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There’s an app for that…

December 11th, 2012 No comments

Boy howdy is there ever an app for that…this all started because I read about an app developed by New York Law School’s Mendik Library.  I looked them up in the iTunes App Store and happened to click the “related” option and down the rabbit hole I went.  For an even more detailed list of apps see the libguides prepared by UCLA & University of Akron.

Handy Apps for Law Students

Fastcase – a free legal research application.  It contains cases and statutes from all 50 states.  There are 3 ways to search: by citation, keyword, or browse the statute collections.  It can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store and can be used on the iPhone & the iPad.  There is also an Android version.

LawStack – it is described as a “law library in your pocket.”  With this app you get the US Constitution (as amended 5/5/92), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure,    Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence, and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy  Procedure (effective as of Dec. 1, 2011).  You can also add the DE Code, New York Code, & CFR.  This is a free app available for download at the iTunes App Store.

CaseBriefs – it includes these features which are aimed at law students: student briefs, course outlines, & law school exam preparation materials.  It is a free download from the iTunes App Store.

U.S. Code – the entire U.S. Code for your iOS device, where you will be able to access all the federal statutes without using the internet.  Available for free from the iTunes App Store.

iStudiez Pro – award-winning app that helps you (the busy student) organize your life.  It offers many ways to organize your schedule and is available for purchase from the iTunes App Store for $2.99.  There is an    iStudiez Lite which is free but is not as feature rich.

Law School Dojo – this app will help take some of the boredom out of studying.  “It offers hundreds of multiple choice questions to learn legal doctrine,     vocabulary, and procedure, along with random legal trivia.” Available to download for free from the iTunes App Store (there are additional versions e.g. quizzes on torts, Civil Procedure, etc but these are not free).

OpenRegs – with this app you will be able to take the Federal Register with you no matter where you go.  It is free and available for download from the iTunes App Store.

LexisNexis Law School Q&A Series –  this app is available to download for free from the iTunes App Store, each in app purchase is $14.99.  It is the Q&A exam prep series as an interactive app.  It includes 27 subject areas (available as in app purchases): Civ Pro, Evidence, Torts, Constitutional Law, Crim Pro, Constitutional Law etc.

                                       

Laughing at the Gods

April 23rd, 2012 No comments

Allan C. Hutchinson. Laughing at the Gods: Great Judges and How They Made the Common Law. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2012. K170 .H88 2012

From the publisher: Any effort to understand how law works has to take seriously its main players – judges. Like any performance, judging should be evaluated by reference to those who are its best exponents. Not surprisingly, the debate about what makes a ‘great judge’ is as heated and inconclusive as the debate about the purpose and nature of law itself. History shows that those who are generally considered to be candidates for a judicial hall of fame are game changers who oblige us to rethink what it is to be a good judge. So the best of judges must tread a thin line between modesty and hubris; they must be neither mere umpires nor demigods. The eight judges showcased in this book demonstrate that, if the test of good judging is not about getting it right, but doing it well, then the measure of great judging is about setting new standards for what counts as judging well.

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Habeas for the Twenty-First Century

April 20th, 2012 No comments

Nancy J King, Joseph L Hoffmann. Habeas for the Twenty-First Century: Uses, Abuses, and the Future of the Great Writ. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2011. KF9011 .K56 2011

From the publisher: For centuries, the writ of habeas corpus has served as an important safeguard against miscarriages of justice, and today it remains at the center of some of the most contentious issues of our time—among them terrorism, immigration, crime, and the death penalty. Yet, in recent decades, habeas has been seriously abused. In this book, Nancy J. King and Joseph L. Hoffmann argue that habeas should be exercised with greater prudence.

Through historical, empirical, and legal analysis, as well as illustrative case studies, the authors examine the current use of the writ in the United States and offer sound reform proposals to help ensure its ongoing vitality in today’s justice system. Comprehensive and thoroughly grounded in a modern understanding of habeas corpus, this informative book will be an insightful read for legal scholars and anyone interested in the importance of habeas corpus for American government.

 

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MBE

April 19th, 2012 No comments

Keith Elkin. MBE: Beginning Your Campaign to Pass the Bar Exam. New York, NY, Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, 2011. KF303 .E428 2011.

From the publisher: MBE: Beginning Your Campaign To Pass The Bar Exam explains how to think about organizing, learning and applying the vast amount of material bar exam candidates must know in order to pass the bar exam.

