SUNY Binghamton's Law School Plans

The Albany Times Union online (11/22/2007)
reports that SUNY Binghamton is working on a plan
to open a law school with a beginning enrollment of
about 300 students. The article goes on to say that
tuition "would be the same as for Buffalo's law school
-- $13,200 for in-state students and $20,000 for
out-of-staters."

Google Gadgets for Your Mac

Google announces that it is now offering a new feature for Google
Desktop, Google Gadgets for the Mac, which is ready to install.
"Google Gadgets applications let you add gadgets with one click
and interact with them beside your Apple widgets in Dashboard.
There's an automatic update to the gadget list each week, so you'll
always have something new to look at."

Kindle: Amazon's New Wireless Reading Device

Will Santa bring you a Kindle this year? The Kindle
is Amazon's new portable reading device that lets you
wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and
newspapers.

From Amazon.com:

"We designed Kindle to provide an exceptional reading experience.
Thanks to electronic paper, a revolutionary new display technology,
reading Kindle’s screen is as sharp and natural as reading ink on paper
—and nothing like the strain and glare of a computer screen..."

And Kindle will kindle your desire to purchase books from Amazon.
Kindle lets you download and read the beginning of books for
free and, if you like what you read, you can download with
Amazon's "1-Click" purchase feature directly from Kindle.
You can also try out and subscribe to newspapers and magazines,
including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the
Washington Post and Time.

New Int'l, Comparative & Foreign Law Research Guides from GlobaLex

The following new online legal research guides are
available from GlobaLex (Hauser Global Law School
Program at NYU School of Law):

Introduction to the Legal System & Legal Research in Chad
(Nadjita F. Ngarhodjim)

The Legal System and Research of the Democratic Republic
of Congo (DRC): An Overview (Dunia Zongwe, Francois
Butedi and Clement Phebe)

Researching Namibian Law and the Namibian Legal System
(Geraldine Mwanza Geraldo and Isabella Skeffers)

How to Print a Screen in HeinOnline

Have you ever wanted to print a screen in HeinOnline
that is not image-based, i.e., that is not part of a document
but rather a screen of search results, a table of contents
or your search history?

The HeinOnline Weblog has a quick and easy
tutorial on how to print non-imaged based pages
from HeinOnline. In brief, all you need to do is
click on the "printer friendly" button in the top right
corner of the screen. This will modify the screen to
make it suitable for printing. When you are done, just
turn off the "printer friendly" by clicking on the button
again.

For more details and an illustration, check out the
web page.

Online Catalogue of Martin Luther King Archives Planned

Boston University has announced that the Howard Gotlieb
Archival Research Center has entered into a partnership with
the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center
Consortium and the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and
Education Institute at Stanford University to create a joint
online catalogue of their respective King holdings.

The collection dates from 1955 to 1961 and consists of letters,
clippings,itineraries, and meeting minutes, including extensive
material from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
and the Montgomery Improvement Association as well as letters
from prominent figures of the time and draft manuscripts of King’s
books and photographs of King, his family and congregation.

The project is being funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Worth Noting: "Viewing the Law in 2020"

The Complete Lawyer (vol. 3, #6, 2007) features four
articles on the future of the legal profession in Viewing
the Law in 2020. Of particular interest to those
preparing law students for practice is William Cobb's
article, "Are You Ready For The Revolution In Legal
Services?" Cobb, managing partner of Cobb Consulting
in Houston, suggests that creative problem-solving,
team-work and adaptability will become paramount skills
for lawyers as firms "seek more efficient means of providing
legal services including outsourcing work to those who can do
it faster and more cheaply."

Most Cited Legal Scholars by Specialty, 2000-2007

Brian Leiter has posted his revised listing of most
cited legal scholars by speciality, 2000- 2007.

In each specialty, the list gives the “ten most cited”
or “twenty most cited” faculty (for larger areas).
On his web page, Leiter explains that the list
is not exhaustive, but concentrates on areas that are
"well-defined or especially important/prominent, and
sometimes both. "

These listings are drawn from the data collected in
July 2007 about citations to faculty since the year
2000 that were incorporated into the
Ranking of Law Schools by Scholarly Impact (released
on September 1, 2007.)

Lawyer2Lawyer Podcast: Recording Industry Association v. File Sharers

This week on Lawyer2Lawyer, Robert Ambrogi
and J. Craig Williams discuss litigation by the
Recording Industry Association of America against
file sharers. The co-hosts will discuss recent cases
in the context of the $222,000 verdict in the RIAA's case
against Jammie Thomas. They will also consider alternatives
to litigation, including the EFF's proposal for a different
system of music licensing.

Guests for this program are:

Richard L. Gabriel, national lead counsel for the RIAA
and a partner with the Colorado law firm
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP.

Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney specializing
in intellectual property issues with the
Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System"

The Law Librarian Blog (11/16/2007) points us
to Race, Ethnicity, and the Criminal Justice System,
a research brief by the American Sociological
Association. The brief, part of a series on How
Race and Ethnicity Matter, highlights data and
research on racial and ethnic disparities in crime
and the criminal justice system in the United States.

