Wexis Data, Anyone?

Since I know you're all full of knowledge on all kinds of crazy topics, I have another question for you: I'm writing a journal article (due very very soon) that basically argues that Westlaw/Lexis should be freely available to all, both as a matter of copyright law and public policy. (I recognize that this is quixotic, but I think it's worth making the argument, anyway.) Do you know of any anecdotal or statistical evidence that the cost of online legal research is a burden on solo practitioners, legal aid attorneys, or public defenders? I'm especially interested in any evidence that the cost of legal research can actually affect legal outcomes (e.g., cases where a solo or public defender lost a case b/c he/she was outgunned in the research dept.). If you have stories about this kind of thing yourself, or if you know where I could find this kind of information, please let me know. Um, ASAP. ;-) Thanks! p.s.: Also, if you have any thoughts on the topic generally, I'd certainly be interested in hearing those, as well. Do you see any legal or public policy arguments for/against the current scheme of for-profit legal research?

Posted 02:44 PM | Comments (6) | 2L law general

2L Summer Job Update

Thanks to everyone who threw in their two or twenty cents in response to my question about the 2L summer job. You all gave me a lot to think about and I was able to make the decision feeling confident I'd considered nearly all angles. The decision? I took the job with the PD office where I worked last summer. Although in an ideal world I would be able to get experience with a different PD's office this summer, I think this was the right choice for several reasons:

1. I know the office and the people and they know me so I can hit the ground running and get more experience and responsibility, hopefully making it into court representing misdemeanor defendents on my own all the sooner.
2. It's getting a bit late to be looking for summer jobs around here and the GW summer stipend deadline is approaching, so it seemed better to take a job where I knew I'd get good experience rather than holding out for a hypothetical job I might not even get and which might not give me the same level of experience even if I did get it.
3. While I almost certainly could have found another good PD job somewhere for the summer, I live with my girlfriend and my dog and I'd really rather not leave them for the summer, not to mention the added expense and hassle of doing so.
4. I'm currently in a civil law clinic and plan to take at least one crimlaw clinic next fall, plus I've been working for a civil law nonprofit for the past six months, so I'll end up with lots of diverse experience, despite working in the same office for two summers.
5. The next several weeks are going to be busy enough; it will be nice to be relieved of the worry of whether I'm going to have a good job this summer.

There are probably other things I'm forgetting, but that's the gist of it. The decision was complicated a bit by a really great interview with excellent people at the crimlaw policy nonprofit, as well as by a callback from another crimlaw policy place with which I also interviewed a couple of weeks ago. In the end, I realized that, while I do hope someday to work on the policy aspect of criminal justice, right now I feel compelled to work directly with people and do what I can on that level. Again, I thank everyone for helping me consider the options here, which special thanks to Blonde Justice and Arbitrary and Capricious who generously shared their first-hand perspectives. I'll definitely keep you posted on whether this turns out to be the right decision...

Posted 02:32 PM | Comments (5) | 2L law school

Best Simple Browser Shortcut Ever

I don't know where I read this, and it's probably not news to most people, but if you don't know about it and you use a web browser, you're missing out. What is it? Command-L. (Control-L on Windows. Or is it Alt-L? I can never remember.) Command-L is a keyboard shortcut in almost every browser (including Firefox, Safari, and Explorer) that moves the cursor to the browser's address bar and selects everything it finds there. This is incredibly handy when you're finished reading a page and know where you want to go next—just hit Command-L and start typing your next destination. It also makes it simple to copy a URL. For example, if you're creating a blog post and want to link to something you can:

1. hit command-L (to select the URL in the address bar),
2. command-c (to copy the URL),
3. command-tab (to switch from browser to ecto or whatever desktop blogging client you use), and
4. command-v (to paste the URL).

That might sound complicated, but it's only four keystrokes and once you're used to it, you'll do it in about two seconds. Trust me, it's awesome. It works on Windows, too, but I think with control as the modifier for the L, C, and V, and alt as the modifier for tab (to switch programs). If you're using ecto you don't need to do the last step (command-v) because in ecto you just hit command-u and ecto pastes the contents of the clipboard inside an anchor tag, then leaves the cursor ready for you to add the text for the link. Or if you've already selected some text when you type command-u, that text becomes your link text and the anchor tags appear on either end of the selected text (w/the URL you had on the clipboard pasted properly inside). If that doesn't make sense, download ecto and try it. You will find that it rocks, I promise. If you do not use ecto but you do use a mac, I also highly recommend BlogAssist, which gives you a system-wide drop-down menu containing whatever code you use most frequently. Like ecto, BlogAssist can also automatically insert the contents of the clipboard in the appropriate places. It can be a big time saver.

Posted 01:57 PM | mac geek meta-blogging

When Blogs Do Good

Changing the tone but continuing the discussion of how blogs are changing the media landscape, the accountability of public figures, and more, Peggy Noonan makes a convincing case in support of blogs as a positive force in public discourse. [link via Scripting News] To briefly summarize, she argues that one of the main advantages bloggers have over traditional journalists is that they are free to write about whatever they want, whenever they want, for as long as they want, etc., allowing them to cover things in greater depth and with greater persistence and tenacity and candor than professional journalism allows. This is how blogs can make the invisible visible, and keep it that way, and I agree that this is a huge public service. Noonan also argues that the best journalists have been those who have learned their craft from experience rather than through formal “training” or education, so they've got nothing on bloggers there. Meanwhile, she suggests that the blogosphere uses peer review and an economy of status and respect to take care of the “fact-checking” or “ethical-checking” function that editors provide to professional journalists—if you're an unethical or untrustworthy blogger, no one's going to respect or read you, so you'll just disappear. There's more worth saying about this, but I've got to run so maybe later... See also: Thoughts on this from a j-school professor [also via Scripting News].

Posted 08:54 AM | meta-blogging

Lynn Stewart II

Following up on last week's post about Lynn Stewart: The Legal Ethics Forum has a couple of great posts on the subject. First, Lynn Stewart's Betrayal argues that:

For those of us who believe that criminal defense attorneys are sometimes targeted unfairly by prosecutors, Stewart’s status as the test case deprives us of the high moral ground, makes her unusual case appear to be the paradigm case, and detracts public attention from the more urgent issues.  Stewart betrayed the criminal defense bar itself.

Author John Steele goes on to explain what he means, providing great insight into what was at stake in the Stewart trial and what might be its possible ramifications for criminal defense lawyers involved in terrorism/security-related trials. He also offers pointers to some of the key parts of the Stewart trial transcript. Now I only wish I had time to go read them. See also: A first reaction from Alaskablawg in which he says “it appears that this case is not so clear cut and there is reasonable grounds for disagreement about what this means.” For a more pointed perspective, see David Cole's article in The Nation, in which he argues that the Stewart case “case illustrates how out of hand things have gotten in the 'war on terrorism.'” The piece follows what to me looks like the obvious line—what Stewart did violated an agreement, but at worst that's a matter for professional discipline rather than criminal charges carrying possibly decades of prison time. Cole argues that proving otherwise was no easy task, but Ashcroft's DOJ was up to the task:

So how did the prosecution meet its burden? With classic McCarthy-era tactics: fearmongering and guilt by association.

Cole's conclusion is the best part:

Let me be clear: I think Stewart crossed the line from zealous advocacy to wrongful conduct. But she is no terrorist. At most she deserves a disciplinary proceeding before the bar. Sending her to prison will provide another statistic in the Justice Department's desperate effort to show results in the “war on terrorism,” but it will not make us any safer. One of the defining evils of terrorism is that it uses human beings' lives to send a political message. Has the Justice Department done any differently here?

Posted 08:32 AM | law general

Tuition Dreams & Nightmares

Now that people are filling out FAFSAs and thinking about financing another year of law school, Mackenzie, a law student at the University of Wyoming, offers some thoughts on UW's proposed tuition hike:

It appears that the Law School may get a tuition increase of somewhere in the range of 40% over the next few years. Strangely enough, I'm ok with this. It's a big change, but these funds will be given directly to the law school, which is the big benefit (otherwise, I'd be up in arms). The school really needs the money, considering our entire budget is about $4 million. And it's not that our tuition will be that expensive relative to other schools. We're already probably the least expensive school in the country. To give non-UWLaw people an idea, my (resident) tuition and fees this year is south of $6k.

Damn! I should have gone to the University of Wyoming for law school! Imagine getting a J.D. for under $20k for the whole shooting match! Of course, if you add in cost of living, maybe you double that, but the in-state Wyoming tuition-payer would still be getting three years of law school for what I pay for one year. Excuse me, I must now return to selling my soul to satan.

Posted 08:19 AM | Comments (9) | law school

Capital Weather

It's snowing now in DC, with 4-6 inches likely. Schools are closing all over the place, but not GW. ;-( If you're a DC metro dweller and you enjoy accurate weather forecasts, there's absolutely no better resource than CapitalWeather.com. If/when I leave the DC area, I will miss getting candid and accurate weather updates like this. Their “staff” photographer posts incredible pictures of the region, as well.

