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After the Prawfsfest! in Miami, and a briefer than expected visit to the treetops of Costa Rica, I have finally returned back to my desk, where, among other things, I'm hoping to do some more substantive blogging the next few months. In the meantime, let me just take a moment to thank Deans Paul Verkuil and Donna Coker at U of Miami for their hospitality and support in underwriting the costs associated with our recent Prawfsfest! workshop at UMiami. 11 of us showed up (5 from Florida and about 6 from outside) to the lovely UM campus, where thanks to Ben Depoorter's effortless charm, we were well cared for.

As is typical with the Prawfsfest! series, the focus is on public law and legal theory papers. The idea is to present a work in early progress (attendees are expected to read at least 20 pages of manuscript). The papers are supposed to be raw or 1/4 baked; in other words, pre-SSRN and pre-placement.  The presenter talks for no more than 5-7 minutes and for the remainder of the hour, we go around the room with folks offering their comments. There's a no-foreplay norm that's softly enforced. As one attendee archly characterized the prevailing spirit: if you have something nice to say, don't say it! In the past, the 20 pages standard has been subject to varying interpretations. I suspect for the next one, we will move to a more clear rule, something like: please determine which 7000 words of text (ie, excluding foot/endnotes) you'd like everyone to read at minimum. This set of norms is still in flux; I'd be curious to hear how organizers/participants in other workshops structure the incubation of these sorts of projects.

For what it's worth, I circulated an early version of a paper on intermediate sanctions and complex litigation that I've barely begun. Sure enough, I was persuaded to peel off aspects of the project for another paper (retributive damages regarding public entities), and to give more consideration to various topics. Though I didn't take a formal poll, I'm guessing that Dave Fagundes would again win the MVP (most valuable prawf) award for his amazing comments on so many of the papers, if not for the meticulous binder with tabs he made of all the various papers.

The next Prawfsfest! will be hosted here at Florida State (thanks to my Deans, Don Weidner and Wayne Logan). It will take place sometime b/w tax day and the ides of May--still nailing that down. Attending Prawfsfest! is one of the perks of guest-blogging here, so if you anticipate having a paper in the right stage of development and the right area-focus, and have already guest-blogged here, please let me know of your interest and we'll try to see if there's room in this one or the next one (likely in LA in December). If you are interested in being a non-presenting commentator, let me know about that too--we can usually accomodate a couple of those too. And while I'm at it, I should mention that I'll be co-ordinating the schedule of bloggers for the first half of the year very soon.  If you're a prawf (or rising prawf) who's been blurking, or know of someone suitable who's interested, please get in touch with me via email.

Last but not least: Happy Chanukah and Chag Sameach to our Jewish readers.

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