The Shark

i want to help take on establishment, too! down with the RIAA.

[justin gosling]

USF Law's Internet/Intellectual Property Justice Clinic will provide counseling for those targeted by the RIAA.  Very cool.  The RIAA often sends out extortion pre-litigation letters to suspected infringers, demanding individuals fork over a few thousand dollars to settle or face litigation. The threat of litigation is often enough to force settlement, even if the individual is innocent.

Litigation sucks and at the very least this service should go a long way to assist recipients of the pre-litigation letters. One individual currently receiving help from USF is "a 60-year-old Haitian woman who speaks broken English, works six days a week for $8.50 an hour, and has never used a computer who is defending herself against charges that she is an 'online media distributor.' " Nice move, RIAA.

No matter how you feel about the their tactics, at least a large portion of the $400,000,000.00 that the RIAA has raked in through litigation threats was distributed to the artists, right?  Oh, apparently not.

USF has been doing a lot of great internet-related legal work and it makes me wish my school had a similar clinic.

big firms, big money. are you ready for this?

[cynthia foster]

For those of you who are, um, interested in how much money you stand to make as a future attorney in California, Cal Law brings you an extensive look at how much money California firms made in 2007.  The breakdowns of wealth (according to revenues and profits) are pretty astounding — much like in the rest of the world, the rich got richer last year, as the less rich maintained the status quo.

Handy charts etc. to help you visualize the dollar signs.  (Free) registration required.

linx

[cynthia foster]

Got a spare second?  Read up:

• I Passed the New York Bar Exam!!!!!! (New York Personal Injury Blog — a NY grad failed the infamous July 2007 exam, appealed, and won)
• Law School Rankings, The Play (Legal Blog Watch)
• Heeding the Call (Cal Law — the future of green law for students, reg. req.)
  

no yes-men or women in law school

[justin gosling]

I really enjoy it when professors ask students to question the status quo, because it forces us to stop memorizing rules passively and become active observers of the world around us. For instance, my legislation professor is a proponent of deliberative democracy and continually asks the class to evaluate our current system of representative democracy. Is it the best that we can have? Is is adequate? Is adequacy reason enough to maintain the status quo?

Or, take my criminal law professor who asks if specific statutes are worth keeping around. Yes, these statues had a place in time, but has society changed in a way that makes these statutes bad now?

This is one of the major differences between what I thought law school would be like, and how law school actually functions. Law school isn't so much about memorizing and retaining as much as it is about thinking about law generally and then challenging your assumptions and making good decisions.

it's like guess who? with criminals. YAY.

[justin gosling]

Please accept my apology in advance for the hour of your time that I'm about to waste

Criminal law offers a great deal of exciting subject matter, but you have to wade through the court's reasoning and a bunch of other worthless junk just to read titillating stories. All we want is a crazy plot line about drugged up hookers and illegal drug operations. Step in the best damn blog idea in the history of criminal law related blogs: Guess My Crime.

The concept is simple. You're presented with a booking photo and a choice of three crimes. There are no 3 night Hawaii vacations or multi million dollar prizes on the line, just pure entertainment (and the satisfaction of a correct guess). I love it.

It's just a matter of time before a sociologist kills the fun by talking about the significance of how we prejudge mugshots, but who cares? This is a lot of fun! Thanks digg.

Sidenote: As a result of all this, Guess Who? is being remembered fondly.

new kind of law school ratings - the "deadwood report"

[cynthia foster]

This afternoon Orin Kerr of The Volokh Conspiracy reported on a new kind of law school rating system, as devised by  The Green Bag, called "The Deadwood Report."  Interestingly, the rating system claims it will focus on the "most dully objective of measures: whether the work is being done – whether each law school faculty member is teaching courses, publishing scholarly works, and performing pro bono service. . . ."  Sounds simple, sounds straightforward.  But will it work?  Kerr points out one small problem with the methodology (which culls info from schools' web sites): what if the presented data is inaccurate or misrepresented?

Looks like there'll be a nice sharp rise in web master hiring at law schools.

indian law school student can't take the stress, commits suicide

[abony holmes]

Thanks to my “law student” Google alert, I receive many random stories about law students living in places all over the world. A story about an Indian law student committing suicide caught my eye this week.

The 24-year-old woman hung herself from her ceiling fan using her chunni. Her father, Prem Raj, commented that “she has been a good student throughout and we don’t see any reason why she should have been so stressed as to take this step.” The police believe she may have hung herself because of exam stress.

This horrible story only underscores the importance of stress management in the life of a law student. Every law student I know is guilty of allowing the stress to consume them, and too many of us fall prey to the depression and anxiety that leads to destructive behaviors. The following sentence, though incredibly cheesy and clichéd, should be heeded by all: If you or someone you know suffers from depression or anxiety, DO NOT be afraid to take steps to help them or yourself. The cost of doing nothing could be irrevocably high.

you've got 45 days to accept that summer associate job you never thought you'd get

[abony holmes]

If you are a diligent law blog reader like I am, you should already know that starting next fall the NALP will require second-year law students to accept a law firm's offer of summer employment within 45 days.

For those of you not in the know, here’s a rundown of the changes:

• The previous guidelines enabled students to hold onto five offers until Oct. 15, four until Nov. 1, and three until Dec. 1st.
• The old guidelines effectively gave some students months to ponder an offer because summer associate recruiting season begins so early at many schools (as early as August).
• The new guidelines are designed to free up the supply of summer associates and help the recruiting efforts of firms with smaller summer programs.
• The new guidelines have a 45-day rolling offer provision that begins on the date in the law firm’s offer letter.
• All decisions must be made by Dec. 30, regardless of when the offer is made.
• This change is approved for one year, at which time the NALP will consider making the changes permanent after receiving feedback from participants in the upcoming recruiting season.

linx

[abony holmes & cynthia foster]

It was a happenin' weekend on the internet:

• February 25, 2008, 12:40 pm Survey Says: Promise of Money Drives People to Law School (WSJ's Law Blog)
• Patent Reform Update Presented at Stanford Law School (The United States Blog/Promote Progress)
• Hastings Law Students Look to Stay Ahead of the Grading Curve (Law.com)
• Survivor Winner Yul Kwon Speaks About Law School in S.F. (SFist)
• Battlestar Galactica Interview (Concurring Opinions — the law and politics of Battlestar Galatica, go geek out)
• Market Jitters: Bad for Investors, But Good for Law Students? (WSJ's Law Blog)
• 'Serendipity' Plays Role in Yale Law School Admissions (Yale Daily News)
• Nader Criticizes Corporate Influence at Law Schools (The Record, the independent newspaper at Harvard Law School)

law school is the best of times

[cynthia foster & abony holmes]

In the first installment of our new (as-yet unnamed — any reader suggestions?) man on the street interview series, Abony Holmes talks to Berkeley 1L Veronica about the pressures and perils of her laid back attitude toward studying and stress management.