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National Library Week contest

April 3rd, 2012 No comments

National Library Week is held every April, it is the perfect time to celebrate and explore your library. This year it will be held 4/8 – 4/14, and we encourage you to visit the Law Library during this time. Investigate all that it has to offer the busy, overworked and overwhelmed law student. We hope you will help us celebrate National Library Week, not only by visiting the law library but by participating in the contests we have planned. The contests will run concurrently, please see below for details.

The first contest: “Like us” on Facebook and you could win a prize!  

Follow the above link and “like us” that’s all there is to it.  By liking the Widener Law –Delaware Library Facebook page you will be entered into a drawing to win a $10 gift card to the Widener Law Bookstore (Delaware Campus).  The contest will run from Monday 4/9 to Friday 4/13 (until 12 noon) and is open to Widener students on the Delaware Campus.  We will draw the name at 2 pm on Friday, 4/13 and announce the winner on the Facebook page.  The winner must come into the library to pick up their prize.  Don’t worry if you’re a Delaware Widener student and you’ve already “liked us” those names will be included in the drawing!

The second contest: Facebook Scavenger Hunt (kind of)

Each day (Monday 4/9 – Thursday 4/12) we will announce a clue on our Facebook page. All you have to do is come into the library and check the location given in the clue (it’s going to be easy!). The first five people (you will only be able to win one time) to find the “golden ticket” (replaced at random during reference hours 9am to 9pm) each day win! If you’re the lucky winner – bring the “golden ticket” to the reference librarian to claim your prize. Be on the lookout starting Monday, April 9th for a clue to lead you to a “tasteful” treat. We will announce on Facebook and place a sign at the reference desk each day when the last “golden ticket” of that day has been redeemed.

This contest is open to the Delaware Widener Law Community, however you must be able to come into the library, collect the “ticket” and claim the prize in order to win (Legal Information Center Staff are ineligible to win).

New book by Widener’s Andrew Strauss

February 21st, 2012 No comments

2011globalparliament_170pxA new book by Widener’s Andrew Strauss is now available in the library.  Towards a Global Parliament: Essays and Articles, published by the Committee for a Democratic U.N. reprints articles by Prof. Strauss and Prof. Richard Falk.

Poisoned

February 10th, 2012 No comments

poisonedJeff Benedict. Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak that Changed the Way Americans Eat. Buena Vista, VA, Inspire Books, ©2011. QR201.E82 B46 2011.

From the publisher: In Poisoned, Jeff Benedict delivers a jarringly candid narrative of the fast-moving disaster drawing on access to key documents and exclusive interviews with the real-life characters at the center of the drama – the families whose children were infected, the Jack in the Box executives forced to answer for the tragedy, the physicians and scientists who identified E. coli as the culprit, and the legal teams on both sides of the historic lawsuits that ensued. This is the story of the permanent transformation of our food supply chain, and the young maverick lawyer, Bill Marler, who staked his career on bringing the victims justice without compromise. Fast Food Nation meets A Civil Action in this riveting account of how we learned the hard way to truly watch what we eat.

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Point Made

February 9th, 2012 No comments

pointRoss Guberman. Point Made: How to Write Like the Nation’s Top Advocates. Oxford, Oxford University Press, ©2011. KF251 .G83 2011.

From the publisher: With Point Made, legal writing expert Ross Guberman throws a life preserver to attorneys, who are under more pressure than ever to produce compelling prose. What is the strongest opening for a motion or brief? How to draft winning headings? How to tell a persuasive story when the record is dry and dense? The answers are “more science than art,” says Guberman, who has analyzed stellar arguments by distinguished attorneys to develop step-by-step instructions for achieving the results you want.

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Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution 1787-1788

February 6th, 2012 No comments

pennsylvaniaJohn Bach McMaster & Frederick D. Stone. Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution 1787-1788. Indianapolis, Liberty Fund, ©2011. KF4512.P4 P45 2011

From the publisher: In Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution, 1787-1788, John Bach McMaster, a professor of American history, and Frederick D. Stone, librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, assembled newspaper articles, editorials, and records about the debates in Pennsylvania’s ratifying convention. In addition to speeches and essays by both supporters and opponents of the Constitution, noninterpretive editorial comments are also presented to introduce the documents and place them in the appropriate historical context. Also included in the volume are biographical sketches of key figures in Pennsylvania during this significant period of the American Founding, including Benjamin Franklin, Gouverneur Morris, Benjamin Rush, and James Wilson.

Pennsylvania was one of the first states to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Twenty hours after the Continental Congress submitted the Constitution to the states, the Assembly of Pennsylvania called a convention to ratify or reject it. The Constitution immediately became the subject of passionate debate, which continued until Washington was sworn in, in 1789. Pennsylvania and the Federal Constitution collects the primary documents that formed this passionate debate.

