Legal Writing Candidate Sues After Unsuccessful Job Bid

Teresa Wagner, Associate Director of the University of Iowa
College of Law Writing Resource Center, has filed a lawsuit
against the law school, claiming that she was rejected for a
legal writing faculty position because of her conservative
political views.

Read more about it here:

TaxProfBlog
WSJ Law Blog
Volokh Conspiracy

Associated Press
Daily Iowan
Iowa City Press-Citizen

CALI's New "Legal Education Commons" - A Boon For Law Faculty

CALI announces it's new Legal Education Commons, a place
for teachers of the law to find, utilize, and share legal education
materials. The Center is an open pool of legal education materials
available under a creative commons license, so teachers of the
law can utilize what they find in the LEC to help them teach.

So far, the LEC includes 700,000+ federal court cases from
public.resource.org as well as 300+ original illustrations from
CALI lessons. Users are encouraged to upload files for sharing
by contributing syllabi, presentations, podcasts, or any file
they believe may be helpful to others who wish to teach or learn
the law.

Washington Post Launches "Who Runs Gov" Blog

The Washington Post has launched a new blog,
Who Runs Gov, that will be an ever-growing database
of government power-brokers containing key information
on new administration officials, lawmakers, senior Hill aides
and - ultimately- interest group and think tank experts.

According to the home page, the new site "aim[s] to be a
single-stop shop for all those interested in the people and
personalities who run the government...offering[ing] a
unique look of Washington through key players and
personalities."

Unlike Wikipedia, which also contains profiles of
government officials, profile changes on Who Runs Gov
are not visible until site staff approve them. Officials are
allowed/encouraged to edit their own profiles. Also, purely
government personality profiles are more consistent and
aim to be predictable.

Nifong Ethics Hearing Now Online

Complete video of the North Carolina disbarment hearing
against former Durham County District Attorney Michael B.
Nifong is available online at The Internet Archive. The
video files of the sessions were donated to Public.Resource.Org
by Courtroom Connect.

The State Bar of North Carolina sought Nifong's disbarment
over his ethical misconduct in the 2006 Duke University lacrosse
case.

Hat tip to Robert Ambrogi (LawSites).

LucidChart - Easy and Free Flowchart Tool

LibrarianInBlack.net brings our attention to LucidChart,
a free web-based collaborative flow-chart application
that requires no plug-ins.

Features include:

A simple interface
Ability to add users to edit a document
Ability to create multiple pages/flowcharts that you can link together
Text that is automatically centered in the image
Ability to export of flowchart as a PDF, webpage, PNG, or JPG file

Santa Clara Law Attracts Prospective Students in Virtual World

On Thursday (9/22) , Santa Clara Law School hosted an event
on Second Life - an online virtual world - to attract
prospective law students. According to a law school
announcement, the event included a video welcome by
Dean Donal Polden followed by a live application workshop.
Participants were able to ask questions of the admissions
office staff and gather information about applying to the
law school.

Release of 2008 Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE)

From the LSSSE announcement:

"LSSSE is pleased to present the online edition of the
LSSSE Annual Survey Results 2008 -- Student
Engagement in Law Schools: Preparing 21st Century
Lawyers. The 2008 report examines LSSSE aggregated
findings and explores several themes, and discusses how
law schools across the country are using LSSSE results.
Our online edition contains both the Annual Survey Results
and other selected findings from the 2008 survey."

Among the topics covered are student engagement and age;
law school characteristics and student engagement; race and
ethnicity and student engagement, and; another look at the
3L experience.

IP Podcast Series

The Intellectual Property Colloquium is an online audio
program devoted to intellectual property topics.

From the description:
"We aspire to be something like an NPR talk show, but
focused on copyrights and patents, and aimed primarily
at a legal audience. Our programs are neither lectures nor
debates. They are instead conversations, with guests drawn
from academia, the entertainment community, the judiciary,
and various technology industries."

You can listen to the programs on the web site or download
them. Programs are accompanied by suggested reading
lists. CLE credit may be requested for some states, including
New York.

Ten Minute Mentor: Online Legal Instructional Videos

The Ten Minute Mentor, sponsored by the Texas Young
Lawyers Association, offers a collection of short instructional
videos by Texas attorneys on a variety of legal topics. The
emphasis is on Texas law, but also includes videos of general
interest in such areas as immigration, malpractice and lawyering
skills.

The videos may be viewed on the web site or downloaded
as MP3/4 podcasts.