New Book: The Soul of the Law

The Soul of the Law by Benjamin Sells is a new addition to the Law Library collection.  This book examines the issues that lawyers face in practice and provides ideas for bringing balance.  The contents of the book include several interesting chapters including What does the law want?, Tyranny of the mind, Lawyers in love and Soul values. This would be a great read for anyone contemplating the law or for those already in the field.  Please feel to browse the book at the new book table (K346 .S45 2014)

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Maples v. Thomas: A Cautionary Tale

Today the United States Supreme court decided a case that is both high profile and right on point for aspiring law students, at the intersection of constitutional law and professional responsibility.  Maples, an  Alabama death row inmate challenging his murder convictions on constitutional grounds (ineffective assistance of counsel) , was represented pro bono at the state level by two lawyers from a prominent New York Law firm. When the lawyers left that firm without notifying the Alabama court, the notice of the court's decision against their client ended up in the New York firm's mail room, where it was marked "Return to Sender." When it was returned, the Alabama court took no action.  Neither did the client's local Alabama attorney, so the filing date for a Notice of Appeal just passed by. After the attorneys and the courts shared the blame in the oral arguments presented to the Supreme Court justices, the often divided Court decided 7-2 that Maples had suffered "abandonment" by his attorneys and that his procedural default must be excused.  The opinion, which makes for good reading, is found here.  The briefs and case analysis can be found at SCOTUSblog.     

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Law in Popular Culture

If you are looking for resources on how lawyers have been reflected in the popular culture (novels, feature films, comics, humor, television, and more), a good place to begin is with the Law in Popular Culture Collection at the Tarlton Law Library at the University of Texas at Austin. The goal of the collection is to "provide as broad a picture as possible of the image of the lawyer in the United States and British Commonwealth," as represented by authors from Dickens to Danielle Steele. All of the collection's literary, film, TV, and graphic works either feature a lawyer as a central character or were authored by a lawyer. The collection includes digital full-text "lawyer stories," the history of the legal thriller, and bibliographies useful for research in law and literature and law in popular culture topics.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Divorce Lawyers in Video Spotlight

Leave it to lawyers, not to be left out. Over 17 million people have viewed JK Wedding Entrance Dance, a wonderful part of "Jill and and Kevin's Big Day," as posted on YouTube. Have you seen the JK Divorce Entrance Dance, a lighthearted parody posted in the past week featuring a cast of dancing divorce lawyers, law clerks, and court officers, not to be outdone by the judge? The video of the courtroom entrance on what is billed , all in fun, as "Jill and Kevin's Last Day," was created by New York City based Indigo Productions.

A hat tip to Legal Blog Watch.



Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Licensed to Practice?

Finding out if an attorney is licensed to practice law in a particular state is the topic of a recently updated research guide and directory, "A Compilation of State Lawyer Licensing Databases," provided by the legal research and technology site, LLRX. This guide is a real time-saver with direct links to each state's online database of attorneys and the relevant telephone number that is sometimes needed to be certain that an attorney's registration is current. If you encounter a dead link in this guide, tryLegalDockets.com, which provides links to attorney registration, disciplinary, and lawyer referral sites for states and for some individual counties. Both are worth bookmarking for future reference.
Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat

Strangers to Us All

Lawyers can be wonderful poets. If you don't believe me, take a look at Strangers to Us All, a web site dedicated to lawyers who are also published poets. The site includes chronological, alphabetical and geographical indexes of lawyer-poets; a section on Civil War lawyer-poets; and a list of contemporary lawyer-poets (with biographical information and links to online poetry). The site is constantly updated and alerts us to recently published books of poetry.

Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat