Vincent G. Rinn Law Library

DePaul Law Librarian Speaks At Wayne State Seminar

A previous posting on this blog reported that one of our reference Librarians and legal research instructors, Mark Giangrande, was invited to participate in a seminar at Wayne State University Law School, entitled “Getting Started – Switching Gears: Practical Advice for Attorneys in Transition.”

The seminar was well received and was a front page story In the Detroit Legal News,  "Switching gears - Seminar coaches lawyers on how to find jobs in tight economy"  by Cynthia Price . The focus of the program on providing advice for  finding employment in the very tough legal market , brought out over 50 attendees. In addition to the informative presentations by several speakers  and responses to questions,  each participant left with a CD with tips for establishing  an effective Web site quickly and a multi-page handout, “Career Transition Strategies and Resources,” which included 19 pages of internet resources.

Mark said he enjoyed being part of the seminar and would be willing to participate in future programs of this type. Given the depth of the economic crisis out there, they probably will be needed.

American Bar Association Annual Meeting In Chicago

ABA 2009 Annual Meeting
The Premier Educational Forum for Legal Professionals
July 30 to August 4, 2009, Chicago, Illinois

The Opening Assembly will be held Saturday, August 1, at 5:30 p.m. at Symphony Center. The President’s Reception will immediately follow at the Art Institute of Chicago in the new Modern Wing designed by world renowned architect Renzo Piano.  The ABA will  acknowledge Chicago lawyer Robert A. Clifford for his important assistance and advice during the planning of the 2009 Annual Meeting.

2009 ABA Chicago Annual Meeting  CLE Programs

Of special interest : Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar events.

Chicago City Council Page Revamped by City Clerk

A June 2009 notice on the City Clerk’s website announces significant changes to its City Council pull down menu.

Here are some highlights of the enhancements :

UPDATED and REORGANIZED PULL DOWN MENU

•  A new menu heading Key Legislation/Votes includes: Key Introduced Legislation, Key Passed Legislation, City Council Attendance Records and Divided Roll Call

•  A new menu heading All Introduced/Passed Legislation includes: Journals of the Proceedings, Introduced Legislation Referred to Committee, Budgets, Guides to the Journals of the Proceedings, Annual Index of All Passed Legislation

•  A new menu heading Committee Calendar includes: A monthly calendar listing the date of every Committee meeting, including their Committee meeting Notices, Agendas and Summaries

•  Municipal Code continues to take you to the AmLegal website which hosts the City’s Municipal Code online.

Also a notification from librarian Jean Wenger of the Cook County Law Library informs users that :

“The blue Guide to Legislation that has accompanied the Journal of the Proceedings of the City Council of Chicago was discontinued with the December 17, 2008 meeting. The City Clerk now issues a Legislative Index that is available in the last print volume of the Proceedings for a particular meeting. The Legislative Index is available as a link from a meeting's Table of Contents on the website. Scroll to end of the Table of Contents.

In the Legislative Index, listings of Municipal Code amendments are available under the heading "Municipal Code (Amendments)" from the December 17, 2008 through the April 22, 2009 meeting. Starting with the May 13, 2009 meeting, see the heading "Municipal Code" for adopted amendments. Adopted amendments are listed as passed.”

"Data.gov" Debuts Promising Huge Quantities of Re-usable Government Data

In a Fall 2008 article in the Yale Journal of Law and Technology, entitled, "Government Data and the Invisible Hand",( 11 Yale J.L. & Tech. 160 (2009), the authors recommended that,"In order for public data to benefit from the same innovation and dynamism that characterize private parties’ use of the Internet, the federal government must reimagine its role as an information provider. Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design sites that meet each end-user need, it should focus on creating a simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that “exposes” the underlying data." It appears that an initiative from the Obama administration may actually be fulfilling this recommendation.

In late May this year, the Obama  administration launched a new website called "Data.gov" (www.data.gov) which will provide any public user with access to government information and statistical databases which can be used  to create new web applications that help individuals, communities, and businesses. The site will include data generated across all federal agencies. It will be accessible in two forms: the "raw" data catalog and using tools. The "Raw" Data Catalog provides an instant download of machine readable,platform-independent datasets while the Tools Catalog provides hyperlinks to tools that allow you to mine datasets.

The website currently has searchable catalogs, with access to 261 ‘‘raw’’ datasets and 30 information tools.The catalog of tools links to sites that include data mining and extraction tools. Datasets and tools are searchable by category, agency, keyword, and/or data format. Check the site frequently as the government intends to place much more information on the site over time.

There is a concern from the wording of a part of  the " Data Policy" with which users must agree:
"This Data Policy is intended only to improve the internal management of information controlled by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government and it is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit," [ against the US government ]. This is probably mostly legalese that is required to be there. But it also means the the continuation of any part or all of this service, is at the discretion of the executive branch. There is no legislation that guarantees it's continuing presence.

