Did you know the ubiquitous office cube is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year? As someone always looking for an excuse to eat more cake, this is great news. In honor of the cubicle’s anniversary, we thought we’d give you a roundup of our best cubicle-related posts on FindLaw. So sit back in your cube, grab your coffee and don’t let your co-workers see what you are reading (instead of working) …...
Unless you’re an autodidact (and it’s highly likely you’re not), you’ll need some help studying for the bar exam. This help usually comes in the form of a bar review course that costs thousands of dollars. That seems expensive, but trust us – you don’t want to take the bar exam more than once. So what are the varieties of different bar review methods and courses? Here’s the lowdown. Little Boxes on the Hillside There are three nationwide bar review companies: BarBri (which has become synonymous with bar review just like “Kleenex” is synonymous with facial tissue), Kaplan (formerly PMBR), and Themis....
When everyone else was complaining about the amount of reading in law school, did you secretly think, “Hey, this is awesome?” Where other associates grumble about pecking at their keyboards all day, do you get excited about the prospect of a few more hours of research? Well, you might be a bit of a nerd bookworm. And that’s great, because if you love legal research, we’ve got the jobs for you....
You’ve finally made it. You survived the school year, you got through final exams, and now it’s summer. But while summer sure beats law school, it’s not entirely a vacation. You’ve still got that summer associate position (or clerkship, or internship) to take up your summer days. Your summer associate position could kick start a successful career. It might even end up landing you a job. That is, if you do well....
If there’s one thing less exciting than another lawyer television show, how about a show about mediation? “A mediator is kind of a referee in a game with no rules - except those agreed to by the parties involved,” a judge played by Gerald McRaney says early in the pilot episode of Fairly Legal. Kate Reed, is “a former lawyer with a complicated personal life,” writes the San Francisco Chronicle. Reed is played by the gorgeous Sarah Shahi, who might make the show worth watching even if it was an hour-long advertisement for the Slap Chop....
The commute to Valparaiso Law School is going to be a killer. The law school, located in Valparaiso, Indiana, is planning to move to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. That’s about 469 miles away, or 7 hours and 23 minutes for those who have a car. It’s apparently a cost-cutting measure, and may help the law school survive. But will there be a tuition cut or at least a travel allowance? Middle Tennessee According to reports, Valparaiso University has sent a letter-of-intent to transfer to Middle Tennessee State University....
Reports about the death of Charlotte School of Law have been greatly exaggerated – for now. According to reports, the U.S. Department of Education may restore federal funding for student loans at the law school. At least that’s what Charlotte’s interim dean is saying. “We are excited at the prospect of being able to help our students complete their legal education,” said dean Paul Meggett. Charlotte students are praying it works out....
Is the American Bar Association finally taking law school debt seriously? On Monday, the ABA’s House of Delegates adopted Resolution 106, which “encourages law schools to offer comprehensive debt counseling and debt management education” to students and encourages bar associations to provide the same for newly admitted lawyers. But curiously missing from the two-paragraph resolution is any serious discussion of employment statistics, law school prices, and the unwillingness of the ABA to do anything about these issues....
It’s bad enough failing the bar exam, but when your law school fails bar association standards, that’s just disheartening. The American Bar Association has now sanctioned three law schools for not preparing students to succeed in school and pass the bar exam. Basically, the schools got a “D” or an “F” on their bar pass percentage rates. In more specific terms, the ABA penalized each school for not having “sound admissions policies and procedures” and for admitting applicants who may not be “capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar....
A Mets fan is suing the Mets, the beer concession stand in CitiField (formerly known as Shea Stadium), and the union of security guards for the team. Her reason? She was literally squashed like a bug by a fellow Mets fan who weighs approximately 300 pounds. According to the Gothamist, Ms. Ellen Massey was severely injured by a fat man falling on her during an opening day Mets game at Shea Stadium back in 2007....
