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.