Article of Interest To New Clerks

For those of you who will be clerking either this summer or in the Fall, the following article may be of interest!! I hope it helps.

Sheppard, Jennifer. The "write" way: a judicial clerk's guide to writing for the court. 38 U. Balt. L. Rev. 73-163 (2008).

Christine

The American Association of Law Libraries announces the first annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Contest

Currently enrolled students attending graduate programs in library science, law, history, or related subjects are eligible to enter the competition. Papers may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. Papers must be submitted by April 15, 2009.  

   

More information is available at: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/Cohenessayprocapp.pdf

Associate Dean Maine Steps Down, Associate Professor Knott Named Interim

In anticipation of sabbatical semester in Spring 2009, Professor Jeff Maine will step down as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the end of this calendar year. As he focuses more substantially on his teaching and scholarship in the coming years, Jeff will continue to share his institutional memory and expertise in administration of academic affairs. We extend many thanks to Jeff for his extensive and valuable work as Associate Dean.

I am pleased to report that Professor Chris Knott will serve as interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs as of January 2009. He already is working with Jeff in transition and meeting regularly with Assistant Dean Sherry Abbott and with me to plan for next semester and beyond. Thanks, too, to Chris for assuming this responsibility.

--Peter

Student Lounge in Law Library

The library has responded to numerous requests for student community space. In collaboration with the Student Bar Association, we have re-purposed our under utilized large student lab into a lounge space for students. The furniture in the space has been "borrowed" from the Berman Lounge. The library staff and the SBA would love to hear furniture suggestions that would best suit the purpose of this new space. There are still 3 computers in the student lounge intended for email viewing, printing and web surfing.

The small computer lab is still available for student work space. It is equipped with 2 MACs and 2 PCs. In addition, the computer located on the 2nd floor of the library is now a student use only machine to provide another quite place to work in the library. Please also note that all 10 computers located in the library can print to the circulation desk.

We hope you enjoy your new student space and would love to hear comments from you. Email http://mailto:lawlib@usm.maine.edu/ or just stop by the Reference Desk and share your thoughts.

Most Cited Journals on HeinOnline

The HeinOnline Weblog has posted a list of the most cited journal titles and most cited journal articles in HeinOnline. Check it out at http://heinonline.blogspot.com/2008/06/most-cited-journal-articles-titles-in.html.

Source: HeinOnlie

U.S. Courts with Audio Recordings Online

Five courts in the U.S federal court system have added digital audio files to the Case Management/Electronic Case File System, including the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Maine. The audio files are accessible through the PACER system. It should be noted that not all the judges in the participating courts are making the audio files available.

Source: beSpacific

Podcasting Legal Do's and Don'ts

For those of you interested in podcasting, Colette Vogele, Esq. and Mia Garlick from the Standford Center for Internet and Society, in cooperation with the The Berkman Center Clinical Program in Cyberlaw at Harvard, have created a guide to the legal issues specific to podcasting, Podcasting Legal Guide: Rules for the Revolution. This guide covers the legal issues concerning the creation, and the distribution of podcasts. For those new to podcasting, this guide also includes a section on the basics of podcasting.

Source: InSite

Edward S. Godfrey Professor of Law Don Zillman Publishes Two Books

Edward S. Godfrey Professor of Law Don Zillman has had two books recently published. The first book, Beyond the Carbon Economy - Energy Law in Transition (Oxford University Press, 2008), which is co-edited with Catherine Redgwell, Lila Barrera-Hernandez and Yinka Omorogbe, explores the legal ramifications of the unsustainability of our carbon-based, global economy. The book was discussed at a conference of the International Bar Associations, held recently in Copenhagen, Denmark. The second book, Strategic Legal Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2008), which is co-authored with Assistant U.S. Attorney Evan J. Roth, is designed to help law students sharpen their writing skills. The text was used by Professor Zillman and Assistant Dean Sherry Abbott in their spring Advanced Legal Writing course.

Director of Legal Research & Writing Nancy Wanderer Elected To AALS Section Executive Committee

Earlier this year, Nancy Wanderer, Director of Legal Research and Writing, was elected to the Executive Committee of the Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). This spring, the committee has been planning a full-day program for the Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego next January--Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues Across the Curriculum: The Challenge of Keeping Law Schools Current with Recent Developments in LGBT Issues. Professor Wanderer will be leading a breakout section--Legal Research, Legal Writing, and Moot Court: Pink Ink and Beyond--in which participants will discuss guidelines for using sexual orientation and gender identity issues in legal writing problems and examine specific topics (such as criminal and civil actions for hate crimes) that have made for particularly effective legal writing assignments. In addition, Professor Wanderer's law review article, "Writing Better Opinions: Communicating with Candor, Clarity, and Style," was recently cited in a Wisconsin Supreme Court opinion, and will be used for an upcoming CLE with Ohio state judges.

Associate Professor Dave Owen Published

Associate Professor Dave Owen recently had two articles published. "Climate Change and Environmental Assessment Law" was published this spring in Volume 33 of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. And, "Law, Environmental Dynamism, and Reliability: The Rise and Fall of CALFED" was published this spring in Volume 37 of Environmental Law.

Associate Clinical Professor Northrop Speaks at AALS Conference

Associate Clinical Professor Christopher Northrop spoke earlier this month (with co-presenters Ken King, Suffolk Law School; Jennifer Lee Koh, Stanford Law School; Jayashri Srikantiah, Stanford Law School) in Tucson, Arizona, at the AALS Conference on Clinical Legal Education. The title of the session was "Clinical Engagement at Multiple Levels: Exploring the Relationship Between Direct Representation and Policy Reform Work." The presentation ended with a general analysis of "best practice" findings for selecting policy projects to integrate with individual representation clinics.