DePaul Invites Law School Deans to Address Impact of "Vanishing Trials"

Dean Weissenberger  and the DePaul University Law School are inviting law school deans to a symposium entitled " Vanishing Act: Legal Education in a World Without Trials" on July 31-Aug. 1, to coincide with the annual American Bar Association meeting in Chicago. The symposium is being sponsored by Clifford Law offices, a Chicago personal injury firm which has made contributions to the  DePaul Law School for an endowed  faculty chair in tort law and social policy that makes possible an annual symposium addressing a timely issue in the tort law area.

A June 10, 2009 story in The National Law Journal story about the symposium, cites the statistic that federal civil trials dropped to 3,500 in 2006 from about 12,000 in 1984. Attorney Robert A. Clifford finds this reduction to be a serious concern because "The rise in alternative dispute resolution and the corresponding increase in confidential settlement agreements is problematic because the lack of transparency will make it difficult for the government and taxpayers to determine how the court system is performing and to what it extent it should be funded." Dean Wiseenberger says "This is an issue of huge concern," that may affect the value of the case law method that is used in most law schools.

"University of Chicago Law School Professor Craig Futterman, Yale Law School Professor Judith Resnik and Duke Law School Dean David Levi are among the panelists who will speak at the symposium. The keynote speaker for the event will be Kenneth Feinberg, a Washington attorney and law school lecturer who was appointed to oversee the federal government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund."

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Book and essay on the issue :

From The University of Chicago Press release :

In The Death of the American Trial, Robert Burns warns that this decline could lead not only to the loss of a vaunted institution, but also to the dangerous erosion of American democracy."..."As one federal judge put it, the jury is the ”canary in the mineshaft; if it goes, if our people lose their inherited right to do justice in court, other democratic institutions will lose breath too.“

SSRN( Social Science Research Network) essay on "The Death of the American Trial" by Robert P. Burns,  Northwestern University - School of Law

Library Catalog System Upgrade

DePaul's library catalog and the statewide I-Share catalog will be undergoing a system upgrade beginning 3AM on Sunday, 6/14, scheduled to be completed on or before Wednesday, 6/17.

During the upgrade:

Renewals/My Account: It will not be possible to access the My Account section of the catalog. Patrons needing to renew a book should call the circulation desk at 312.362.8121.

Book Requests: It will not be possible to place requests for books from Lincoln Park or from other I-Share libraries via the catalog. To request a book or article from another library during the upgrade period, please use the forms on the Interlibrary Loan page.

Book Status: Catalog records will be "frozen", and may not accurately reflect whether a book has been checked out or returned.

"Gender and Judging" - Articles from International Journal of the Legal Profession

The International Journal of the Legal Profession is published in Britain and takes a very broad view of its subject matter which includes "the organization, structure, management and infrastructure of the legal professions of the common law and civil law world." Last year it published a special issue on Gender and Judging. While the articles include coverage of experiences from several countries, the general exploration of the topic should nonetheless  provide useful insights to add to the current debate in the United States that has arisen around the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The editorial from the special issue states:

"Does gender matter in judging? And if so, in what way? Who are the women judges? How did they get into office? How do they organise and live their lives? What are their professional careers? What constitutes a good judge? And finally: do women judge differently from men (or even better)? These are the questions which a Collaborative Research Network (CRN) of the Law and Society Association (LSA) on ‘Gender and Judging’ has put on its agenda."

"In this special issue, which is the first collection of articles on ‘Gender and Judging’, all the issues listed above are addressed in some form, be it merely in passing or in greater depth. Common to all contributions is the central question: do women judges judge differently from men judges? Do women judges add a different voice?—a question first raised in the 1990s under the influence of ‘difference feminism’ and today remaining as topical as ever."

The Links below should work for DePaul computer users (campus or proxy server from home) via the EBSCO Academic Search. click on  PDF icon to access full text document of each  article.

International Journal of the Legal Profession, Volume 15 Issue 1 & 2 2008

1. Editorial: Gender and judging.Preview By: Schultz, Ulrike; Shaw, Gisela. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p1-5

2. Can feminist judges make a difference?Preview By: Hunter, Rosemary. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p7-36, 30p

3. What a difference difference makes: gendered harms and judicial diversity.Preview By: Rackley, Erika. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p37-56, 20p

4. Judging gender: difference and dissent at the Supreme Court of Canada.Preview By: Belleau, Marie-Claire; Johnson, Rebecca. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p57-71, 15p

5. Gender, race, bias and perspective: OR, how otherness colours your judgment.Preview By: Graycar, Reg. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p73-86, 14p

6. Thinking about gender and judging.Preview By: Kenney, Sally J.. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p87-110, 24p

7. Family judges in the city of Buenos Aires: a view from within.Preview By: Kohen, Beatriz. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p111-122, 12p

8. Women and the judiciary in Syria: appointments process, training and career paths.Preview By: Cardinal, Monique C.. International Journal of the Legal Profession, Mar2008, Vol. 15 Issue 1/2, p123-139, 17p

State Dept. IG Critical of Process To Publish Foreign Relations of the United States

The "Foreign Relations of the United States" (FRUS) series is a government publication that most of us have probably seen on library shelves or possibly used for a school paper. But since its inception in 1861 in the Lincoln administration, it has been  a vital source of access to information for both the general public and scholars around the world. It  constitutes the State Department’s official documentary historical record.