Public.Resource.Org to Publish 1.8 Mil. Pages of Federal Case Law

Public.Resource.Org and Fastcase have announced that
Public.Resource.Org will publish 1.8 million pages of federal
case law in the public domain. The database, to be
released in 2008, will include all U.S. courts of appeals
decisions since 1950 and all Supreme Court decisions since
1754.

Fastcase, a for-profit legal research organization, has agreed
to sell this case law in a one-time transaction that will allow
Public.Resource.Org to use it.

New cases will be added to the database through Cornell's
Legal Information Institute and other organizations that
currently make cases available to the public.

Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi at LawSites.

State Court Organization, 1987-2004

From the U.S. Department of Justice,
Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of
Justice Statistics:

"State Court Organization, 1987-2004 presents trend
data from State Court Organization data collections
covering the years 1987-2004. The report examines
changes in the organization and operations of the
Nation’s state trial and appellate courts over this
time period. Topics include the selection and educa-
tional requirements of judges, regulations of criminal and
civil juries, the development of unified court systems, and
adjustments in court management and staffing to address
growing caseloads."

Worth Noting: The Market for Bad Legal Advice: Academic Professional Responsibility Consulting as an Example

In The Market for Bad Legal Advice: Academic Professional
Responsibility Consulting as an Example on SSRN, William Simon
(Columbia) criticizes ethics opinions written by prominent
academics, claiming that the scholars in question have “played
important roles as enablers of pernicious practices.”

See The Legal Ethics Forum (11/12/2007) for commentary on Simon's
article.

Ms. JD: Changing the Face of the Legal Profession

"Serving women in law school and the legal profession,
Ms. JD is an online community that provides a forum for
dialogue and networking among women lawyers and aspiring
lawyers."

The site was founded in March 2006 by a group of female law
students from Boalt Hall (UC Berkeley), Cornell, Georgetown,
Harvard, NYU, Stanford, UCLA, UT Austin, the University of
Chicago, the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia,
and Yale.

Recent posts include:

Why Do Women Dominate Public Interest?

Money Talks: The free-market answer to more
diversity in law firms

Clippings: Lawyer pleads guilty to spying on
female colleagues

Citizen Media Law Project's Legal Threats Database

The Citizen Media Law Project has launched a new
Legal Threats Database, a collection that documents
legal threats aimed at online speech, including lawsuits,
cease-and-desist letters and other legal actions.

According to the site, the new database "contains legal threats
from 35 states and 9 countries, and is growing daily. These
threats range from copyright infringement lawsuits filed against
bloggers to cease and desist letters claiming defamation sent to
MySpace users."

Researchers can input new threat entries, comment on existing
threats, and search the database by location, legal claim,
publication medium, and content type.

Governmentdocs.org for Hard to Find Documents

Governmentdocs.org, set to launch today, provides
access to difficult to find government documents.

Researchers can "browse, search, and review hundreds of
thousands of pages acquired through the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) and other public disclosure, or
'sunshine,' laws...A key feature of the site is that every
document, while provided in PDF, is also run through an
OCR process so that its text is fully searchable."


The primary backer of the site is Citizens for Responsibility
and Ethics in Washington (CREW), with support from the
Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen, Electronic
Frontier Foundation and the Sunlight Foundation.


Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi on LawSites.

Worth Noting: Findlaw's "Today in Legal History"

Findlaw gives us a look at legal events in history
in its Today in Legal History web page. For example,
today's post reminds us that on November 6, 1986,
Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform Bill.

In addition to providing a brief description of the events,
Findlaw links to related web resources, including
media files.

Hat tip to InterAlia.

Thomson-West Launches Westlaw WebPlus Search Engine

The folks at Westlaw have created WebPlus, a free web search
engine that is also available within Westlaw. The goal of the new
search tool (which is currently in beta) is to improve law related web
searches by filtering search results based on legal relevance.

The Law Librarian Blog has posted a list of WebPlus uses,
including finding:

*Local news or regulations not found on Westlaw
*Government agency information related to a transaction or issue
*Recent or informal commentary on a legal issue
*Company information, direct from the source
*Information on a person to supplement public records found on Westlaw
*General Web information about legal topics

There is a user guide to the new search engine
available in PDF.

New Int'l., Foreign & Comparative Law Research Guides from GlobaLex

The following new online legal research guides are
available from GlobaLex (Hauser Global Law School
Program at NYU School of Law):

Researching the Legal Aspects of Asylum Seekers and
Refugees in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom
(Colin Fong)

Burkina Faso Legal Information and Research
(Kounkinè Augustin Somé)

The Burundi Legal System and Research
(Syldie Bizimana)

Researching the Law of the Vatican City State
(Stephen Young & Alison Shea)

UPDATE: Doing Legal Research in Romania
(Dana Neacu)

UPDATE: A Guide to the U. S. Federal Legal System
Web-based Public Accessible Source
(Gretchen Feltes)

UPDATE: Researching International Marine Environmental
Law (Arundhati Ashok Satkalmi)