Law Librarian Blog

Minnesota Supreme Court Rules for Franken

The news just broke.  The Court ruled that Franken won the senate election over Coleman.  The opinion from the Court's web site is here.  The Washington Post story is here.  [MG]

States Eye Internet Sales Tax, Vendors Fight Back

It's no secret that the states are strapped for cash.  They've always eyed tax revenues from Internet sales as a money source.  The current taxation scheme requires a nexus for a vendor's physical presence within the state to collect revenues.  Now several states are targeting vendor affiliate programs as providing that nexus.   Some have passed legislation that makes that connection for sales tax collection.  These affiliate programs may take the form of web site referrals from one company to another, or ads provided by a local source to the national vendor.

Amazon is reacting to this by dropping affiliate programs in Rhode Island and North Carolina.  California is considering similar legislation.  The buzz is that other major vendors such as Overstock.com would likely follow suit than be burdened with remote sales tax collection.  This reaction can't be good for states.  While it's doubtful that Amazon would lose customers over a move such as this, their former affiliates' lost business will probably translate into lower tax revenues.  More on this from the Los Angeles Times via the Chicago Tribune.  [MG]

SCOTUSblog Releases End of Term "Super Stat Pack"

SCOTUSblog has published its stats, charts, lists, and observations about the just-concluded Supreme Court Term. The "Super Stat Pack" includes data covering the following:

Opinion Tally
Justice Agreement
Decisions by Final Vote
Frequency in the Majority
Opinion Authors by Sitting
Circuit Scorecard
The Court’s Workload
Grant Rates by Conference
OT08 Questions Presented and Results (with embedded links to slip opinions)

Check out the blog's visual representations of the voting lineups in each decision. See also Mark Giangrande's (DePaul) LLB post, Supreme Court Actions at the End of Term, for the Court's final actions this Term. [JH]

Why Won't Bloomberg Discuss Its Citator?

Stymied by Bloomberg's relucance to discuss the Bloomberg Citator (BCIT) in preparation for what he hoped would be a detailed analysis of BCIT, Michael Robak (Univ. of Illinois Law) was forced to rely on product literature and his own use of BCIT for his AALL Spectrum article, The Bloomberg Citator: A first look at BLAW's citations function. In the article, Robak provides an overview of the features and functionality of BCIT -- helpful for those of us who have not seen BCIT but leaving the reader wanting a more systematic analysis. This, of course, is not Robak's fault.  

Robak concludes that "Bloomberg’s entry into the legal information market appears to be serious and a potentially major challenge to Thomson Reuters and Reed Elsevier. The BCIT product does appear to be an attempt to rethink/re-design the citator concept with an eye toward developing a tool that can quickly and easily provide action-specific information..." Will Bloomberg now talk to Robak so he can follow up this article with a more detailed analysis of BCIT? [JH]

Just Released, Special Collections 2.0

Web 2.0 applications are finding a place in a variety of professional endeavors—and nowhere with more usefulness and potential than in the realm of specialized document collection and archiving. Lynne M. Thomas and Beth Whittaker's new book, Special Collections 2.0: New Technologies for Rare Books, Manuscripts, and Archival Collections (Libraries Unlimited, June 30, 2009) offers advice and practical ideas for collecting, and preserving archival materials for optimal long-term access.

From the product description:

Special Collections 2.0 surveys the web's new options for interconnectivity and interactivity tool by tool, exploring the benefits and shortcomings of applying each to the special collection and archives profession. It combines expert analysis of the pros and cons of Web 2.0 with numerous reports of how wikis, blogs, photosharing, social networks, and more are already being put to work in this essential field. Creators, researchers, and caretakers of the historic record—even those anxious about using the Internet—will understand the best ways to put Web 2.0 to work in the service of our cultural heritage.

[JH]

Supreme Court Actions at the End of Term

The Court issued two of the three highly awaited opinion this morning, concluding the 2008-2009 term.  The opinions in the New Haven firefighter case reversed the lower courts allowing New Haven to throw out the test results when it became apparent that no minority applicants would be promoted.  The banking regulation case which addressed the tension between state and federal regulation of national banks concluded that states can enforce state laws regarding banking practices, though with limitations as to how states investigate national banks.  The Hillary Clinton movie case regarding whether an anti-Clinton movie was subject to campaign finance disclosure regulations was punted for re-argument at the beginning of the next term, scheduled for September 9th.

