Law Students

Academic Freedom, Horrible, Horrible, Freedom

Posted on April 11, 2008
Predictably, there's some discussion going around in the moonbeam circles about firing Prof. Yoo. Prof. Leiter's reaction is exactly where mine is. Prof. Lederman is a bit more reserved, but offers a great perspective as a former OLC lawyer and current academic (and prolific and insightful blogger)...

Play! Win!

Posted on April 10, 2008
Announcing Nuts & Boalt?s first-ever ?Try to Write a Worse Sentence Than Chancellor Birgeneau? Contest! Everyone can play. No skill required. In fact, it?s actively discouraged. Here?s what we?re trying to top?a sentence from his recent email to the entire UC community about?well, I?m not sure what it?s about...

The Dean O Bomb

Posted on April 10, 2008
Wow. Speechless.Dean O has announced that this will be her last year at Boalt. Beginning next year she will be the new Assistant Dean of Students Services and Director of Admissions at the brand-new law school at UC Irvine.Full email posted in the comments.

It is all about the fighting...or negotiating.

Posted on April 09, 2008
Outside Competition tryouts for Boalt's Moot Court, Trial and ADR teams begin next week. All of these programs are excellent ways to boost your skills, make close friends, and kick the crap out of Hastings (hopefully). It is also an excellent resume builder---employers value Moot Court experience highly...

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Building Renovations Update - Open Thread

Posted on April 09, 2008
DE sent an email (which I have copied into the comments of this post) regarding building renovation plans.Your thoughts...

Looking Forward

Posted on April 07, 2008
A helpful little bird shares via email that the registrar's office will make the fall 2008 class schedule available online this Friday, April 11.I realize we do not yet know the details of the fall schedule, but because Tele-bears Phase I appointments are looming (mine, for example, is Monday the 25th*), it might be helpful to open a classes/professor/schedule thread now...

Lil' Punks!

Posted on April 07, 2008
Question: Where did the (oversized and obnoxiously charming) pictures in the lobby go?Answer: After multiple vandalism incidents, they were removed to a safe place.

Humanitarian Relief or an Abuse of Power?

Posted on April 07, 2008
So far, 401 children have been taken off a polygamist compound and into legal custody by the state of Texas. The raid was prompted by a call from a 16 year old girl - but if the police have found her, they haven't released that information to the media...

A Striking Contrast

Posted on April 06, 2008
The California Senate just approved the appointment of two men to the California Horse Racing Board (CHRB).Appointee John Harris has owned thoroughbred horses since 1958 and is a prominent breeder of racehorses. He was elected a director of the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association (CTBA ) in 1974, served as the organization?s legislative chairman for 20 years, and was twice elected CTBA president...

Cal Bar Prez Takes Aim at Billable Hours

Posted on April 05, 2008
Jeff Bleich, former Boaltie and current President of the California State Bar disfavors billable hours.  He recently offered up some compelling reasons for is position, in what the WSJ Law Blog dubbed a "manifesto" calling for reform.First, Bleich offers a professional angle ...

Happy Admit Day

Posted on April 04, 2008
Hi, are you an admitted student? I was one of those too, about a year ago. Please don't tell me you are pacing around some hotel room here in Berkeley, frantically researching the school, and cramming for the big day tomorrow . . . ? Relax, it's not an interview -- we already know we want you, so if anything you are interviewing us!Here is abetter idea: get off the computer, come down to Thalassa, and have a drink...

Potholes and nonneutered dogs

Posted on April 03, 2008
Here's an excellent discussion in the Chron of the rising concerns among some Berkeley citizens and businesses that the City has lost sight of its real purpose.From the article:Berkeley is finding that having its own foreign policy isn't cheap. The city's recent dustup with the U...

Re. That Letter from UC's Police Chief

Posted on April 02, 2008
I am impressed with UC Police Chief Victoria Harrison's letter to students today which, due to it's length, I have reproduced in the comments. My personal view (perhaps not shared by everyone here) is that as a body of civil servants, law enforcement officers often deserve more credit than they receive...

Waive Goodbye to Environmental Law

Posted on April 02, 2008
Alright, back up the moving trucks. Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security issued itself two waivers to enable itself to completely bypass all environmental laws to construct a 470-mile chunk of border fence through a vast section of the Southwest...

Subtle changes to notice on N&B

Posted on April 01, 2008
In December, Armen threw out the possibility that N&B may seek future advertising revenue in order to maintain the quality of the site. To our surprise, the response was overwhelmingly positive (as seen in comments to the post).Beginning today, N&B is launching a new paid advertisement service intended to pair our sponsors with relevant web links...

Hotel Guests

Posted on April 01, 2008
In 2004, just after I got my acceptance letter from Boalt, Prof. Yoo published an op/ed in the LA Times where he claimed that we shouldn't treat terror suspects captured on the battlefield as hotel guests. I wrote a letter to the editor (published) with a zinger: "The Hanoi Hilton wasn't exactly a 5-star hotel...

