Law Prof Blog (Susan Smith (Willamette))
• Family Law Prof Blog (Barbara Glesner Fines (Missouri-Kansas City) & Nancy Ver Steegh (William Mitchell))
• Food Law Prof Blog (Donna Byrne (William Mitchell)
• Health Law Prof Blog (Betsy Malloy (Cincinnati))
• Higher Ed Law Prof Blog (James Castagnera (Rider) & Patrick Cihon (Syracuse))
• ImmigrationProf Blog (Jennifer Chacón (UC-Davis), Bill Hing (UC-Davis) & Kevin Johnson (UC-Davis))
• International Environmental Law Prof Blog (William Burns (Santa Clara) & Richard Caddell (Bangor))
• Land Use Prof Blog (Paul Boudreaux (Stetson))
• Law & Econ Prof Blog (Jagdeep Bhandari (Florida Coastal) & Tom Ulen (Illinois))
• Law Blog Metrics (Joe Hodnicki (Cincinnati)
• Law Librarian Blog (Joe Hodnicki (Cincinnati) & Ron Jones (Cincinnati))
• Law School Academic Support Blog (Daniel Weddle (UMKC) & Elizabeth Stillman (Suffolk))
• Law School Innovation (Douglas Berman (Ohio State), Anupam Chander (UC-Davis), Gene Koo (Harvard) & Mark Osler (Baylor))
• Legal Profession Blog (Alan Childress (Tulane), Michael Frisch (Georgetown) & Jeffrey Lipshaw (Tulane))
• Legal Writing Prof Blog (Nancy Soonpaa (Texas Tech), Sue Liemer (Southern Illinois) & Coleen Barger (Arkansas))
• Leiter's Law School Reports (Brian Leiter (Texas))
• Mass Tort Litigation Blog (Byron Stier (Southwestern) & Howard Erichson (Seton Hall))
• Media Law Prof Blog (Cristina Corcos (LSU))
• Nonprofit Law Prof Blog (David Brennen (Georgia) & Darryll Jones (Stetson))
• Poverty Law Prof Blog (Ezra Rosser (American) & Lowell Hunt (Notre Dame))
• Products Liability Prof Blog (J. David Prince, Michael Steenson & Kenneth Ross (all of William Mitchell))
• PropertyProf Blog (D. Benjamin Barros (Widener))
• Reproductive Rightd Prof Blog (Caitlin Borgmann (CUNY))
• Science & Law Blog (David Faigman (Hastings), David Kaye (Arizona State), Michael Saks (Arizona State), Joseph Sanders (Houston) & Edward Cheng (Brooklyn))
• Search & Seizure Blog (Scott Fingerhut (Florida International))
• Secured Credit Blog (Larry Bates (Baylor) & Kristin Schroeder Simpson (Baylor))
• Securities Law Prof Blog (Barbara Black (Cincinnati))
• Sentencing Law and Policy (Douglas Berman (Ohio State))
• State & Local Government Law Prof Blog (Judith Welch Wegner (North Carolina))
• Statutory Construction Blog (David Hricik (Mercer))
• TaxProf Blog (Paul Caron (Cincinnati))
• Tech Law Prof Blog (Mark Giangrande (DePaul))
• TortsProf Blog (Bill Childs (Western New England))
• Unincorporated Business Law Prof Blog (Greg Duhl (Tulsa))
• White Collar Crime Prof Blog (Peter Henning (Wayne State) & Ellen Podgor (Stetson))
• Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (Gerry Beyer (Texas Tech))
• Workplace Prof Blog (Richard Bales (NKU) & Paul Secunda (Mississippi))

Our current sponsor -- Thomson-RIA, Thomson-West, and Foundation Press -- is supporting our efforts to expand the network into other areas of law.  Please email me if you would be interested in learning more about starting a blog as part of our network. We provide you with a turn-key operation: we will create your blog for you and walk you through the very simple mechanics of posting.  Thomson's sponsorship enables us to provide modest stipends to our editors.

Thank you for joining us during these three years. I hope you will stick around for what I hope will be many years to come. Please use the comments to share your thoughts on the blog as well as how we can serve you better in the future.