Posted 06:13 AM | Comments (2) | life generally

Threads worth watching:

Lots of discussion going on at:

• Preaching to the Perverted who asks: What kind of wireless support does your law school offer?
• Jeremy Richey, who argues that his school's Christian Legal Society should be able to officially exclude students from leadership positions on the basis of their sexuality. Related: Since when is “sanctity of conscience” a “right”?
• One of today's guest posts at Notes from the (Legal) Underground in which a law student/software developer explains how his software could benefit other law students, leading to brief discussion of writing/research tools.
• Legal Quandary's request for info about moving to DC.
• For something totally unrelated: Dave Winer's argument against Google's new toolbar and it's autolink feature is on fire, comment-wise.

Posted 05:29 PM | Comments (1) | lists

“Blawg” & Blawg Republic

I learned yesterday that Denise Howell of Bag and Baggage coined the word “blawg” in the sense of “legal-related blog.” Since I use the word all the time now and made such a big (sort of) deal about it in this article, I wanted to give credit where it's due. I know some people do not find the word helpful, and it becomes less useful if you're speaking rather than writing, but I obviously think it's a great contraction in a web-writing context, so thank you, Denise. And speaking of blawg, have you seen Blawg Republic? Is your blawg listed there? This one isn't, but I'm wondering why Blawg Wisdom is listed under “Law Professors”. I mean, it would be nice if I were a law professor, or if professors wanted to contribute more to the advice on the site, but....

Posted 06:24 AM | Comments (3) | law general meta-blogging

2L Summer Job Question

One year ago at this time I faced a dilemma about what to do for my 1L summer. Several of you, my kind readers, offered advice that proved invaluable—you said work for the public defender, I did, I loved it, and now I'm planning to make that my career. With that in mind, the time has come to make another career/summer job decision, and once more I seek your advice. Here's the situation: I worked last summer for a great PD's office where I had a great experience and learned an incredible amount about being a PD. It's a small office (only about a dozen attorneys) in a medium-sized city. I'm thrilled that they have asked me to return this summer, and I'd love to do so. But my question is this: Should I go back to the same PD office I worked in last year, or will that look bad to future public defender employers? The benefits of going back to the same job are that I know them and how things work in the office so I should be able to help them out more and get more responsibility in return. The office is also in a jurisdiction that allows 2Ls to get a “second year practice certificate” so I could represent misdemeanor defendants in court (w/a licensed attorney present and ready to step in at any moment if I start to screw up). Also, returning to the same job should send a message to future employers that I did well there, they liked my work, which seems like a good message to send. So basically, it would be an awesome opportunity that would give me some really good experience. The drawbacks I see are simply that if I return to the same job, my only real knowledge of being a PD will come from this one office and it just seems like it might be a good idea to see how another office does things. What do you think? If you were looking at hiring a new PD, would it matter whether the candidate had spent two summers in the same PD office, or would that make no difference? Any thoughts you have would be appreciated. (Please feel free to throw in your two cents even if you're not a PD yourself or never have been. I'm just trying to make sure I see all the angles here.) Thanks!

Posted 08:51 AM | Comments (16) | 2L advice law school

Ambivalent Voices: Synecdochic

The latest edition of Ambivalent Voices is now available for your downloading pleasure (or you can get it via RSS here). This edition explains why “synecdoche” or some variation of it would make a great blog/blawg name. After recording it, I decided my favorite variation would be “synecdochic,” because it could be pronounced so many different ways, depending on where you put the emphasis, and it just looks and sounds cool. The podcasting experiment continues to slowly evolve, this time with the introduction of simple “bumpers” —little bits of music to lead into and out of the podcast. The bumpers come by means of GarageBand, which also helped reduce a little of the background noise in the recording and helped cut the file size in half for faster downloading. (Side note: This was my first time playing w/GarageBand and I can already see I probably shouldn't have started b/c I might never want to stop. It's very cool, esp. for something that comes free w/new macs.) If you would like to say anything at all on Ambivalent Voices (ok, anything w/in reason that can be said in five minutes or less), let me know and we'll set it up. Your soapbox or comedic stage is waiting!

Posted 06:46 AM | Comments (3) | voices

Goodbye Blogrolling, Hello Del.icio.us (maybe)

