Evan Schaeffer's Legal Underground

RANDOM NOTES . . .

--At Overlawyered, Ted Frank is doing some Best-of-2006 posts. Example here. From a weblogging standpoint, it's is a pretty good idea. I might replicate it myself if I get a chance.

--Light blogging ahead? I've got trips planned in each of the next four weeks to Washington, D.C., Shreveport, Memphis, and Las Vegas. Of course, rules of my household prohibit me from announcing that I'm out of town while I'm there, so it won't be obvious when I'm posting from hotel rooms. But I will be, unfortunately. See if you can tell!

--Mike Cernovich: "Will Mike Nifong Hire a Lawyer?"

--Ken Lammers: "The Demise of CrimLaw."

--I noticed that Life of a Law Student has a redesign. There's sure lots of content on that site. And I'm listed as a contributor.

--In other blogging news, Ernest Svenson has given me an assignment. So has Denise Howell. Perhaps I'll do those over the weekend, since the Weekly Law School Update will be ably covered by Kristine.

--St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "Candidates beware: The blogs are watching."

AT MY TRIAL PRACTICE WEBSITE . . . "Requests to Admit in Illinois: Seeking Costs for Denials."

IN THE MAGAZINES . . . You say you're still reading weblogs? I can't stop you, but why not read some magazines too? The best articles are free. Try these--

The False Mystique of Republican Invincibility Elizabeth Drew on the recent Democratic victories. [The New York Review of Books]

Taking From the Collection Basket 85% of Catholic dioceses in the U.S. have detected embezzlement in the past five years. [National Catholic Reporter]

An Appealing Self-Portrait Gary Hart reviews Barack Obama’s The Audacity of Hope. [The New York Times Sunday Book Review]

Hobbies You Probably Haven't Considered Scouring Kansas for meteorites. [Wired]

Genius Triumphant Assessing Mozart's legacy. [Books & Culture]

PUBLIC DEFENDERS HAVE WEBLOGS TOO . . . There's a list of about forty active public-defender weblogs at the PD Blog Guide, where you'll find descriptions and commentary about each. It's a service of Greg Worthen's Public Defender Stuff, which contains "news of public defenders, indigent defense and related issues."

Recently, Worthen emailed to remind me that he's hosting, right now, a competition called the "2006 Public Defender Blog Awards." Your participation is encouraged! Simply follow the link to vote, or visit Public Defender Stuff, where you'll find other ways to navigate to the awards, plus other items of interest. I guarantee you've been reading many of the weblogs that are nominated, even if you didn't think of them as "public-defender weblogs."

AT MY TRIAL PRACTICE WEBLOG . . . "Search 7 Million U.S. Patents Using Google."

AWARDS FOR LAW-RELATED WEBLOGGERS . . . You'll learn plenty about the law-related blogosphere by reading these two posts--

"Blawg Review Awards 2006," by the editor of Blawg Review; and

"The 2006 Blawggies: Dennis Kennedy's Best Law-related Blogging Awards," by Dennis Kennedy.

Thanks to both of these kind readers for remembering Legal Underground and The Illinois Trial Practice Weblog when bestowing their "awards." It's much appreciated!

HOLIDAY GREETINGS . . . Rather than making my own card for my weblog, I thought I'd recycle the one my parents sent out in 1963-- 

Needless to say, I don't remember this photo session. What I do remember is one of the benefits of being stuffed into a stocking your grandmother knitted. It means that forever after, your stocking is likely to be much larger--as a result of being stretched--than that of your siblings. In my case, the siblings came along in 1964, 1965, 1967, and 1971. Over the years, my stretched-out stocking, which had to be overfilled with candy to make it appear even half full, caused quite a bit of envy.

Of course, my siblings were also envious that I was the oldest--and they still are, I think. Sorry about that! This year, my consolation to them is this Merry-Christmas post, with love to all four of them, Sarah, Molly, Jonathan, and Ellen, and to their children, Jack, Alex, Michael, Christos, Melina, Alex, Stefan, and Marie. Merry Christmas!

The Weekly Law School Roundup #50

This Week: The Post-During-the-Holidays Edition. What some law-student webloggers were writing about during the past week--

Relief What happens when exams are over. [Partial Law]

Assessing Three Years of Law School What one blogger has learned. [Top Law Student]

Thanking a Blogger A weblog shuts down (though its proprietor returns). [Life, Far Away]

Heartless Biglaw Lawyers  A classic Christmas-themed legal filing. [TJ's Double Play]

The Worst Christmas Ever Free download of the week. [the thin line between optimism and delusion]

A Suggestion What she wants for Christmas. [LawNut]

Something to Cook this Weekend No-knead bread. [divine angst]

Crazy Blogging Memes Top holiday songs. [Preaching to the Perverted]

Discovering Oneself in Print A blogger is published in Rosebud. [Peanut Butter Burrito]

Back in Boston . . . And reflecting on the holidays. [wicked words]

Family You Never Knew You Had Keeping those misdirected Christmas cards. [skholar]

A Gift from the LawBitches The twelve days of finals. [There's No Competition in Law School]

Look for next week's roundup at divine angst, then it's back here the week after that. You can find some other recent roundups in the "At the Law Schools 2" category, as well as sixty or so older roundups from 2004-2005 here. Finally, if you want to know how I choose posts to highlight, see "How I Write the Weekly Law School Roundup."

JURORS WITH THAT HOLIDAY CHEER . . . According to Ted Frank, "jurors are notoriously more likely to be charitable to plaintiffs in the week around Christmas." I wonder if there's a study that backs that up. It seems to me that just the opposite might be true, and that many plaintiffs' lawyers would avoid a trial in the weeks around Christmas, thinking that jurors might resent the plaintiff for taking time away from their holidays.

START A WEBLOG, GET A BONUS . . . Kevin O'Keefe explains why law-firm bonuses should give credit for blogging.