I’m grateful to the National Law Journal for generously including me in its annual selection of “Champions and Visionaries” in the practice of law in D.C.

NLJ’s write-up (available here only to premium subscribers) credits me with “pioneer[ing] the field of legal blogging” and with offering “commentary [that] infuses national debates over judicial nominees, Supreme Court ethics and appellate court decisions—so much so that, when a Senate Republican cites outside research into the record of an Obama nominee, it’s more likely than not that the handiwork is Whelan’s.” (I understand the reference to “pioneer” to mean not that I was the first legal blogger—I certainly wasn’t—but that I was early among those to stake out and develop some important territory.)