Editorial: the Value of Anonymous Posting/Comments

Our post on the issues with one professor's failure to timely turn in grades at Boyd School has led to numerous back and forth discussions about the value of and dangers of anonymous posting and comments. In light of that fact, as one of the editors of WWL, I submit this editorial statement to the readers in order to provide a place to debate the question of anonymous posting/comments:

As you may have guessed, the editors of WWL post behind pseudonyms. Personally, I post as Legal Eagle out of concerns that discussing the more embarrassing elements of the Nevada legal community could easily end up in my being fired from my position as a legal secretary. It might be for a story that offended my bosses or insulted their friends. And the postings and comments allowed might prevent me from being hired by future bosses who value the Vegas legal community's ability to sweep its worst aspects under a rug. There has been a huge value to anonymous posting, however. Anonymous posting and comments have made sure that WWL can report on any stories in the Nevada legal community without fear of retibution and allowed the editors/writers to secure sources for stories who would otherwise not comment. But beyond my personal issues with anonymous posting, I believe there is an inherent value for the general public in allowing anonymous posting.

Behind a shrouded identity, posters can reveal information that they would otherwise not share due to fears about the revelation's impact on career and interpersonal relationships. The legal community is notoriously protective of itself. The legal business is a self-regulated industry, relying on its members to protect the general public from the worst aspects of legal practice. However, many attorneys in Las Vegas refrain from criticism or ethical reporting of their colleagues believing that some of the most unethical practitioners of law in Nevada are also the most powerful.

For this reason, attorneys, judges and other members of the legal community rarely share information about the worst practitioners and unethical community members. They choose not to inform on their colleagues, bosses, professors and judges for fear that speaking out about the darker aspects of legal practice will bring retribution. For this reason, the need for anonymous comment has been recognized by the Nevada Bar Association, which provides a telephone number for members to anonymously report unethical conduct by Nevada attorneys.

Some commentators have suggested that this retribution is not "real" as it will not likely take the form of imprisonment or violence. However, there are very real consequences for whistleblowers and industry critics who choose to speak out about unethical practices. Outside of the legal community, there are numerous examples of professional retribution for those who speak out against the worst aspects of their community. In the so-called "Medical Mafia" case, the Nevada doctors who have testified against the alleged corrupt practices of Nevada Plaintiff's attorneys and medical consultants like Noel Gage have suffered financially and professionally for their attempt to clean up the Las Vegas medical and legal communities.

There are allegations from commentators as well that some of the anonymous posters on this website as law students and that their choice to post anonymously makes them cowards. I couldn't disagree more. Law students have much to fear in an academic system that is based on fierce competition, faculty judgment and professional recommendations. This week, several anonymous posters criticized the Boyd law school administration for protecting a professor against the outrages of first year students who have been placed at a competitive disadvantage to their colleagues due to a professor’s failure to turn in grades. If those posters are indeed Boyd students and were to openly criticize members of the faculty, it is likely the faculty and administration would develop a bias against the commenting students. This bias would lead the professors and administration to be less likely to choose the students for classes, teams, projects or recommendations that can make or break a student's career in the legal community (at least during the crucial first few years when grades and law journal membership determine which students many law firms will and won't hire). Law schools already value anonymous interaction between faculty and students as a way of protecting students from bias. It comes in the form of anonymous exam grading.

In law school, the students stand in awe of their professors as keepers of the law. Faced with the problem of whether to publicly criticize the gatekeepers to their professional career on a particular issue, many law students would remain silent. Whether a professor’s failure to timely turn in grades is as important an issue as some commentators have made is a debatable (The editors of WWL have no opinion other than the story is newsworthy when a gatekeeper to a profession based on timely filing of documents can’t fulfill his or her professional grading responsibilities and reportedly faces no consequence for that failure). However, we think that the detractors of anonymous posting sell the free speech value of anonymous posting and anonymous blogs short when they refer to anonymous posters as nothing but “cowards”.

Some topics and discussions are so controversial that mere discussion of them can bring ruin down upon the author. Many of the founding fathers knew this and engaged in anonymous debate of the principles that would make up the U.S. Constitution in their publishing of the Federalist Papers. Anonymous posting and commenting in the blog age may have taken on a more juvenile tone, but the value of anonymous comment has been proven time and time again. The power of remaining behind the curtain can lead some to act upon their worst instincts—name calling and unsupported attacks [we are a tabloid blog after all]—however, the possibility of sharing powerful secrets with the world without destroying one's self can also appeal to a profession’s better angels and shine a spotlight on aspects of an self-regulated industry that should be rooted out for the sake of the general public.

I started blogging on the Vegas legal community based on the belief that the scars and bruises of the Vegas legal profession should be visible; so that clients can better choose an attorney to represent them; so that law students, new attorneys and support staff can better choose who to work for and which offices to avoid; and so that the unspoken, but widely-known ethical concerns about certain practices could be debated in a jurisdiction that many attorneys have referred to as the Wild Wild West of law.

As always, WWL encourages comment, rants and raves, thoughts, feelings and outright criticism of the ideas expressed here (anonymously or not).