Emeritus Professor Orlando Delogu Published

Emeritus Professor Orlando Delogu's most recent "wind energy" piece, "Wind Energy in Maine: An Assessment of Where We Are Now, was published in the Maine Lawyers Review. Although Professor Delogu was not on the Governor's Wind Energy Task Force, he was invited to participate in Task Force proceedings and was asked to prepare and present three papers to the full Task Force, one of which was printed in full in the Task Force's final report. Professor Delogu was also asked to and did appear before the legislative committee that addressed LD's designed to implement Task Force recommendations.

Associate Professor Smith Article Published

Associate Professor Deirdre Smith's article, "An Uncertain Privilege: Implied Waiver and the Evisceration of the Psychotherapist-Patient Privilege In Federal Courts" has been accepted for publication this fall in volume 58 of the DePaul Law Review.

Associate Professor Knott Contributes to Books on Librarianship

Associate Professor Christopher Knott has recently been asked to contribute to two important projects. Professor Knott has been asked to contribute a chapter to an Aspatore/Thomson West book called Inside the Minds: The Changing Role of Academic Librarianship, which will be written by several academic law library directors. He also has been asked to contribute an article on teaching advanced legal research for a Legal Reference Services Quarterly symposium issue on the role of librarians in the law school curriculum. Both the book and symposium issue are scheduled for publication later this year.

In addition, Professor Knott was recently asked by the ABA to join the group of faculty members serving as ABA site team members for law schools undergoing the sabbatical accreditation process; he will serve as a site team member beginning in Fall 2008.

Hepler Article Published

Christine Helpler's article "Researching Initiatives and Referenda: A Guide for Maine" was recently published in Legal References Services Quarterly. The article discusses the history of the initiative and referendum processes in Maine, and provides a detailed bibliography of research materials on the Maine initiative and referendum processes.

A New Search Engine to Find Attorneys On The Internet

There is a new attorney-search resource available on the Internet. Avvo launched yesterday and like FindLaw and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell, it offers users search tools to find lawyers in different categories and in different locales.

According to Avvo CEO Mark Britton, there is still room on the internet for Avvo’s services because there still isn’t an online service that provides sufficient ratings, reviews, search tools and processes that will “hold consumers' hands through the process of researching and choosing the right lawyer.”

Avvo has developed a three step process to guide users through the task of choosing an attorney and has its own unique ranking system for individual lawyers. To formulate its rankings, Avvo has created an equation that brings in ratings from users, other lawyers and publicly available databases such as state bar associations. Right now, Avvo contains records from ten states currently, and in about 110 practice areas. The attorney rankings are based on experience, education, or any slaps on the wrist they may have received while practicing.

Furthermore, Mr. Britton claims that his database includes the disciplinary history for every lawyer for ever state Avvo covers and eventually will have disciplinary history for for every lawyer in the country. Another interesting feature of this database is that lawyers are allowed to go in and add information about themselves to bolster their listing and also feed into the rating they get. Lawyers will be able to do this on Avvo by registering with a credit card, vouching for their own identity and then populating their profiles with anything they think will lend credence, trustworthiness, or marketing benefit to their profiles.

Source: Search Engine Watch

Ask.com Releases Ask3D

Ask.com®, has released Ask3D, a redesigned version of Ask.com. According to the company's press release, "Ask3D includes powerful new search technology, an innovative three-panel design, and unique new features that give people what they need, faster. With the new version of Ask.com, people get the most relevant and customized information they need from the best range of content available, including videos and music clips, and makes it all immediately accessible on one page. Ask3D replaces the previous version of Ask.com and is now available at www.ask.com." Check it out.

Source: beSpacific

7th Circuit Wiki

The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has created a wiki for court business. Anyone wanting to edit pages needs to supply their real name and confirm their email address. Their wiki provides a link to the Practitioner's Handbook and a detailed discussion of the appealability of a decision. There isn't a great deal of information available at this time but it should be interesting to watch how this develops and whether other courts will follow the 7th Circuit's lead. Check it out.

LLRX All New

Law Library Resources Exchange has updated its website. The best of the old site, like the Court Rules Forms and Dockets database remains the same but the new site is now part of an open source content management system, Drupal, providing enhanced layout, navigation and usability. The new LLRX also provides more options for accessing many of the source materials that are hallmarks of the site. This is accomplished via drop down menus that appear on the top navigation bar, topical navigation choices that consistently appear on the far right hand side of each page, and by employing the new Google Custom Search so that readers may query for content on LLRX and beSpacific (the author, Sabrina Pacifici's blog on law and technology news), or for results from the legal web. Also, a "printer friendly" option has been added to make it easier to read articles once you have printed them.

Authors may submit an article directly to Ms. Pacifici at time.

Source: beSpacific

Climate Change in the Northwest Atlantic

The Center for Law and Innovation wrapped up its conference Climate Change In The Northwest Atlantic this weekend. The purpose of this conference was to discuss how climate change affects living resources and fisheries governance in the Northwest Atlantic. The attendees were scientists, economists, policymakers, and journalists who discussed the challenges of public communication and public policy in the face of scientific uncertainty and unpredictable change.

If you want to know more about the proceedings, the conference blog is online at http://lawandinnovation.blogspot.com/.