PL 102-138 mandates that the series provide "a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of U.S. foreign policy within 30 years of the events therein recorded". The process involves assembling mountains of both public and classified information and carefully analyzing and selecting what will be used to actually write the history that we  find in the books or online.

The schedule of publication found in the law has rarely been met. "In fact, in the years that the 1991 law has been in effect, no presidential administration has seen all relevant FRUS volumes published within the 30-year deadline." But more recently internal problems and mismanagement have created greater challenges to FRUS meeting its legal mandate and the expectations of scholars worldwide.

The May 2009 State Dept. Inspector General's recent  report on this situation, "Management Review of the Office of the Historian Bureau of Public Affairs U.S. Department of State", details the problems that have been affecting the production of FRUS and provides many recommendations to improve the process. The primary recommendation was reassignment of  the office’s director, Marc J. Susser after years of complaints from 75% of his employees. Recommendations for improved hiring practices, re-alignment of resources , along with several internal organizational changes were also made.

The seriousness of the challenges facing the timely production of the FRUS was underlined by the comment by the OIG that " It may be that the 30-year deadline is inherently unachievable and should be changed (necessitating a change in legislation, which would bring along with it another set of challenges)."

Yet the attention being paid to what for many of us is a rather obscure government document, is merited, for as as the Inspector General states in his report, "While other countries publish series similar in nature, the FRUS has been widely regarded as the “gold standard” of such efforts, a testament to the principle of transparency in government and a vehicle for easy public access to previously classified information about foreign policy."

ICC "Legal Tools" For Public Being Updated

"The Legal Tools were initially created to assist the International Criminal Court - Office of the Prosecutor (ICC-OTP) with legal research and drafting regarding the elements of crimes, modes of criminal liability and key procedural and evidentiary questions. In 2005, the ICC Prosecutor decided to share with the entire Court and, to the extent feasible, with the general public, the services comprising the Legal Tools.

The Tools comprise at present over 25000 documents and legal commentaries. Some 13 collections and databases of legal documents are included, together with four legal research and reference tools developed by lawyers connected with the Court and outsourcing partners: the Case Matrix, the Elements Commentary, the Proceedings Commentary and the Means of Proof Document.

Many of the documents which are relevant to users of the Legal Tools Database (LTW) are still copyright protected. They are nevertheless actively collected by the Legal Tools Project. Some of them are listed in the LTD, but you can not yet access them. The Project invites copyright holders to share their documents through the universal public platform of the LTW. The Project will make systematic efforts during the upcoming years to gradually secure permission to make these documents available to the general public."

Several of the components of the Legal Tools from the ICC have been or are scheduled for updating in 2009. See "Current status of the Tools"

(Hat tip to Slaw's Simon Fodden & Joe Hodnicki,Law Librarian Blog)

Staff Member Mark Giangrande on Panel at Wayne State Law School

Mark Giangrande, one of our reference librarians and legal research instructors, has been invited to the Wayne State University Law School, to be part of a panel on "Practical Advice for Attorneys in Transition", on June 20, 2009.

The presenters will address such issues as the significant changes in the legal job market, needed skills in applying for jobs, using search engine marketing for one's legal practice, research at the Wayne State Law Library. Mark will be addressing the use of technology for firm management and litigation support. These are applications that usually do not get much attention in the law school curriculum where the emphasis is on Lexis & Westlaw  for legal research and writing.

The importance of trying to provide law students and graduates with an awareness of these non-academic technological applications, is addressed in a 2008 article from the Albany Law Review     ( 71 Alb. L. Rev. 201 ). It is entitled, "Teaching law office management: why law students need to know the business of being a lawyer", by Debra Moss Curtis, an Associate Professor of Law at Shepard Broad Law Center, Nova Southeastern University. Professor Curtis makes the point that the practice of law is a business and not just the application of academic skills learned in school. In the introduction to her article she says:

"The practice of law is a business. But while focusing on teaching law students to "think like a lawyer," law schools often omit to tell students about the economic realities of surviving in practice. Lawyers are not necessarily interested in or trained as business people and thus comes the harsh reality--if most lawyers had wanted to be business people, they might have gone to business school instead. So for many law students, the realization that to earn a living as a lawyer, they also have to learn a business, can be very challenging."

Given the difficult economic environment that new law school  graduates are encountering, familiarity with such technologies should provide a competetive advantage in this tough market.