Law Students

December 6th 2008: Boalt Sleeplessness Week

Posted on August 20, 2008
The Changina Blog echoed sentiments common to Boalt 2/3L's this week: What's with all the take-homes?My understanding is that because the Boalt construction schedule calls for massive demolition over Winter Break, the school has encouraged professors of non-1L classes to avoid in-class exams...

Running Mate Predictions?

Posted on August 19, 2008
The NY Times thinks Obama has chosen a running mate, and could release a name as early as Wednesday morning. I'm no Election Wizard, and I realize the question is becoming a bit of a yawn these days, but after kicking around the Times website, I couldn't help but hope for the most trusted man in America ...

See? They Listen!

Posted on August 18, 2008
Looks like our new website is up and running. Read about it here. Your thoughts? I think is an aesthetic improvement. Even better, the new BBB and the Calendar are exactly what students asked for last fall.On the other hand, 2 and 3L's did get that email from the CDO last night...

Where The @#$% Is Room 13?

Posted on August 15, 2008
Today I make the run from Boise to Berkeley (oh, Jordan Valley, Oregon, you old friend you) exactly 365 days after I made this trip last year. I have to say, this August 15th seems a lot less stressful -- the idea of becoming a 2l is much less scary than the idea of becoming a 1l...

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Parody

Posted on August 11, 2008
I received the e-mail below from my source for widely-distributed, factually inaccurate, right-wing talking points. When I first read it, I was seething with anger. But given the punch-line, it MUST BE a parody. There's no way it's not. Is there? Regardless, read it, and feel free to offer your tongue-in-cheek retorts...

Insh'allah

Posted on August 08, 2008
I don't know what to make of the Hamdan sentencing decision yesterday. On the one hand I'm pleased that even senior military officers recognized the folly of claiming such a low level guy should be executed for *cough* war crimes, which did not even exist until 2004 as I understand it...

You Had Me At Your Inital Offer

Posted on August 07, 2008
Article in the NYT re a fascinating study about settlement vs. going to trial. Punchline is plaintiffs suing under a contingency fee arrangement are much more likely to get less after trial than the defense. Sounds like people are not reading/watching A Civil Action...

SF Gate: Investors Should Pony Up, Too

Posted on August 07, 2008
Via the SF Gate:Congress' bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which effectively guarantees the debt they sold to investors, is fundamentally at odds with a basic principle of contract law that every first year law student must master: the written terms of the contract apply even if those terms are contrary to any verbal ([or] oral) statements made by the other party to the contract...

Return to Boalt With Your Hard Hat Handy

Posted on August 06, 2008
I had to chuckle at the second sentence in today's email from DE:To returning 2Ls and 3Ls:I hope this note finds you well. I suspect you are as excited about the fast-approaching start of the fall semester as I am.This place has seemed rather deserted without you, but it has not been dull or quiet...

Are You Going Ape?

Posted on August 05, 2008
The LA Times is reporting that the LA County Supervisors voted 3-2 to reject a ballot measure that would have increased sales taxes to fund public transportation projects in LA. Two Republicans voted no based on a knee-jerk, reflexive aversion to the t-word despite having a job that requires actual governing...

The Logic is Impeccable

Posted on August 05, 2008
If you thought the U.S. had draconian barriers to sexual harassment suits, then you should read about this decision by a Russian court. When the Code of Hammurabi gives women more legal rights, you know the country is backwards.

Sunday Lexico-Neuroticism

Posted on August 03, 2008
When discussion of last week's post began drawing from Wikipedia, that fickle forum of boneheads and blowhards, I bowed out.Then I remembered Sketchy Citation #13, from my criminal law casebook. I realized that maybe I was being cocky and wrong; maybe and Wiki-people aren't all blowhards after all...

"Don't You Ever Get Tired of Being Wrong All the Time?"*

Posted on July 31, 2008
I have lost track of the court decisions rebuking this administration. But the latest one is fairly important in terms of restoring the rightful constitutional balance between Congress and the Executive. Of course, this decision and the entire set of facts underlying it illustrate my belief that the constitutional design of separation of powers is defunct and incapable of functioning unless the opposite parties occupy the elected branches...

The Other Red Menace

Posted on July 30, 2008
You know, I sort of hate to even go there.  I feel compelled, however, by an exchange in the thread below, wherein Armen throws down a gauntlet:Patrick said . . . .ALR saved my ass this summer. Knowing that something is in the Westlaw database, but not knowing how to locate it, is a maddening experience...

Did Boalt Pass the Buck on Yoo?

Posted on July 28, 2008
The Daily Californian ran an article in yesterday's sports section entitled, Bear Naked: Getting to Known John Yoo. The author of the piece, which surveys a two-hour International House chat with Yoo about his experience as a sports fan in Washington, begins by noting, "[I]t's entirely beyond my scope to discuss the moral and technical merits of the unitary executive theory...

Sunday Lexico-Neuroticism

Posted on July 27, 2008
Welcome to installment number two of the Sunday Lexico-Neuroticism series. This week's cringe is induced (actually, more like inadvertently approved) by Judge Patel, of our very own Northern District of California:The proper focus is upon the detention faced by the petitioner and whether the same is a due process violation, not whether petitioner is likely to succeed in his appeals...