Cuomo, Attorney General of New York v. Clearing House Association, L.L.C., et al.(08-453).  The New York AG (at the time Elliot Spitzer, now Andrew Cuomo) sent letters to various nationally regulated banks requesting non-public information in lieu of subpoena.  The banks, through their trade association, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency sued to prevent disclosure to the Attorney General under the terms of the National Bank Act.  The Court distinguished between visitorial powers and enforcement powers under the Act and concluded that states can enforce state laws against national banks.  The requested information, however, must be developed in those proceedings.

Ricci et al. v. DeStefano(07-1428).  The City of New Haven, CT, threw out test results for promotion within the Fire Department when it became apparent that white candidates had significantly outperformed minority candidates.  New Haven argued that the city would be subject to liability by minority test takers had it certified the results.  The affected white and Hispanic candidates sued.  The lower courts upheld New Haven's action.  The Supreme Court held that New Haven violated Title VII.  Under law, before New Haven can attempt to avoid or remedy race conscious disparate impact, it must have a strong basis to believe it will be subject to liability if it fails to take the discriminatory action.  The Court adopted the strong basis in evidence standard to resolve conflicts between the disparate treatment and disparate impact provisions of Title VII.  New Haven does not meet that standard in this record.

In other significant action:

The Court has let a court order stand, barring enforcement of a Missouri law limiting protests at funerals.  The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued the order while a judge considers the constitutionality of the law (Nixon v. Phelps-Roper, 08-1244).

The Court let stand a ruling by the 2nd Circuit that barred lawsuits by victims of the September 11th attacks against Saudi Arabia for allegedly giving money to charities that would wind up financing Al-Qaida.  The lower court said the suit was barred by sovereign immunity in these circumstances (Federal Insurance Co. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 08-640).

The Court agreed to hear an antitrust case involving the NFL.  The issue is whether the 32 teams of the league can enter into an exclusive agreement to make team apparel without violating antitrust laws (American Needle v. National Football League, 08-661).

The Court refused an appeal over a New Hampshire law forbidding the analysis and resale of doctor prescriptions information.  Companies that collected that information for marketing purposes appealed a 1st Circuit ruling upholding the law (IMS Health, Inc. and Verispan, LLC, v. Ayotte, 08-1202).

The Court refused to hear an appeal by movie and television studios over Cablevision's remote DVR service.  The producers argued in the lower courts that the service was akin to video on demand which should be licensed.  The lower courts said the recording service was no different whether the recording device was in the home or at the company (Cable News Network v. CSC Holdings Inc., 08-448).

The Court agreed to hear a case interpreting the Hague Convention on Child Abduction.  The lower court said only the parent with custodial rights can invoke the treaty.  At least one Circuit disagrees with that ruling (Abbott v. Abbott, 08-645).  [MG]

Did the University of Illinois Barter Jobs for Law School Grads in Exchange for Law School Admission of Under-Qualified, Politically Connected Students?

Factors other than GPA/LSAT scores ought to be taken into consideration when it comes to law school admissions but what was happening at the University of Illinois College of Law is not an example that illustrates this point. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich pressured University of Illinois Chancellor, Richard Herman, and the former dean of the University's College of Law, Heidi Hurd, to admit under-qualified students who were politically connected. In exchange for admitting those students, university officials attempted to obtain jobs for College of Law graduates. 

How many politically connected students? According to the Chicago Tribune article, the College of Law admitted at least 24 so-called "special admits" during a four-year span. "[T]hey had lower grades and standardized test scores than the general applicant pool and they lagged behind their classmates once admitted. On average, they maintained a 2.86 grade point average during their first year compared with the 3.2 grade point average for the overall class ... One faced formal disciplinary charges and left the school." The Chicago Tribune article also reports that "law school officials showed their disdain for the special admits and even worked behind the scenes to campaign against them."

What did it cost to get under-qualified politically connected students admitted to the University of Illinois College of Law? Five jobs for graduating law students suggest internal e-mails released last week and published here by the Chicago Tribune. Quoting from an email attributed to then Dean Hurd by the Chicago Tribune, the College of Law allegedly bartered admission for "very high-paying jobs in law firms that are absolutely indifferent to whether the five have passed their law school classes or the Bar." As noted by Brian Leiter (Chicago), the Chicago Tribune glosses over the sarcasm in this particular email. In a letter to the Chicago Tribune that denies any jobs-for-admission scheme, former Dean Hurd writes, "While my sarcasm was clearly lost on the tin ears of some, my e-mail exchanges in response to queries about this were on their face facetious." However, there is more damning evidence that U of I and its law school were active, if relucant, participants in a corrupt admissions scheme.

Corruption in law school admissions, "Chicago-style." Chicago Tribune reporters Jodi S. Cohen, Tara Malone and Robert Becker write "the e-mails paint a picture of how law school officials operated a parallel admissions review for clouted students. They withheld denials until the year's end, cleared decisions with top university administrators, and debated whether to accept candidates with stronger credentials -- or stronger connections. Several clouted students received full-ride scholarships." Commenting on the content of the incriminating emails, Above the Law writes, "Warning, these emails are not safe for naive people who are unaccustomed with the 'Chicago-style' of getting things done."

This snip from the Chicago Tribune's Sunday editorial entitled "U. of I.'s cynical breach of public trust."

We don't know how many U. of I. and government officials participated in -- or, by their silence, tolerated -- corrupt admissions. We trust that federal prosecutors and the gubernatorial commission chaired by retired Judge Abner Mikva will uncover each betrayal of the public trust, and identify the schemers and witnesses.

Illinois citizens must turn to the feds and Mikva because, with the most recent revelations, U. of I. trustees and administrators have lost whatever last shred of credibility they had. We hope the independent investigators also demand to know why this most recent batch of devastating e-mail didn't surface -- despite the Tribune's request under Illinois' notoriously weak Freedom of Information Act -- until the feds began raining subpoenas on state universities.

Think this through: How deeply did the influence of money and politics corrupt U. of I. admissions? Deep enough that the U. of I. apparently would foist its cynical game on the rest of Illinois by attempting a barter: If we have to take these weak applicants, you have to put some of our grads into public or private law jobs. Thanks, U. of I.

Two comments.

First, it sounds like Boss Blagojevich was taking tips from the first Mayor Daley's playbook in Blagojevich's attempt to acquire absolute control of Illinois state government. Those of us who call Chicago our home have seen this sort of thing happen time and time again in Illinois politics. Now where did I put my old copies of Len O'Connor's Clout: Mayor Daley and His City (1984) and Mike Royko's Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago (1971)...

Second, I seriously doubt U of I or its law school are the only public institutions of higher education that have been "persuaded" to admit under-qualified students from politically connected families. Granted the full scholarships are a bit over the top but some IHE administrators are probably envious that they didn't think up a jobs-for-admission scheme. Or maybe they have... [JH]

CRS Analysis of Sotomayor's Opinions: "Most consistent characteristic ... has been an adherence to stare decisis."

In the CRS report, Judge Sonia Sotomayor: Analysis of Selected Opinions (June 19, 2009), Anna C. Henning and Kenneth R. Thomas provide an analysis of selected opinions authored by Judge Sotomayor during her tenure as a judge on the Second Circuit. "As a group," the authors conclude, "the opinions belie easy categorization along any ideological spectrum."

From the Report:

Perhaps the most consistent characteristic of Judge Sotomayor’s approach as an appellate judge has been an adherence to the doctrine of stare decisis, i.e., the upholding of past judicial precedents. Other characteristics appear to include what many would describe as a careful application of particular facts at issue in a case and a dislike for situations in which the court
might be seen as oversteping its judicial role.

It is difficult to determine the extent to which Judge Sotomayor’s style as a judge on the Second Circuit would predict her style should she become a Supreme Court justice. However, as has been the case historically with other nominees, some of her approaches may be enduring characteristics.

[JH]

Best Law Firm Articles and Alerts Aggregrator on the Web

On 3 Geeks and a Law Blog, Greg Lambert reviews myCorporateReources.com, a site that aggregates client alerts published by AmLaw 100 firms, calling the site "hands-down the best law firm articles and alerts aggregator" he has seen. Check out his review and the site for yourself. I think you will agree with Lambert's assessment. Lambert hopes to follow up his post with an interview of the site developers. [JH]

Are you doing a presentation soon? Like at AALL09?

It is summer time, and that means many librarians are busy attending conferences, giving talks, and preparing for lectures. Some of these presentations might take place online for economic or time considerations.  I though it would be worth reviewing some means and methods to ratchet the appealability factor of your presentation, especially for large or virtual attendees who are comfortable with the main feature of Web 2.0 technology: collaboration.

