Legal Skills Prof Blog

Can you get CLE credit for blogging?

It depends. From the always great Lawyerist blog:

Most of the 45 state that have a mandatory continuing legal education requirement for lawyers award credit for published legal works.

At least 35 states specifically lay out the qualifications for awarding writing credit. Each state has its own unique set of regulations which I’ll broadly summarize and juxtapose a blogging platform as publisher.

Article content

The articles content boils down to two broad requirements—that it contribute to the continuing legal education of the author and is addressed to attorneys.

The daily review and research of current materials and information necessary to compose on-point, meaningful blog posts certainly contributes to the author’s education as it does to the lawyers that consume the content.

Acceptable publishers

Many states require that the articles be published in law reviews, professional journals or an ABA publication. And books or chapters of books. Some consider non-published works

A few mention electronic or “other legal sources”. Like blogging platforms? What about posts on ABA published blogs?

Nevada has a unique provision that articles published in a legal magazine must have a regular distribution to at least 200 attorneys. Online legal magazines (or blogs) reach thousands!

Length of post

Some states specifically require up to 2,000-3,000 words in length. Some get specific, like Vermont which grants 2.5 hours for 1000 published words and five hours for 3000 published words.

Though the trend in today’s quick paced world is for micro-everything including blog posts, most lawyers, given the opportunity will gladly comply with a verbose requirement. Some bloggers even now, eschew the popular short, frequent posts in favor of longer, substantive pieces.

Is there typically a limit on how much your blogging (or other writing) can count toward your yearly CLE requirement? Click here to find out.

(jbl).

Sales of e-readers double while tablet sales slow

From The Pew Internet Project:

The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011  from 6% in November 2010.  E-readers, such as a Kindle or Nook, are portable devices designed to allow readers to download and read books and periodicals.  This is the first time since the Pew Internet Project began measuring e-reader use in April 2009 that ownership of this device has reached double digits among U.S. adults. 

Tablet computers—portable devices similar to e-readers but designed for more interactive web functions—have not seen the same level of growth in recent months.  In May 2011, 8% of adults report owning a tablet computer such as an iPad, Samsung Galaxy or Motorola Xoom.  This is roughly the same percentage of adults who reported owning this kind of device in January 2011 (7%), and represents just a 3 percentage-point increase in ownership since November 2010.  Prior to that, tablet ownership had been climbing relatively quickly.

(jbl).

Among lawyers, BlackBerry loosing favor to Android and iPhone

From Law Technology News:

As many folks have opined, BlackBerry seems to be dying -- no matter what its parent company, Research in Motion, attempts to do to turn things around, nothing works. The BlackBerry Storm smartphone, a spectacular failure. The PlayBook tablet (which we have written about here), played out. Beyond the numbers, the dwindling market share, the bad press, what has caused the company to falter? There have been some interesting takes in recent weeks and months.

The decline in BlackBerry's fortunes is reflected in results from the 2011 In-House Tech Survey from Corporate Counsel: While very much still a part of legal departments -- 89 percent supply the device -- those numbers will likely change in upcoming years,  if BlackBerry continues to dwindle. In fact, Alan Cohen, in his story about the survey, notes that "other options are gaining on it, a full third of respondents supply iPhones, another 9 percent offer Android-based handsets."

Cohen expects that this shift will continue, because lawyers and others are simply more excited about other smartphone offerings -- the BlackBerry devices lack the verve of Google-powered Android or Apple-powered iPhone smartphones. Cohen added this, from one of the survey respondents: "his company was getting rid of BlackBerrys en masse because of problems integrating them with the web-based e-mail it was switching to." The lawyer went on to predict that his law firm would probably drop all BlackBerrys by the end of the year.

You can read the rest here.

(jbl).

It's the 4th of July

This holiday's music treat comes to us from Dave Alvin. Enjoy!

Dedicated to Doreen.

(jbl).

July 4: Other Historical Events

In our country's history, July 4th has become a special day not just for the birth of the nation,but for other later events, often designed to  take place on July 4. Here are some listed by Wikipedia:

1802 – At West Point, New York the United States Military Academy opens.

1803 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.

1817 – At Rome, New York, United States, construction on the Erie Canal begins.

1826 – Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, dies the same day as John Adams, second president of the United States, on the fiftieth anniversary of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence.

1827 – Slavery is abolished in New York State.

1831 – Samuel Francis Smith wrote "America" ("My country 'tis of thee") for the Boston, MA July 4th festivities.

1838 – The Iowa Territory is organized.

1863 – American Civil War: Siege of Vicksburg – Vicksburg, Mississippi surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant after 47 days of siege. 150 miles up the Mississippi River, a Confederate Army is repulsed at the Battle of Helena, Arkansas.

1863 – The Army of Northern Virginia withdraws from the battlefield after its loss at the Battle of Gettysburg, signalling an end to the Southern invasion of the North.

1881 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.

1886 – The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States.

1894 – The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole.

1913 – President Woodrow Wilson addresses American Civil War veterans at the Great Reunion of 1913.

1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States.

1950 – The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe.

1959 – With the admission of Alaska as the 49th U.S. state earlier in the year, the 49-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1960 – Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Act).

1965 – Homophile activists picket at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the first in a series of Annual Reminders of the second-class status of LGBT people in the United States.

1966 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act goes into effect the next year.

1969 – The Ohio Fireworks Derecho kills 18 Ohioans and destroys over 100 boats on Lake Erie.

1997 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars.

2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the site of the World Trade Center in New York City.

2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1.

2006 – Space Shuttle program: STS-121 Mission – Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 18:37:55 UTC.

2009 – The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks.

(ljs)

Plagiarizing Woody Guthrie?

“On an annual basis, we know more money is stolen at the nip of a pen than the barrel of a gun,” Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Paul Walton said Tuesday. 

The assistant prosecutor was speaking of his admirable efforts to stop mortgage fraud. Please compare this verse from Woody Guthrie’s “The Ballad of Pretty Boy Floyd, a Depression era outlaw in Oklahoma with the reputation of being a Robin Hood: 

“As through this world I’ve traveled, I’ve met a lot of funny men.

 Some rob you with a six gun, and some with a fountain  pen.” 

I’m sure the assistant prosecutor unintentionally pulled Woody’s thought out of his subconscious or arrived at the thought independently. Here is another verse from the same song: 

As through the world you wander, as through this world you roam,

You’ll never see an outlaw drive a family from its home.

(ljs)