Weekly Law-School Roundup #54

This Week: The Something-a-Little-Different Edition, in Which Your Editor Saves the Best Links for Tomorrow

Tomorrow, of course, will mark the first installment of Blawg Review, which I happily agreed to host on this weblog. As a way of increasing your anticipation, which I'm sure is already approaching fever pitch, I thought I'd save the posts that would have otherwise appeared here and include them in Blawg Review #1 tomorrow.

Confused? Return tomorrow morning and you'll understand. In the meantime, I do have something to mention today: Professor Brian Murphy's Entertainment Law class at New York Law School. As far as I know, it's the first and only law-school class that awards extra credit for blogging.

The Entertainment Law Blog: During the course of the semester, you are required to make at least two substantive postings to the class blog. You may, of course, post as often as you like. A substantive posting is one in which you provide insight and analysis; a posting in which you merely link to an interesting article does not count as substantive.

How's the class doing? Here are some recent headlines:

Brittney  ["Brittney Spears and her husband are going to have their own reality TV show . . . ENJOY!"]

Tech Law Advisor ["There is an interesting new blog out there for students like us going through the ever elusive job search."] (Ed.'s note: Kevin, you're everywhere!)

D.C. Apartment Available for Sublet ["Spacious and furnished studio apartment in building with 24-hour front desk attendant available for the summer."]

Substantive? You decide. (Ed.'s note #2: I understand that in selecting posts to highlight, I was being a little unfair to the weblog. Rather than sending me hate mail, why don't you spend your time posting something substantive for Professor Murphy?) (Ed.'s note #3: Thanks to the reader who e-mailed me the link.)

Comments

[Dylan]

There is no such thing as "extra credit" in a curved class. At most the professor is indicating he won't automatically fail you for refusing to do it, as he might on other requirements that aren't worth enough points to fail you independently, but grade-wise it's just as "extra" as the last question on a multipart exam.

[energy spatula]

It might not be curved...I took a Law and Pop Culture class last quarter and it was a seminar class with no curve. Of course, we actually did have to write something substantive every week, and a 30 page paper at the end. Our professor didn't use blogging, but part of our participation credit was posting to TWEN on Westlaw, which is sort of a cross between an electronic discussion board and a blog. But we did get credit for posting, and some things were much more substantive than others.

[Evan]

Dylan: Here's what Professor Murphy says on the page to which I linked in the post: "Participation: Those who participate in this course in a meaningful way will be rewarded with a grade bump. There are two ways to participate . . ." (emphasis added).

Professor Murphy then goes on to describe the weblog. I translated "grade bump" as "extra credit." If this is not a correct translation, then perhaps a firestorm will erupt and this post will receive links from all over the blogosphere, and I'll end up defending myself on cable TV in a much-anticipated episode of Neil Cavuto.

Bring it on.

[JR]

Evan:

I can already hear how you will be introduced: "Evan Schaeffer is a trial lawyer from Madison County, IL, which has been called a judicial hellhole."

[Evan]

JR: Then they'll chop off my head and we'll continue with the interview.

[Michael Scaljon]

the suspense is terrible. i hope it lasts. Mr. Schaeffer vs. Mr. Cavuto. well, at least it's not O'Reilly.

[Kevin]

TechLawAdvisor RULES!