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PROFESSIONAL READING IN REVIEW
By
Elisabeth McKechnie and Susan Llano
Elisabeth
McKechnie is a Reference Librarian at the UC Davis Law Library.
She can be reached at
.
Susan
Llano is a Reference Librarian at the UC Davis Law Library.
She
can be reached at
.
“Competitive Intelligence Resources in Law
Firms” by Kitty Schweyer, Searcher,
volume 16, no. 4, April 1, 2008, 2008 WLNR 7091502
Competitive intelligence is increasingly becoming the task of law
firm librarians, many of whom have no direct training in this area.
In her article, Schweyer outlines the principles of competitive intelligence
(CI) and reviews a variety of tools available to a firm librarian
charged with this task. This article is heavy on graphical illustrations
and, while readable in an ascii text version (aka Westlaw), it might
be more easily followed in a PDF or actual journal copy.
“Unlocking the Secrets of Highly Successful
Legal Writing Students” by Anne M. Enquist, St.
John’s Law Review, volume 82, page 609, Spring 2008.
For those academic librarians who also teach legal research and writing
to law students, this survey takes a small sample, six students, and
analyzes their progress through a law school legal research course,
successfully predicting the level of success each student will have
in the course. Through the use of student interviews, diaries and
time sheets, the author tries to get at exactly what makes a law student
a successful legal writer. Research and writing professors who discuss
the study with their classes may be able to encourage many of their
students to improve their performance in class by directing them to
more concrete skills.
“Lawyers Open Their File Cabinets for a Web
Resource” by Anne Eisenberg, New York
Times, Novelties, April 27, 2008.
Although consumers have free web tools available to help them diagnose
their ills or research their doctors, there hasn’t been much available
in the legal arena up until now. A new website, JDSupra.com, is posting
examples of attorney work product, arranged by subject, so that site
visitors with a legal problem can view samples of a law firm’s work
in that area. So far the site has signed up 255 firms who have deposited
sample motions and other legal memoranda. Small firms like the service
because it allows them to publicize their services equally with the
larger firms.
“Banning Laptops in the Classroom:
Is it Worth the Hassles?” by Kevin Yamamoto, Journal
of Legal Education, Vol. 57, 2008 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1078740
In the wake of University of Chicago’s announcement banning laptops
from the classroom (read the article at http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/04/18/laptops)
comes Kevin Yamamoto’s article on his experience at South Texas College
of Law in banning laptops from his classroom. His article details
how he implemented the ban and his impressions of how this change
affected his teaching and the classroom. Overall, his experiment was
successful and his article offers encouragement to other faculty who
may be considering the same thing. He contends that laptops in the
classroom create distractions that interfere with learning and memory.
Appendices at the end of the article include a list of ABA approved
schools that require students to own a laptop.
“Getting on Scalia’s Good Side”
by Brent Kendall, Los Angeles Daily Journal,
v.121, no.90, May 12, 2008, p.1.
Coming on the heels of the series of videos of Supreme Court Justices
that Bryan Garner recently released (see March/April 2008 issue of
Nocall News Professional Reading Column, http://www.nocall.org/nocallnews/archive/2008AprMay.pdf),
Garner has now co-authored a book with Justice Antonin Scalia. In
Making Your Case, they offer straight-forward advice on briefing and
oral argument. According to Kendall, the book is slim (just about
200 pages), but covers everything from core principles to advice that
is quite entertaining. Justice Scalia’s tip on avoiding Latin phrases?
“Judges are permitted to show off in this fashion, but lawyers are
not.” The article includes excerpts from a Daily Journal
interview with Justice Scalia and his thoughts on advocacy at the
Supreme Court.
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