Legal Commentary

As mentioned last week, about a dozen of us are going to be in the NYC area this Thursday and Friday for Prawfsfest! at Hofstra, aka Prawfstra!  I'm very grateful to Hofstra's Dean, Nora Demleitner, for hosting us so generously. Attendees include: Ethan Leib (Hastings); Katherine Kuh (Hofstra); Steve Vladeck (American); Bennett Capers (Hofstra); Adil Haque (Rutgers Newark); Julian Ku (Hofstra); Michael Cahill (Brooklyn); Alice Ristroph (Seton Hall); Michael O'Hear (Marquette), Verity Winship (Cardozo); Adam Kolber (San Diego, visiting at Brooklyn);  Ekow Yankah (Cardozo); and me. The basic setup of Prawfsfest! is an intensive workshop for 2 days where 9-12 people circulate draft papers in advance (usually related to public law and legal theory in our case), and then we have just over an hour to devote to questions about each paper. (Unlike many conventional workshops, there is less back and forth between the presenter and the questioners; most time is spent on trying to get the questions out and if there's time, the presenter will respond to the questions toward the end of the hour). Given this setup, the focus is on trying to incubate works before they are ready for prime time. Prawfsfest! at Hofstra will be the third such get-together (we've also had them at U-Miami and Loyola LA in 2006 and 2007 respectively).  U-Miami, Florida State, and Southwestern laws schools will be hosting the next three in December and in 2009.

In any event, I hope you can come join this motley crew for drinks and snacks this Thursday night at 9pm on July 24th. NYC area prawfs are especially invited but all readers of the blog are welcome to join as well. We will gather for drinks at Crave on 42nd, which is on 42nd in Hell's Kitchen (b/w 11th and 12th on the west side of mid-town Manhattan). Please feel free to bring a "+1" or a colleague. We will probably be there until around 11pm. The management has promised us the Happy Hour specials, which look good, and they have some bar food if you're in the mood for some high-end snacks. If you get a chance to let me know you're coming, that would be great, but if not, just please show up even if you didn't RSVP. See you Thursday night at 9 at Crave on 42nd!