Law Students & Mentors Across the Globe Team Up to Develop New Approaches to the Legal Profession

Jun 1, 2012 7:20 AM CDT

Amend Constitutional Amendment Power and Eliminate Political Gridlock, Law Prof Argues

New York has had five constitutions since 1938; most states have had an average of three. Amending the U.S. Constitution, on the other hand, is a “near impossibility,” according to University of Texas law and government professor Sanford Levinson. “If one must choose the worst single part of the Constitution,…

May 30, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Around the Blawgosphere: Nix ‘Here-and-There Words’; Has Blogging Changed Corporate Law Practice?

While Heretofore You May Have Used These Words—Really, You Should Stop Last year, U.S. Bank attorney Andy Mergendahl meditated on the work of Black’s Law Dictionary editor-in-chief Bryan Garner and took lawyers to task for their foolhardy uses of the word “shall” in contracts. This week, the Lawyerist contributor notes…

May 25, 2012 1:30 PM CDT

Cert Petition: Record Industry Sought to Create Frightening Urban Legend with Downloading Damages

A cert petition filed by Harvard University law professor Charles Nesson claims the recording industry had an ulterior motive when it engaged in a “litigation assault” against illegal music downloaders—its purpose was to frighten the Internet-savvy children of America. Nesson represents Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University doctoral graduate originally ordered…

May 17, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Ethics Prof Shares Law Student Malapropisms

Hofstra University law professor Monroe Freedman has a collection of exam malapropisms, and he’s sharing some with blog readers. These are among the student mistakes Freedman lists at Legal Ethics Forum: 1) The lawyer should be sanctioned for his impunity. 2) Judges should avoid even the appearance of impartiality. 3)…

May 15, 2012 2:49 PM CDT

Law Prof Volokh Argues Google Has a Free Speech Right to Determine Search Results

Search engines have the same First Amendment rights to determine their results as newspapers do to choose news stories, according to a white paper co-authored by UCLA law professor and First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh. The paper (PDF), commissioned by Google, is likely aimed at preventing the government from regulating…

May 14, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Medical Examiner’s Visit to Law School Class Sparks New Defense Claims in Local Manslaughter Case

It’s not clear exactly what lesson a Florida state attorney expected law students to learn when he invited a medical examiner to speak at a class he oversees as an adjunct professor. However, the session apparently was a learning experience for those at the front of the classroom as well…

May 7, 2012 5:17 PM CDT

Clinical Care: Lawyer Left the Partner Track to Help the Indigent

May 1, 2012 7:30 AM CDT

Law Prof, a Former CIA Lawyer, Agrees to Order Requiring Him to Stay Away from Ex-Lover

A law professor formerly in the news for refusing to use a cellphone has agreed to stay away from an ex-lover who claimed he made unwanted phone calls. Afsheen John Radsan, a William Mitchell law professor and former assistant general counsel for the CIA, had denied the allegations but agreed…

Apr 20, 2012 1:15 PM CDT

Developers: Planned Law School in Daytona Beach Would Cost Up to 35% Less Than Most Schools

Plans for a law school in Daytona Beach, Fla., are in the works. Jacksonville, Fla., lawyers Eric Smith and Steven Nemerson, both former educators, are behind the plans, along with Jacksonville developer Jim Catlett, the Florida Times Union reports. Smith says Daytona Beach, with its large population of aeronautical and…

Apr 16, 2012 7:13 PM CDT

The Rise of General Counsel: Prof Outlines Three Generations of Lawyering

The legal profession of generalist lawyers changed after the end of World War II, becoming a profession of specialists trained to serve the needs of industrial and financial clients, a law professor says. Now lawyering is entering a third generation, according to Indiana University law professor William Henderson. Lawyers are…

Apr 16, 2012 11:00 AM CDT

Law Prof Sees Need to Reinvigorate the Petition Clause

The First Amendment’s petition clause isn’t getting the respect it deserves, according to University of Alabama law professor Ronald Krotoszynski Jr. Today, the government is placing protesters “out of eyesight and earshot” at events such as nominating conventions and political appearances, Krotoszynski writes for the New York Times. Courts have…

Apr 10, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Controversy Now Centers on 5th Circuit Judge Who Sought AG Input re Obama ‘Judicial Activism’ Remark

Judge Jerry E. Smith of the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a conservative voice on what may be the nation’s most conservative federal appellate court. But the Yale Law School graduate isn’t political, and he brings an independent mind to his work on the bench, those…

Apr 6, 2012 7:44 PM CDT

Law Prof Sees ‘Huge Opportunity’ in Labor Projections Highlighting Law Grad Oversupply

The number of lawyer jobs in the decade ending in 2020 is expected grow by about 10 percent, but competition for jobs will still be strong, according to the latest employment outlook by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2020, the number of lawyer jobs in the United States is…

Apr 5, 2012 10:30 AM CDT

Were Law Profs Lying or Just Mistaken When They Said the Health Law Was Slam-Dunk Constitutional?

Oral arguments on the constitutionality of the health care law left some journalists with the impression that the U.S. Supreme Court’s liberal justices will have a difficult time getting a fifth vote. The possibility is at odds with the views of many liberal law professors who appeared to “grossly miscalculate”…

Apr 4, 2012 10:30 AM CDT