Back to Basics

Before we even address how Web 2.0 hallmark features can be incorporated into presentations, let's step back to review some basics: avoid bullet points and avoid a visually boring presentation!  Library Journal's Wyatt's World recommends the following books to help transform those linear slides to something a bit more Picassoesque while still making your point clearly.

• Cliff Atkinson, Beyond Bullet Points (Microsoft Press)
• Tom Bunzel, Solving the PowerPoint Predicament (Que)
• Nancy Duarte, slide:ology (O'Reilly Media)
• Stephen M. Kosslyn, Clear and to the Point (Oxford)
• Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen (New Riders Press)

While all of these titles received four or more stars on Amazon, only the Atkinson title received a five star rating.  My personal favorite is the Duarte title.  Duarte owns and runs an innovative design firm and her book provides practical approaches to help transform mediocre or average presentations into professional events with pizzazz.

Live Question Tool 

Once you are comfortable with your presentation style, there are some new tricks you can take out of your bag to enhance the learning experience of your audience. Many of us have attended conferences, or given lectures, where a Twitter feed is used to collect questions for speakers, or engage others with background conversation. If you are unfamiliar with how this works, it simply requires tweets to be prefixed with a #. This allows users to search for tweets on a specific subject or related to a specific event (such as #ALA, #calicon09, etc). Although this alone is somewhat of a new trend, Live Question Tool goes a bit further. LQT lets audience members post questions, but as questions are added, other participants can submit comments and cast votes for the questions they hope to see answered first. If, while you were speaking, you were wondering if you were getting across, LQT gives you a way to rethink the direction your lecture or presentation should take.  Educause has a practical, short article on Live Question Tool in its "7 Thinks You Should Know About" series.

Slideshare

My final recommendation is to use an open access slide sharing platform like Slideshare.  Slideshare allows you to upload your presentation (or Word documents), make it available to your audience (you can also keep it private), and keep it up to date for future reference.  You can share your presentation on social networks, bookmarking sites, and add their Slideshare widget to your blogs or libguide pages.  The best part about Slideshare is that it allows you to sync up audio with your slide presentation and turn it into a video.  It is called Slidecasting and it is very easy to do.  As an example, take a look at Vivek Kundra's (US CIO) slidecast "Charting a Course for Transformation."

Happy conferencing and happy presenting! (VS)

We Are Living in Exponential Times

Did You Know 3.0 is fascinating video on the progression of information technology. Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod, it's the 2008 edition of the "Shift Happens" video. [JH]

You're on Cheaters Camera

In Cheating 2.0: New twists on a venerable temptation are confronted by law schools (National Law Journal) Leigh Jones reports how law students are taking cheating to the next level by using their cell phones, taking advantage of flaws in some computerized exam software apps by logging out of and then back into the exam software, et cetera.  Note the detection methods some law schools are using, like Florida Coastal's reliance on cameras in its facilities to catch cheaters during finals. For more, see Mitchell Rubinstein's posts on Adjunct Law Prof Blog: Cheating In Law Schools and Hi Tech Cheating. [JH]

PLI Scholarships Available for Law Librarians

Practising Law Institute is now offering scholarships to law librarians, among others, for PLI seminars and CLE.  Details are here.  [MG]

Law Librarians of the Caribbean

Did anyone know that the 24th annual meeting and seminar of the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries was taking place?  The meeting was addressed by Barbados Attorney-General Freundel Stuart.  His comments suggest that any image problem law librarians have is not limited to the United States.  For example:

“In other words, few librarians are into branding, and are happy merely to impart knowledge to others and to be thanked for a job well done. This is not enough, however, if the profession is to attract more young persons into its ranks. It must be seen as both dynamic and rewarding.”

There is more.  Read the rest in the Barbados Advocate here.  [MG]

Happy Birthday to the Barcode

Just wanted to pass along this New York Times article about the 35th birthday of barcodes. Many a law library uses bar codes to keep track of their collection so if you are like me and know those first 5 or 6 bar code numbers of your collection, ours is 3521700......, as you have typed them repeatedly this article could mean a little something to you. {BB}

Treasury Secretary Offers Fast Solution for Monetary Meltdown

Last month LLB alerted readers that they needed to turn in their toxic dollar bills to the Treasury Department for their own safety. The ruse didn't work. Now comes news that the Treasury Secretary has a new plan for solving the federal government's monetary meltdown -- trading U.S. gold reserves for cash through Cash4Gold.com. From the Onion. [JH]

US To Trade Gold Reserves For Cash Through Cash4Gold.com

E-Books: Understanding the Basics

Jane Lee, California Digital Library Assessment Analyst, covers e-book essentials in E-Books: Understanding the Basics. In her brief article, Lee observes that "the rise of e-books highlights the struggle to offer services that address the increasing demand for electronic resources while maintaining legacy collections. There will be questions and arguments about the future of books and the role that academic libraries must fulfill, but we must stay focused on the central question. Our materials and methods may change, but our mission remains the same. We exist to support scholarship – whatever form it takes." Hat tip to Digital Koans.