A 'Peer to Peer' Legal Aid Clinic

Posted on March 30, 2008
Speaking as we have been of legal aid (see generally here; here), I share this good deed the kids over at USF School of Law have been up to.According to the linked article, the record industry has been sending letters to college students they believe may have shared music online...

Nuts, Churches, Zealots, Child Sacrifices!

Posted on March 29, 2008
Here is a news story of from this week that I keep thinking about:Diabetic Girl Dies as Parents Pray Instead of Calling For Medical Aid.The headline makes it sound like Mom and Dad exercised poor judgement in a rapidly changing situation. But that's not quite what happened...

Your own backyard...

Posted on March 29, 2008
The New York Times (aka "the paper" to my NY friends and family) apparently has us all figured out. Check out the write-up here.

And the winner is...

Posted on March 27, 2008
Mark Yudof, our new university president. Read more here.Of note: Yudof is also a "lawyer and expert in free speech, education and constitutional law" at the University of Texas. Since the UCOP office is in Oakland, it may not be outside the realm of possibilities that we'll see him soon here at Boalt...

W for Wrong

Posted on March 25, 2008
I watch The Daily Show/Colbert Report religiously (true to my racial* preferences), but today I couldn't change the channel because of Frontline's "Bush's War." It's really surreal to imagine that there are some Boalties now who were not even in college when this War started...

US News: Great Rankings or Greatest Rankings?

Posted on March 25, 2008
[HT to The Shark and CF] Boalt is now 6th in USN&WR rankings, ahead of Chicago (which lost Sunstein AND the internet in the classroom) and UPenn, which as I've said before, does not belong in the top 10. Kudos Boalties, now on to the difficult task of not turning into DBs...

Vernal Equinox?

Posted on March 21, 2008
[Homer orders a weight loss tape that's supposed to contain subliminal messages. Little does he know that the tape they send him is a vocabulary builder]Lisa: Dad, do you know what today is?Homer: The vernal equinox?Lisa: No! It's been two weeks since you got that tape...

Westlaw search of the year

Posted on March 19, 2008
To my friends seeking a career in litigation: I only hope you have a deposition one day that is HALF this entertaining.Well, it probably wasn't entertaining to the attorney at the time, but hilarious for all of us to read about it afterward!The best summary of the transcript has been provided by the Court:"In fact, Wider used the word ?fuck? and variants thereof no less than 73 times...

This time Harvard's reducing tuition at the law school

Posted on March 18, 2008
You may recall a prior post concerning Harvard's tuition reduction for undergrad students. Stanford and Yale (and others with equally ridiculous endowments) matched shortly thereafter.Today Harvard announces a new plan that would eliminate tuition for 3Ls who promise to work 5 years for non-profits or government...

March Bracketness?

Posted on March 17, 2008
So the best three weeks of college sports / illegal gambling are about to descend upon us, and I just have one question: is someone running the Boalt pool this year? Cause I ain't heard nothin'.Now, I know it will be hard to imitate the inimitable MW, who has run the pool in years past but is now here only in spirit and through the occasional North Oakland house party...

The Few, the Learned, the . . . Cuddly?

Posted on March 17, 2008
It has come to my attention that each of the following gentlemen-Boalties strikes one or more of my lady-peers as "cuddly." The list, which is set forth below, is best left to speak for itself: 1) Eric Bib*r (Property), from Jeopardy2) Paul Schw*rtz (Information Privacy), from Brooklyn3) Hect*r (Manager, Cafe Zeb), from the other side of my morning coffee 4) John Y*o (Con Law: Structural Issues), from the Bush Administration5) Christopher Edl*y (Interim Dean), from the Obama Administration and the Campaign For Boalt HallThese people have nothing in common, right?Wrong! Apparently, they seem to have the better half of Boalt Hall in common! This is fascinating...

Respek

Posted on March 16, 2008
Hey, whoever brought this case, are you listening? Cool! Just wanted to say I respect and appreciate your work. That's all. Now, blow on that party whistle, pick up that cowboy hat, and get your bad self back over to the keg! There is still 36 hours of celebratory drinking before the clerk stamps their appeal!

Question Begging, Et Alii

Posted on March 14, 2008
Twice today I have heard abuse of the phrase, "It begs the question . . . "ARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!Misuse of that phrase is a pet target of my uptight side, right up there with hearing "milk" pronounced as "melk" and "height" as "heighth," as well as overuse of the semi-colon and legal latin, conjunctive use of "thus," use of "complicated" in place of "complex," "creative" instead of "imaginative" and ...

Washington and Lee Cuts Class for its 3L's

Posted on March 13, 2008
A commentator in an earlier post asks: what's wrong with the current structure of legal education?The Dean at Washington and Lee, supported by a unanimous faculty, answer that question thusly: "For some time, members of the legal profession, practitioners, judges and scholars alike, have urged law schools to place greater emphasis on professionalism and learning in context...

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