So. What's Your Favorite Bad Legal Argument?

Posted on July 26, 2008
I have been conducting research in support of a motion for summary judgment. The motion will oppose what is, arguably, the most impotent legal argument of the year. (No, not "important."  Impotent. As in, weak, feeble, flaccid, impuissant, stupid.) I don't feel comfortable outlining the story here (it's a matter of public record, but still ...

Nation of Regulation

Posted on July 26, 2008
Yesterday, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill banning the use of trans-fats in restaurants and baked goods. California now joins the cities of New York, Philadelphia, and Stamford in controlling what sort of fat people can and cannot put into their bodies...

Official Bar Freak Out Thread

Posted on July 23, 2008
I guess it's officially starting -- that time in every law student's life when he or she melts down psychologically as the bar impends. In such times of trouble, Boalt students have for generations turned to the elders of the Nuts & Boalts community for soothing assurances and not-a-little-bit of derision...

Ding Ding Ding!

Posted on July 22, 2008
We have a winner, for the most laughably stupid article written by a law professor during the election season! Steven Calabresi, a co-founder of the Federalist Society, ruminates in the Chicago Tribune about Barack Obama's youth, the age requirement to be President (thirty-five), and liberal theories of constitutional interpretation...

Lawyers, Guns, and Money. Yes!

Posted on July 22, 2008
This summer the U.S. Supreme Court ruled squarely under the Second Amendment for the first time in 127 years. Smith & Wesson is celebrating the occasion with the Heller v. D.C Commissioner Commemorative Revolver:"We at Smith & Wesson are pleased to honor the six original plaintiffs in the case while at the same time offering to consumers a firearm that will help in the preservation and protection of the Second Amendment," said Tom Taylor, Vice President of Marketing for Smith & Wesson...

CLR vs. Lysol

Posted on July 22, 2008
I can certainly appreciate that anxiety/anticipation that is building up in rising 2Ls regarding CLR. But I want to offer this word of caution, echoed in years past by my co-blogger Tom Fletcher. It's a great feeling to know that you are on Boalt's flagship journal, but it's not the end of the world if you're not...

Sunday Lexico-Neuroticism

Posted on July 21, 2008
Wandering the N&B archives recently, I tripped over Isaac Zaur's weekly "Sunday Literary-ism" posts.  Click here and scroll down -- they are a pleasure.  For the rest of this summer (and perhaps beyond) I will attempt to follow in his footsteps with my own weekly offering...

In Re Fall Courses 2008

Posted on July 21, 2008
In the tread below, Anonymous asks:Can we please have an open thread about classes? My phase II is coming up and I'm still really undecided about stuff. I'm interested in:(1) any info on mediation with m-rshall? she has no posted reviews, so I'm skeptical...

Boalt and the Bar Exam

Posted on July 19, 2008
Most of us know that law school, at least the Boalt variety, does not specifically prepare you for the Bar exam.  However, we also know that Boalt has recently been increasingly concerned with its students' bar passage rates.  But how serious is Boalt about this problem, if you want to call it a problem?  I think, by far, the most productive thing Boalt can do towards producing more bar exam-ready students would be?and yes, I know this is drastic?to REQUIRE all classes that are on bar exam subjects to be CLOSED NOTE, CLOSED BOOK...

The Marvels of the Electronic Age

Posted on July 19, 2008
If John McCain is tired of the old-person jokes, perhaps his campaign shouldn?t pedal ludicrous arguments like this one ? that Obama can?t properly form an opinion about Iraq until he has visited it in person. I?m sorry, but is John McCain aware we no longer have to send galleons around the Cape of Good Hope to communicate with the Orient? In this marvelous new age of the telegraph and the telephone, people can actually correspond across thousands of miles ? exchanging information in real time! You can learn about -- and form a complex opinion about -- places beyond your line of sight...

Help Me Help Another Boaltie See the Light

Posted on July 18, 2008
Two threads below have generated a "spirited" email exchange, in which only one party can prevail. Please, vindicate me:1. "Her California [ . . . ] was suspended after she was caught talking on the phone while driving." a) driver license b) drivers license c) driver's license d) drivers' license2...

Classless Action

Posted on July 15, 2008
I just received an e-mail notification regarding the Kashmiri case. For the uninitiated, this is the class action brought by a Boaltie against the UC for the fee increases that began in 2003. The allegations rested on a reliance theory (somewhere on the UC website someone said that fees will not be raised, but they were)...

Resident Evil[ness]

Posted on July 14, 2008
Having finally concluded what became quite a battle of wits with the UC Berkeley Residency office, I feel I should pass on some lessons learned. If I were still an out-of-state 0L, hoping to skate through the residency petition process come spring, I would make sure I addressed the following housekeeping items, now:Before You Matriculate This Fall Obtain a physical California mailing address (not a PO box)...

Building a Better Legal Profession

Posted on July 13, 2008
Like the author of the post below this one I also share a letter, this time from Building a Better Legal Profession.  BBLP is an organization that was created last fall by Stanford students (referenced here on N&B) and is itching to grow.  The letter is self-explanatory, and I think you'll find its message germane to the looming OCIP season...

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