Law Students

Can helping homeless hurt them?

Posted on March 13, 2008
Here's an article in the Chron regarding attorneys helping fight homeless citations.Essential premise: had attorneys not fought a particular homeless man's citations, he would not have died by OD'ing in the city's public library.Do well-intentioned lawyers actually end up doing more harm than good? It's a particularly relevant question for us to ask as (1) we have a ton of homeless in Berkeley; and (2) we've got a number of students and professors who volunteer in this way.

Our Mazillion Dollar Makeover

Posted on March 13, 2008
My fair lady of the stacks shares a few words about upcoming Boalt Hall renovations:At the Town Hall Meeting [ ] some of you expressed hope that we would be able to upgrade the Boalt Hall facility. As Dean Edley noted [see his rather adept handling of the question at 10:39, here], we have already begun work on this, and we intend to step up our renovation activities this summer (you'll be hearing from us soon about the details)...

Live Blogging D.E.'s Town Hall

Posted on March 12, 2008
There is no reason for me to be the only person doing this, especially if anyone else was thinking of doing something similar. But how to make it easy for others to play along from home, or the office, or the other side of Booth Auditorium? Here is what I came up with:I'll transcribe the questions and answers in the comments section, in real time...

Is Law School Really That Awful?

Posted on March 12, 2008
The law blog reports on a pamphlet that will be distributed as part of a "mental health toolkit distributed to ABA Student Division Presidents. I do not downplay stress and depression. These are serious threats to health and well being of young people in general?not just law students...

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Hat Tip to Liu

Posted on March 12, 2008
Looks like we managed to get one inside.

Semper Fi Code Pink

Posted on March 11, 2008
Awwww, I just had fond memories cross my mind while watching the Daily Show [No. 35] report by MAJ Rob Riggle (USMC) on the Marine recruiting fiasco. I'll link to the video clip as soon as it's up tomorrow. Money line: "Wouldn't it be great if there was somebody sworn to defend that freedom of speech?"

I've got a bucket of SH!T and I know how to use it!

Posted on March 11, 2008
We've all heard of the tree sitters protesting the stadium expansion.  But it would be a parallel tree sitting protest that made news today, this time regarding the school's BP contract.  See Here.To tell you the truth, I've been skipping a lot of these updates to not bring attention to their cause(s)...

A time and a place

Posted on March 11, 2008
Thank you again Patrick for live-blogging the DE event. It gave me the opportunity to go to the 49ers event instead. I encourage people to see the town hall post below this very long one.For those who missed the 49ers event, it featured the 49ers' Executive VP of Football Operations and the 49ers' Football Operations Analyst...

Seriously?

Posted on March 10, 2008
What the?WHAT?My Con Law professor just explained that the Mann Act is a relic past its prime. I wish.***Update:Now that I have recovered a bit, I can register my disappointment. Other Boalties with whom I have spoken today have given me knowing smile or a wise nod, and said things like: "I'm not overly surprised...

"Waste" By Any Other Name

Posted on March 10, 2008
. . . weekend SF Gate article about highly educated Indian women, married to highly skilled professionals, who are not allowed to work because of their immigration status:[There are] thousands of women who came to the United States on the coattails of their husbands' H-1B visas, granted to highly skilled professionals to fill jobs at the software companies and technology labs of Silicon Valley...

Brain Enhancement is Wrong, Right?

Posted on March 09, 2008
A commentator in another thread recently mentioned drug abuse for intellectual inhancement. The NY Times ran a story about the ethical implications of this phenomenon today, and it is worth a read.The piece asks some interesting questions. Is there a meaningful distinction between substance abuse in athletics and academics (because unlike athletes, intellectuals' successes drive social progress)? Is there an ethical distinction between a scenario in which an employee chooses to use, say, Adderall, and a scenario that person is asked to use Adderall by their employer? Will we someday put asterisks after Nobel Prize winners' names?One comment in particular caught me off guard...

Really? The Claim . . .

Posted on March 08, 2008
I am long-time fan of the NY Times' Health section column, "The Claim: . . ."  This week's piece is no let-down.  While we have always heard about the dehydrating effects of caffeine, studies suggest suggests moderate amounts of coffee are only as dehydrating as moderate amounts of ...

WOA Woes

Posted on March 07, 2008
Five papers due - about 5 hours each.Twenty three cases to read - about 225 pages.Class twice a week - about 17 hours.Relevance to the "real world" - extremely high.Moot Court requirement - fulfilled.Grade - Pass/Fail.Credits - one.Shouldn't WOA be worth more than this?

Friday's lighter side...

Posted on March 07, 2008
Possibly best gag to ever hit Mac-o-files at Boalt?What's the verdict?  Evil or funny?

Does LRAP Need More Funding?

Posted on March 07, 2008
More than 40 Boalt Hall Student Groups have signed on to a letter encouraging the Dean to "take substantive and expeditious action in improving LRAP to keep pace with the rapidly increasing tuition."I have copied the letter into the comments (rather than post here) due to its length...

A firm-issued iPhone?

