As the number of UK lawyers writing Web logs (blogs) increases, one US legal blogger has decided someone needs to make a list of who in Europe is doing it.

California-based litigator Dan Hull has started a quest for a list of European lawyers' blogs at his Web site WhatAboutClients.com.

So far a limited list of those more active UK bloggers have added their names to Mr Hull's listing, as well as legal bloggers from Sweden and Spain.

Mr Hull hopes to add blogs from all over Europe, partly to bring legal bloggers together across the Atlantic and partly to foster greater American understanding of European legal issues.

'We are trying to "un-isolate" the American legal blogging/business law/legal marketing community, which has turned into an [exercise in navel-gazing],' he said.

More cross-cultural awareness is necessary, agreed UK legal IT commentator Delia Venables. 'Americans do tend to think that the rest of the world is rather far away and not terribly important,' she said.

'However, I think it is inevitable that most legal blogs will be based on national issues rather than being truly international.'

American law bloggers, or blawgers, are present on the Web in vast numbers compared to elsewhere, but Europe is definitely waking up to the possibilities that blogging can allow to lawyers, especially those in smaller and niche practices.

The latest addition to the UK legal blogging world is Tessa Shepperson, a Norwich-based landlord and housing solicitor whose blog Landlord Law (visit: www.landlordlaw.blogspot.com) kicked off on 17 February.

'I enjoy writing and this gives me the opportunity to write in a different way from the information articles I write for my Web sites and newsletters,' she said.

'I can be humorous or let off steam if I have had a difficult day. Basically I write what I like, with a residential landlord and tenant law theme running through the blog.'