This month’s issue of California Lawyer features a cover article on virtual law. It’s very accessible — the kind of story you can forward to skeptical colleagues to explain why you need to buy a high-end gaming laptop for work.

The article features great photos of four California attorneys’ avatars. Pictured are: Geri Kahn (SL’s ‘Geri Kuhn’) who practices in San Francisco and recently opened a Second Life office, Kate Fitz (SL’s ‘Cat Galileo’) who brings us the outstanding virtual law resource Second Life Lawspot, Stephen Wu (SL’s ‘Legal Writer’) who practices in the bay area and is currently Secretary of the ABA’s Science & Technology Law Section, and Stephen Davies (SL’s ‘Little Gray’) who founded Second Life’s “Avatar Civil Liberties Union.”

The article kicks off with a description of last October’s Second Life Bar Association meeting, so I’m in there too. Also quoted are my co-chairs on the committee on Virtual Worlds and Multiuser Online Games of the ABA’s Section of Science & Technology Law, Sean Kane and Cristina Burbach, as well as some of the other usual suspects in virtual law.

I haven’t been running clippings much recently, but this one is pretty cool for me. I’ve been getting California Lawyer since law school, as have all of my colleagues from the bay area and classmates from Berkeley. It’s pretty neat to see virtual law featured in this very mainstream publication. Although I’ve (at least for now) relocated to Idaho, I still have close connections to California and expect to devote much of my practice to California clients when I am back at it. The California Lawyer article makes me really miss the bay area.

As long as I’m doing a personal update (and since California Lawyer scooped me on details about my own book) I am also pleased to announce that Virtual Law: The New Legal Landscape of Virtual Worlds is slated for publication in April through the American Bar Association. It will be available exclusively via the ABA for a short time, and will be more widely available (both online and in bookstores) a bit later. I’ll run a link for orders as soon we have one.