Mark Giangrande (DePaul) observes on Tech Law Prof Blog that the e-book market may open up some if Amazon moves away from linking its own content exclusively with its own reader. See Amazon May Open Up Kindle, e-Book Business To Other Formats. [JH]

CRS Report on the State Secrets Privilege and Other Limits on Litigation Involving Classified Information

From The State Secrets Privilege and Other Limits on Litigation Involving Classified Information (May 28, 2009):

The state secrets privilege is a judicially created evidentiary privilege that allows the government to resist court-ordered disclosure of information during litigation, if there is a reasonable danger that such disclosure would harm the national security of the United States. The Supreme Court first described the modern analytical framework of the state secrets privilege in the 1953 case of United States v. Reynolds. In its opinion, the Court laid out a two-step procedure to be used when evaluating a claim of privilege to protect state secrets. First, there must be a formal claim of privilege, lodged by the head of the department which has control over the matter, after actual personal consideration by that officer. Second, a court must independently determine whether the circumstances are appropriate for the claim of privilege, and yet do so without forcing a disclosure of the very thing the privilege is designed to protect. If the privilege is appropriately invoked, it is absolute and the disclosure of the underlying information cannot be compelled by the court.

The Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) provides pretrial procedures that permit a trial judge to rule on questions of admissibility involving classified information before introduction of the evidence in open court. The use of classified evidence may also implicate criminal defendants rights to exculpatory information and witnesses statements held by the prosecution, or their right to confront witnesses under the Sixth Amendment.

Congressional action may affect the operation or coverage of the state secrets privilege. In 2008, a federal district court held that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act supplanted the state secrets privilege with respect to civil claims of unlawful electronic surveillance. In the 111th Congress, House and Senate versions of bills entitled the State Secrets Protection Act, H.R. 984 and S. 417, have been introduced to codify the privilege. The bills would additionally limit the privilege to cases where significant harm to national security was presented, require judicial review of the actual information claimed to be privileged, and require the Attorney General to report to Congress within 30 days of any invocation of the state secrets privilege.

[JH]

Supreme Court Action Today

We're still waiting for Ricci to come out.  With that, here are today's opinions.

Horne, Superintendent, Arizona Public Instruction v. Flores et al. (08-289).  The Respondents in the case were plaintiffs in an action that alleged inadequate funding for English Language Learners, as required to achieve broader goals under the Equal Educational Opportunity Act (EEOA).  The District Court issued a series of orders and decrees over years of judicial oversight first in the Nogales Unified School District, and later extended them to cover the entire state of Arizona.  The legislature passed a finding bill that would incrementally increase the funding.  Various officials, as a result, moved the District Court to rescind its orders based on the bill, and in the alternative to grant relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b)(5).  That rule allows for relief when a judgment is no longer equitable, among other reasons.  The Court of Appeals reversed and ordered a hearing under Rule 60(b)(5).  The District Court ruled that the bill still did not create adequate funding and denied relief.  The Court held, after deciding some standing issues, held that the lower courts did not conduct the proper analysis.  The narrow focus of the English Language Learner funding was one element of achieving the goals of the EEOA.  Arizona moved to a program of structured English immersion which by measure was more effective than bilingual education.  Moreover, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act which represents changed federal education policy.  Because the EEOA does not focus on funding but goals, the petitioners can press for relief under an expanded analysis.  There was also question as to whether there was enough of a basis to extend the order state wide.

Atlantic Sounding Co., Inc. v. Townsend (08-214).  Townsend was injured while working on a tugboat owned by petitioner Atlantic Sound Co.  He sued under the Jones Act alleging, among other issues, the arbitrary and willful failure to provide maintenance and cure.  He also sought punitive damages.  The District Court would not dismiss the punitive damages claim and the Circuit Court affirmed on interlocutory appeal.  The Court held that neither the Jones Act or precedent of the Court precluded a longstanding remedy under general maritime law.  Punitive damages are available.

Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (07-591).  Massachusetts introduced certificates of state laboratory analysts stating that material seized by police and connected to petitioner was cocaine of a certain quantity.  Massachusetts required the certificates to be sworn before a notary public before introduced into evidence.  Petitioner objected, stating that the analysts were required to testify in person.  The trial court admitted the certificates into evidence and the the Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed.  The Supreme Court reversed holding that the petitioner's Sixth Amendment right to confront a witness against him was violated.

Safford Unified School District #1 et al. v. Redding (08-479).  This is one of the big cases from this term, and one that is getting the most news coverage.  The issues are whether a student strip search of a 13 year old girl violated her Fourth Amendment rights, and whether individuals from the School District are immune from suit.  Assistant Principal Wilson showed Savana Redding a day planner containing knives and other contraband.  Redding said the planner was hers, but she lent it to her friend Marissa.  He also showed her four pills, three of which were prescription strength.  All were banned under school rules.  Redding denied knowledge of these.  Wilson and another administrator searched Redding's backpack and found nothing.  The assistant took Redding to the school nurse who had Redding remove her outer clothing and then to pull on the elastic of her underwear, exposing her to some degree.  No pills were found.  Redding's mother sued the School District for Fourth Amendment violations.  The District Court granted summary judgment on a qualified immunity defense, finding no Fourth Amendment violation.  The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the strip search of the child was unjustified by school officials under existing Supreme Court precedent.  The Court of Appeals reversed the summary judgment for Wilson, but affirmed it as to the assistant and the nurse as they were not independent decisionmakers.  The Supreme Court held that the search of Redding's underwear violated the Fourth Amendment.  Wilson may have had enough suspicion to search Redding, but because the drugs in question did not indicate a danger to students, searching her underwear went too far.  The individual defendants had qualified immunity, but the School District's liability should be examined on remand.  A news analysis appears in the Washington Post, among other places. [MG]

Shifts in the Legal Market Place

Two postings in the blogosphere this week targeting how we might see certain segments of the legal market emerge from the economic downturn.  In his post Welcome to the Future: Time for Law School 4.0, Am Law Daily blogger Paul Lippe addresses the current state of legal education.  Lippe provides a brief history of the Langdell model of case method teaching and outlines its failure to prepare young lawyers to effectively contribute to their future employers’ bottom line.  Some of his recommendations for change include more practice orientation in teaching, better use of technology and an accelerated curriculum where the last year is spent in an externship, among others.  Many of the problems and resolutions echo the 2007 Educating Lawyers for the Legal Profession (Carnegie Report)

Even before the Carnegie Report was issued, forward thinking educators at Harvard announced a change in their first year curriculum (see their press release) that incorporated complex problem solving methods and included courses normally designated as electives, such as international or administrative law.  Since the Carnegie report, there has been a lot of talk of reform (see for example, the upcoming one-day summer conference on curriculum reform to be held at the John Marshall School of Law in Chicago on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, as reported here) but not as much action as many would hope for.  Only one other school has changed its curriculum drastically by completely revamping the third year of law school. It is interesting that law schools readily accepted Harvard’s “old” model of law school, but are less willing to clone the new Harvard – or Washington and Lee model - now.  However, the private sector might have more of an impact than Harvard.

Above the Law blogger Elie Mystel highlights one firm’s approach to addressing recent graduates poor lawyering skills. At the Washington D.C. based law firm of Howrey LLP, they are introducing a three tier (as in three year) program that builds lawyering skills for associates.  The catch for the lawyers is that their salary will reflect their return to semi-student status – though they will still be pulling down a decent wage.  According to layoff tracker, Howrey laid off 25 staff members and 10 associates prior to adopting this change.  Removing their “students” from the high end billable hour will save the firm money and will produce lawyers capable of handling complex client matters successfully.  As Mystel points out, Howrey is hardly the only firm seeking to maximize their returns.  Private firms simply cannot justify the salaries for new associates who are not properly schooled in practical lawyering and communication skills. 

Where do librarians fit into this equation?   I expect that at law firms, the reference librarians will need to pick up some of the research work that was previously farmed out to associates.  I would imagine that they will also be involved in getting in teaching good research habits when they arrive at the firms.  Of course, this education should start in the academic law library, a skill that is normally given short shrift in the legal academy.  Which all points back to curriculum reform. (VS)