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Chief Judge Alex Kozinski of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently spoke at Golden Gate University School of Law’s third annual Intellectual Property Distinguished Speaker Program, where he created a buzz when he shared his insight on technology today and how it has greatly impacted the First Amendment. Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams welcome the Honorable Alex Kozinski to the program and talk about technology, bloggers, the First Amendment, his role as a Judge and a lot more.

Numerous studies indicate that there are more women and minorities entering law school and going on to practice law. On The Landy Law Letter, host John L. Torvi, from the Herbert H. Landy Insurance Agency of Needham, Massachusetts welcomes Attorney Catherine M. Stanton from the law firm, Pasternack Tilker Ziegler Walsh Stanton & Romano, LLP, to take a look at the current dynamics of women and minorities in the law. Cathy talks about the current conditions for women and minorities entering into a law practice, the obstacles for minorities or women in advancing to the higher echelons of the profession and what law schools and the legal profession are doing to create greater opportunities for minorities and women lawyers.

Want to learn more about psychodrama? On the Legal ToolKit, host Jared Correia, