http://blogs.mddailyrecord.com/ontherecord/2007/12/19/wsjs-anonymous-lawyer-of-the-year/ Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:44:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 http://blogs.mddailyrecord.com/ontherecord/2007/12/19/wsjs-anonymous-lawyer-of-the-year/#comment-154 rjc Thu, 20 Dec 2007 13:15:51 +0000 http://blogs.mddailyrecord.com/ontherecord/2007/12/19/wsjs-anonymous-lawyer-of-the-year/#comment-154 L2L is not one person. The character was a regular commentator on David Lat's Above the Law blog before its first appearance on the WSJ blog, and it started on the infamous AutoAdmit student site years before that. Once the schtick took hold on AutoAdmit dozens of people jumped on the bandwagon and started posting as L2L, often in dueling posts, each claiming to be the authentic L2L. Now, the name L2L has become like a hereditary title, passed on from one generation to the next, as much by self-appropriation as actual designation, with some people wearing it brilliantly and others klutzing it up. It would be difficult, though probably not impossible, to trace the personna back to its original manifestation but there is no point in doing so. The personna is just a way to vent, and has no serious point to make. Anyone who reads and responds to L2L "feeds the trolls" in internet parlance. No doubt that will continue to happen, however, since so many people on blogs seems to be psychologically underemployed. Or, as one poster put it, "there are a lot of lonely people out there dealing badly with the quiet desperation problem." L2L is not one person. The character was a regular commentator on David Lat’s Above the Law blog before its first appearance on the WSJ blog, and it started on the infamous AutoAdmit student site years before that. Once the schtick took hold on AutoAdmit dozens of people jumped on the bandwagon and started posting as L2L, often in dueling posts, each claiming to be the authentic L2L. Now, the name L2L has become like a hereditary title, passed on from one generation to the next, as much by self-appropriation as actual designation, with some people wearing it brilliantly and others klutzing it up. It would be difficult, though probably not impossible, to trace the personna back to its original manifestation but there is no point in doing so. The personna is just a way to vent, and has no serious point to make. Anyone who reads and responds to L2L “feeds the trolls” in internet parlance. No doubt that will continue to happen, however, since so many people on blogs seems to be psychologically underemployed. Or, as one poster put it, “there are a lot of lonely people out there dealing badly with the quiet desperation problem.”

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