Posted on March 06, 2008
Secretly (or not-so-secretly) hope that your firm is the first to adopt the iPhone to replace the Blackberry?  Apple's taken one step closer to allowing that to happen today when it announced the beta version of "Enterprise" - software that makes the iPhone work with your firm's existing email and calendar exchange servers...

Do People Care About Comments? People Do

Posted on March 05, 2008
A commenter wrote in another thread:Can we talk about the media coverage on OPEC and oil prices? I'm not sure anything has happened recently except the fall of the dollar. But none of the major media outlets are discussing whether oil prices have effectively changed in euros or any other currency...

Next Topic

Posted on March 04, 2008
#1 WTF, Berkeley Law. These new "deluxe" automatic paper towel dispensers provide less paper than my receipt from the Wells Fargo ATM.#2: WTF, Zeb. Not only did you raise coffee prices this year, but now you shrank the size of the cups. I smell rebellion...

SF Legal Aid & The Panhandling Law

Posted on March 02, 2008
Interesting SF Gate article discussing on San Francisco's panhandling law. The City feels the law is being frustrated by the court calendar and by free legal aid attorneys who they perceive as 'over lawyering' the cases. Defense attorneys, on the other hand, feel the law targets people who are down on their luck and trying to get by, and that as a method to identify and deliver services to needy populations, the law is a flop...

An Ugly Little Tree Dispute

Posted on February 29, 2008
If you install solar panels on your California property, and then sue your neighbor demanding their redwoods removed, you might win. Never mind that you may have come the nuisance, etc.--the trees gotta' go. The irony of Solar Panel Guy asking Redwood Guy (both of whom probably voted for Nader in 2000) to cut down his trees is not lost on this blogger ...

Prop 98: No more Berkeley rent control?

Posted on February 28, 2008
There's a lot of hassles that come with living in Berkeley. However, one benefit to students is rent control. Upon moving into an apartment, future rent increases are determined by Berkeley's rent stabilization board.This benefit ends if Proposition 98 passes...

More tech tips

Posted on February 28, 2008
For those of you who have wished the Bluebook was web-accessible and searchable, your wish has been granted.Best of all: it's free if you plug in the ISBN of a print copy.I'm not one to get excited by such a development - I'm quite proud of my ability thus far to avoid the thing as much as possible...

How NOT to Litigate Patents

Posted on February 27, 2008
The recent order by Judge Matsch has been making the news and blog rounds lately. (See here, here (now corrected), and here). ALL the reports that I have seen so far are grossly inaccurate in their reporting of the procedural posture of this case. A quick look on PACER reveals that Judge Matsch overturned the jury's verdict a couple of years ago because of the conduct of the McDermott lawyers...

Harvard Frees Academic Resources

Posted on February 27, 2008
An inside source (hint: he navigates by smell) tipped off the ALR class that last week Harvard made a decision: any article published by Harvard faculty must also be published in a free database. The basic notion is that information produced by scholars should be free...

20% of Hastings Students Get A's, 80% "Unhappy With Grading System"

Posted on February 26, 2008
A commentator below argues bar stats suggest Boalties are soft. Yet meanwhile, a recent survey suggests our friends across the bay wish they could be more like us!*Okay, that was a bit overstated. But the survey does reveal that Hastings students wish their grading system was more like ours: about 80% of UC Hastings believe their 20/60/20 grading curve puts them at a disadvantage on the job market against Boalt and UCLA grads...

The Cult of Minnesota

Posted on February 25, 2008
Are you from Minnesota? Do you know someone who is? If so, then I'm sure that person will not waste a second to remind you that the Coen Brothers are from Minnesota. Juno? Minnesota through and through. One of the hostesses for the E! after-party coverage couldn't stop mentioning that she's from Minnesota...

1L Town Hall, Part I

Posted on February 25, 2008
The 1L Town Hall is coming up (sort of -- March 11) and suggestions are being solicited for topics to be explicitly addressed. Three things I am burning to know:Boalt's bar passage rate has been declining, with a substantial drop last July. How is the UC Berkeley School of Law responding?To what extent will the imminent Boalt construction affect my quality of life as a student here? E...

Michael Clayton

Posted on February 24, 2008
I watched Michael Clayton last night, and I thought about doing a little review, until I discovered that Slate had already done a far better, far more thoughtful job than I ever could. Instead, I'll point you Slate's way, and share three moments from their review that I found thought provoking:Moment 1: Do the studies showing high rates of depression among lawyers tell us something about the profession or the people who go into it? Is it possible to design study that would answer this question?Moment 2: As a former prosecutor turned perpetual associate turned fixer for the firm, Clayton is dispatched to get Edens under control...

New NALP Deadline for Accepting Employment Offers: 45 Days

Posted on February 23, 2008
From the ABA Journal:Under commonly accepted recruiting guidelines, second-year law students have been able to ponder several summer associate offers for months at a time. No more.New guidelines adopted by NALP for a trial period now require second-years to decide within 45 days whether to accept a law firm's offer of summer employment, reports the National Law Journal...

Aim High

Posted on February 22, 2008
As a 2L, I flirted with the idea of joining the JAG Corps of one of the branches of the military. When interviewing with an Air Force CPT, I asked, "so what sets the Air Force apart from the others?"His answer is the topic of a Time article via Yahoo...

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