When Tucows bought Blogrolling.com last year, everyone figured the days of free were over. I was pleasantly surprised when nothing on my account seemed to change. However, I just got a message from Blogrolling telling me I'll need to pay $20/year from now on to use the service at my current level (I have 10 blogrolls, although I only actually use about four). Um, no. The links in the sidebar (“ambivalent links”) are now coming courtesy of the del.icio.us bookmark manager. (Thanks to the RSSfeed plugin and these tips from MovableBlog.) What you see here is only a selection; it's supposed to be the links I try to visit daily, or as often as possible. Unfortunately, it appears that del.icio.us is truncating the feed. The list should contain about 4o links, but only 31 are showing up in the feed. If you understand these things and can tell me if there's a way to make del.icio.us send the whole list, please let me know. At any rate, the current list includes a few blawgs, a few blogs, a couple of news sources, and a few photoblogs. Ironically, many of the sites I visit most frequently are actually not on this list b/c I visit them directly (by typing in the URL) instead of relying on a link list to get me to my destination. As I discover more of these, I'll add them to the del.icio.us list. The new sidebar also contains separate sections for GW blawgs and Blawgcoop blawgs (obviously), all of which I try to visit on a regular basis, as well. If you miss some of the additional links that have long appeared in the “ambivalent links” sidebar on this page, you'll probably find what you're looking for on my del.icio.us page under the tags blawg or blog. If you'd like to narrow further in the law-related category, or if you'd just prefer to surf links that are all of one type (all blawgs by law students, for example), lawstudent, attorney, and professor are all subcategories of “blawg.” If you're not yet familiar w/del.icio.us, it's a bookmark service that allows you to save bookmarks and “tag” them with keywords so you can find them later and so all similar content can be grouped together. It's also a social networking tool because in addition to your own links, you can see all the links all other users have tagged with the same keywords, or you can see all the other users who have bookmarked a certain page. It's cool. It's free. And considered as a replacement for Blogrolling.com, it's even more useful b/c it makes it even easier to add, sort, and display URLs, which were all the reasons I liked Blogrolling in the first place. Of course, if del.icio.us won't send the full feed, it's not really going to do what I want, so I may have to look for a new blogroll solution. Any suggestions?

Posted 07:44 AM | Comments (2) | meta-blogging

Hunter S. Thompson, R.I.P.

Gonzo journalist and author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas apparently shot himself yesterday. Salon has a good selection of interviews with and articles about Thompson that cover fairly well the contributions he made to journalism and public perception in the last 30-40 years. Personally, I read Fear and Loathing early in college and it completely blew my mind. I'd dig up my copy but I long ago loaned it to someone and never got it back. This brief excerpt pretty well captures the flavor of it—stream of consciousness with a dark comic edge, Jack Kerouac flung headlong and screaming into the 1970s. I hope I never forget the scene in the book where Duke is sitting at a bar in a casino, high as a kite, and he becomes convinced the place is crawling with lizards. There's a bit of it here:

Right next to me a huge reptile was gnawing on a woman’s neck, the carpet was a blood-soaked sponge-impossible to walk on it, no footing at all. “Order some golf shoes,” I whispered. “Otherwise, we’ll never get out of this place alive. You notice these lizards don’t have any trouble moving around in this muck—that’s because they have claws on their feet.”

Trust me, in its proper context that bit will make you howl with laughter. If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. I thought the movie was all right, as well. See also: The complete script from the 1998 film version of the book.

Posted 07:08 AM | Comments (3) | ai books

Audio Addictions & Sidebars

As I continue to swoon over “Bright Eyes,” I have also fallen head over heels in love with Annie, and specifically with a song called “Me Plus One” which I just happened to get ahold of through a serendipitous online find. The album ( “Anniemal”) hasn't been released in the U.S. yet, but it's described here as “electro, synth pop.” If you'd like to hear it, check out the website where you can hear it streamed just by loading the page (I assume that's the magic of Flash?). For a super strange, um, musical experience, try listening the “Annie FM” stream; it seems to be a very eclectic mix of music, possibly handpicked by Annie herself (she seems to be DJing, since she introduces some of the tracks and comments from time to time). I'm obviously a sucker for breathy vocals over relatively spare pop foundations. I am not a complicated connoisseur, to say the least. Plus, well, Annie is apparently Norwegian, so you just know it's gotta be good. I am also a big fat sucker for The Arcade Fire. As my very own most magical musical friend indicated when she told me about this group, The Arcade Fire is best played very very loudly, possibly in a place where you can jump around a lot. Especially “Rebellion (Lies).” Oh, and if you'd like to see what music is spinning the ambivalent head at any given time, you need only glance at “ambivalent musics,” one of the new sidebars here on the imbroglio. (It's way down on the right—scroll scroll scroll past all those links and you'll run into it.) The tracks are what I've played most recently in iTunes and they appear here via an RSS feed generated by Audioscrobbler, thanks to the magic of the MT RSSfeed plugin. The “musics” sidebar is joined by the new “voices” sidebar, which should always show the most recent podcasts I've created via Slapcast.com. That list may never change, depending on whether I figure out exactly what I want to do w/podcasts, but, well, it's there for now, just in case.

Posted 09:00 AM | Comments (3) | ai music