Law Library Notes

Read about it here.

The law library has a trial subscription to PLI (Practising Law Institute) Discover Plus. This is a collection of legal ebooks on numerous topics.

Here are the types and number of documents in the database:

Answer Books (26)
Course Handbooks (705)
Forms (1156)
Transcripts (260)
Treatises (110)

Here is a link to trial subscription of the product: Discover PLUS

NPR program - On the Media - has the following piece.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Public Imagination

On August 28, 1963 Martin Luther King Jr. did what he’d done countless times before: he began building a sermon. And in his sermons King relied on improvisation, drawing on sources and references that were limited only by his imagination and memory. It’s a gift — and a tradition — on full display in the “I Have A Dream” speech, but it’s also in conflict with the intellectual property laws that have been strenuously used by his estate since his death. In a segment originally aired in 2011, OTM producer Jamie York speaks with Drew Hansen, Keith Miller, Michael Eric Dyson and Lewis Hyde about King, imagination and the consequences of limiting access to art and ideas.

Download MP3

On the Media page with links to transcripts and streaming version of story.

Perhaps the most terrifying part of doing legal work is how banal it can seem.  This thought struck me as I sat in a nondescript chair at a nondescript desk in a nondescript cubicle behind an unremarkable office façade and listened to a heart wrenching story.

Read the rest of the story (by Nate Romano, a young Jesuit lawyer, Marquette Law grad and immigration specialist, who will spend two years with our Civil Legal Clinic starting next fall)  here.

Shon Hopwood was sentenced to 13 years for five bank robberies. During his time in prison he became a jailhouse lawyer. He is now a 2L at University of Washington School of Law.  He has written a book called: Law Man: My Story of Robbing Banks, Winning Supreme Court Cases, and Finding Redemption

The law library has a copy of the book. You can find it at KF373.H6413 A3 2012
Please ask a reference librarian if you need any assistance locating the book. If the book is checked out you can put a hold on the book at the circulation desk.

The author is from Nebraska so Omaha, Creighton, and other Nebraska locations are mentioned in the book.

It was a rough time for the Empire. 

Online case services were multiplying fast and furious.  Yes, even their vaunted reporter system had been compromised.  The beginning of the end began in the late 1990′s, when even the Courts had ruled against them.  It became more important than ever to just hold on, to jealously guard what was left from the encroaching armies of Competition. 

Read the rest of the 3 Geeks & a Law Blog article here.

A misplaced comma was impacting the interpretation of  the Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006. The law has been changed in part because of a law review article.

Article about situation: IU Kelley professor’s research leads to overturning error in federal trademark statute

Law review article that helped change law: Beware the Scrivener’s Error: Curing the Drafting Error in the Federal Registration Defense to Trademark Dilution Claims (If you link to article from off campus you will need to login with your Netid and password)

The citation to the law review is 19 Tex. Intell. Prop. L.J. 169 (2010-2011)

Professor Butterfield was a contributor to the Nebraska state bibliography of legal resources annotated.  The full text of the work is available on HeinOnline.

Read about it here.

When Mark O’Mara agreed to defend George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder case, one of his first major decisions was to embrace the Internet.

He set up a legal defense Web site for his client, a Twitter page and a Facebook account, all with the purpose of countering what he called the “avalanche of misinformation” about the case and Mr. Zimmerman.

It was a risky move, unorthodox for a criminal defense lawyer, legal experts said, but a bold one. Late last month, the judge in the case, rebuffing the prosecution, allowed Mr. O’Mara to keep the online presence.

Full article in the NYT