Is it time to toss your cell phone? Or if not toss it, at least lock it. Governor Jerry Brown vetoed California Senate Bill 914 (SB 914) on Sunday; the bill, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), would have made it illegal for police to search a suspect’s electronic devices during an arrest without a court-issued warrant, reports the Los Angeles Times. In his veto statement, Gov. Brown explained that the measure, “would overturn a California Supreme Court decision that held that police officers can lawfully search the cell phones of people who they arrest,” and deferred to the courts’ authority in such matters....
California voters approved Proposition 9, the Victim’s Bill of Rights Act, in 2008. Better known as Marsy’s Law, the Act expanded the rights of victims to be notified of parole hearings, present information to the Board of Parole Hearings, and to require the Board to consider the “entire and uninterrupted” statements of victims, their families and their representatives. It also amended California Penal Code §3041.5 to increase the period of time between parole hearings, while still allowing for earlier hearings if a change in circumstances or new information subsequently established that there was a reasonable probability a prisoner was suitable for parole....
The D.C. Circuit Court has been quiet this week, but an opinion from the D.C. District Court is set to create a rumbling that no amount of Tums can abate. In Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 struck down limitations on campaign spending by corporations. That same year in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, the D.C. Circuit expanded that to include spending by PACs not affiliated with candidates. In this last term, McCutcheon v....
The D.C. Circuit has overturned Osama bin Laden’s driver’s conviction for material support of terrorism. The appellate court announced on Tuesday that material support of terrorism — a terrorism-related charge in civilian courts — is not a war crime under international law, Politico reports. That means that federal courts can convict a defendant on a material support charge, but military commissions cannot. In war, when the United States captures or takes custody of alien enemy combatants or their substantial supporters, it may detain them for the duration of hostilities....
People v. Soojian, F058589, concerned a challenge to a conviction of defendant for various crimes, including attempted murder and robbery. In reversing the convictions, the court ordered a new trial in holding that this is one of the rare cases where a failure to present evidence undermines confidence in the outcome, resulting in a miscarriage of justice. The court also held that the newly discovered evidence raises significant issues as to the correctness of the verdict, and defendant is entitled to a trial in which all relevant evidence is presented and to a verdict based on all of that evidence....
This could be the Year of the Contrarian. This could be the year when you – contrary to all your failed resolutions of the past – succeed by going a different direction. Like driving in the opposition direction of traffic, you could be flying down the highway of life. When everybody else is thinking inside the box, you will be out standing. As Yoda said, in part, “Do not. There is no try....
It may be a bit better than smashing windows, but it is still vandalism. Police report that the Florence Islamic Center in Florence, South Carolina, was hit by pig parts this past Sunday, October 10. In fact, the perpetrators kindly spelled out the words “PIG CHOPS*” in case anyone arriving at the center would be in doubt about the materials on the ground. According to an interview with the Associated Press reported in TPMMuckraker, Florence Police Major Carlos Raines said the the bacon bits were placed on the sidewalk between 7 a....
Do you have any cases that you just absolutely dread working on? Or clients that you just wish you never signed up in the first place? Or a case with facts so bad you wish you were never even born? Do you have a penchant for hyperbole? Well, given that a lawyer’s job is to resolve legal problems, for your own mental health, you may want to consider seeing if any of those cases you view as torture can be cleared off your plate....
Yale Law School is No. 1 among law schools – again. U.S. News & World Report has ranked Yale Law at the top for so long it’s practically a given that Yale will repeat again next year. When it comes to the annual law school rankings, there is no March Madness because everybody knows who is going to win. So how does Yale do it? And what happened to Harvard, which used to be No....
With a public evidentiary hearing looming on the issue of force feeding of Guantanamo detainees, a district court judge in Washington, D.C., issued two rulings that showed that she’s not afraid of a showdown with her Article II counterparts: one keeping the ruling open to the public, and a second that should lead to the release of videos of the feedings. The legal battle that is set to take place will be about whether the feedings are humane, while the battle for public opinion, which will be fought in the news during election season, could turn on the videos themselves, which will be partly redacted to hide the identities of Guantanamo staff, reports The New York Times....
