Weekly Law School Roundup #15

Who's Seen Fahrenheit 9/11? Among law-student bloggers, I found some discussion of the movie here and there, but the only "reviews" I saw were at ambivalent imbroglio and Jeremy's Weblog. A.I. says: "We saw 'Fahrenheit 9/11' last night and it was ... a great film! . . . In many ways, typical Moore. In at least one way, not quite so typical—he wasn't in it that much (except as narrator and commentator throughout, of course)." And Jeremy writes: "[I]t's a solidly entertaining and interesting sit-through. I can't help but recommend it. Regardless of your politics. But I also don't think it's going to change anyone's mind. It'll just reinforce whatever feelings you've got." As for me, I'm interested in the response to the movie, so if you want to e-mail me about your own review, I'll be happy to link to it in an update to this post or elsewhere. (And if I missed any that were posted already, I apologize in advance.)

When Oil Tries to Mix with Water Stewart at Shouting Fire posts about the "two major events" going on in Atlanta: Gay Pride Week and an "evangelical Christian revival." Stewart writes, "Though I concede their right to assemble, I fail to see the logic in the evangelical desire to picket pride week and yell at gays with bullhorns (although I believe one tenant of evangelicalism is a rejection of rationalism and logic, so perhaps I should not be surprised). Do they honestly believe they will convert proud homosexuals to Christ by publicly berating them?"

Conversations Can Develop Where You Least Expect Them "I'm a man of the people," one of my plaintiff-lawyer friends often says, and he often demonstrates why plaintiffs' lawyers are known for their ability to strike up a conversation with just about anyone. Cathy Gellis isn't a plaintiffs' lawyer, but she has the conversational ability to be one, based on her post "Around the world, around the corner." You'll have to read it yourself to see what I mean. Cathy's a law student at Boston University, and her weblog is called The Great Change: Turning Cathy into a Lawyer. I wonder why her blog doesn't include a blogroll. It's none of my business, I guess, but a blogroll would lead to a greater number of readers for her interesting blog.

Not for Sheep Has Been Retired . . . And is reborn as "Legislating Gremlins: the Law School Chronicles." The author explains: "I've retired Not for Sheep for several reasons, some personal and some financial. It costs too much to continue hosting four domains, so I've parked three and am keeping one active." Will the old posts from Not for Sheep be accessible at the new site? I'm not sure, but maybe we'll have the answer once Legislating Gremlins gets off the ground.

Appointed Forever Tommy at Carolina Law provides a link to a funny satirical song about federal judges. You can think of it as the musical companion to my post "Advice to Federal Judges #2."

Preparing for Georgetown Law by Running Stairs That's Scoplaw's approach, as explained in the post, "Vanity, Vanity." Scoplaw writes, "It’s almost like a gladiatorial preparation for law school. I want to go in lean and frosty as I’m sure both pizza and low amounts of sleep will catch up with me eventually, and, even so, I don’t need to be one whit duller, surrounded by the brilliant people I’ll be surrounded by. So that means pushing myself now so I can try to hold steady later, and let my health and improved focus maximize my learning." Unfortunately, the post reminded me that I'm getting out of shape. I wonder if Scoplaw will be eating any raw eggs?

Are Conference Calls Always a Waste of Time? At Better late than never, bltn writes about a non-productive conference call at a non-legal job, and concludes: "I know people complain about billable hour requirements at law firms, but after my experience, I can see some value in holding people accountable for their time in the office. I can't imagine it being acceptable to make an entry at a firm that says, '1 hour - sat on silent conference call, waiting for something to happen.'" In my experience, lawyers sit in on non-productive conference calls all the time. I would like to bore you with examples, but I'll do it another time. I promise. (The author of Better late than never, by the way, will be attending The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.)

A Concluding Note to Recent Graduates Who Blog One of the great things about blogs written by law students is that the authors are free to express themselves without worrying that an employer might be looking over their shoulders. But once those authors are employed as lawyers, what then? I hope that all the great bloggers who recently graduated will continue to blog, and that readers like me will be able to enjoy a greater variety of weblogs written by lawyers. Judging from my own experience in a big firm, however, where my employers tried to stop me from writing newspaper op-eds, I think the transition from law schools to law firms might stifle many good blogging voices. I'm going to keep reading to find out. In the meantime, I'd also like to hear from recent graduates who plan to continue blogging once employed, whether at an established weblog or a new site.

Comments

[Katherine]

re: old post accessibility.... maybe, maybe not. :-) My faithful desktop of the last four years died, and I can get it to turn on maybe 25% of the time before it freezes.

when my desktop started dying over the course of the last semester, I started making back-ups, so I have most of my law school notes. The difficulty starts when you try transferring files spat out by a Windows ME machine (old compy) to a Windows XP machine (new compy). XP doesn't like ME's fingerprints on *anything*. I can't even get XP to recognize my old compy on our home network...

[Federalist No. 84]

My future employer (I graduate in Dec. '04) thinks blogging is a great idea. He does a 2-hour radio show and thinks the internet is another great way to reach prospective clients. and generate referrals. I feel sorry for people whose bosses do not recognize the power of the internet.

[Matt Schuh]

My thoughts on Fahrenheit 9/11:

http://mattschuh.blogs.com/mws/2004/06/fahrenheit_911.html

[C&F]

Re: the post about billing and conference calls.

Of course, to avoid a conference call being non-billable, the billing sheet would say: "1 hour - litigation strategy session with senior partner."

[Evan]

C&F: That's right. But if you want to follow good billing form, you should begin the entry with a verb, cast in the present tense: "4.7, Attend conference call re placement of comma in second sentence of response to plaintiff's Interrogatory 3; review interrogatory 3 and the draft response in preparation for same; participate in same by suggesting striking the comma altogether; revise interrogatory 3 at the conclusion of the conference call by replacing comma with semi-colon, as suggested by co-defendant's counsel from Los Angeles." Or something like that.