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Copyfraud

February 3rd, 2012 No comments

copyfraudJason Mazzone. Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law. Stanford, California, Stanford Law Books, an imprint of Stanford University Press, ©2011. KF2994 .M399 2011

From the publisher: Intellectual property law in the United States does not work well and it needs to be reformed—but not for the reasons given by most critics. The issue is not that intellectual property rights are too easily obtained, too broad in scope, and too long in duration. Rather, the primary problem is overreaching by publishers, producers, artists, and others who abuse intellectual property law by claiming stronger rights than the law actually gives them. From copyfraud—like phony copyright notices attached to the U.S. Constitution—to lawsuits designed to prevent people from poking fun at Barbie, from controversies over digital sampling in hip-hop to Major League Baseball’s ubiquitous restriction on sharing any “accounts and descriptions of this game,” overreaching claims of intellectual property rights are everywhere.

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Lawtalk

February 2nd, 2012 No comments

lawtalkJames E Clapp, et al. Lawtalk: The Unknown Stories Behind Familiar Legal Expressions. New Haven, Yale University Press, ©2011. KF156 .L39 2011

From the publisher: Law-related words and phrases abound in our everyday language, often without our being aware of their origins or their particular legal significance: boilerplate, jailbait, pound of flesh, rainmaker, the third degree. This insightful and entertaining book reveals the unknown stories behind familiar legal expressions that come from sources as diverse as Shakespeare, vaudeville, and Dr. Seuss. Separate entries for each expression follow no prescribed formula but instead focus on the most interesting, enlightening, and surprising aspects of the words and their evolution. Popular myths and misunderstandings are explored and exploded, and the entries are augmented with historical images and humorous sidebars.

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CALI offers free online digital law practice course

January 25th, 2012 No comments

tdlp_logoCALI is offering a free online course on Topics in Digital Law Practice. Each week features guest speakers on topics like: the virtual law office, document automation, and social media for lawyers. The course runs for nine weeks starting in February. You can read more about the course and register on CALI’s webpage.

If you don’t have time to take the course now, CALI plans to post the lectures on the course webpage.

New Congressional Record iPad app

January 19th, 2012 No comments

The Library of Congress has just released an iPad app that brings each day’s Congressional Record to your iPad. Each issue is a PDF file that you can email and share with other people. The new app is available from the iTunes store.

Five Chiefs

January 17th, 2012 No comments

five chiefsJohn Paul Stevens. Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir. New York: Little, Brown, 2011. KF8745.S78 A3 2011

From the publisher: When he resigned last June, Justice Stevens was the third longest serving Justice in American history (1975-2010)–only Justice William O. Douglas, whom Stevens succeeded, and Stephen Field have served on the Court for a longer time.

In Five Chiefs, Justice Stevens captures the inner workings of the Supreme Court via his personal experiences with the five Chief Justices–Fred Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren Burger, William Rehnquist, and John Roberts–that he interacted with. He reminisces of being a law clerk during Vinson’s tenure; a practicing lawyer for Warren; a circuit judge and junior justice for Burger; a contemporary colleague of Rehnquist; and a colleague of current Chief Justice John Roberts. Along the way, he will discuss his views of some the most significant cases that have been decided by the Court from Vinson, who became Chief Justice in 1946 when Truman was President, to Roberts, who became Chief Justice in 2005.

Packed with interesting anecdotes and stories about the Court, Five Chiefs is an unprecedented and historically significant look at the highest court in the United States.

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Acting Skills for Lawyers

September 9th, 2011 No comments

acting skills for lawyersLaura Mathis. Acting Skills for Lawyers. Chicago, Ill. American Bar Association, 2011. KF8915 .M374 2011.

From the publisher:  Laura Mathis, a working actress with over seventeen years of experience in theatre, film, and television as an actor, director, and writer has developed techniques for applying the skills and training utilized by world-famous stage and screen performers to the legal profession. In this ground-breaking, yet practical book, Laura shares the secrets used by professional actors in their field that can make you become a more skilled and dynamic lawyer, partner, manager, and person.

For the lawyer, research and written communications are only half the battle. In this innovative book you’ll learn how to develop and use stage presence, use an actors voice and gestures, develop different characters for different audiences, deliver effective speeches, adopt the role of talk-show host for depositions, improvise in unprepared situations, incorporate the skills of great storytellers, be the acting coach for your witness, use monologue skills in your closing arguments, and even take the perfect professional photo!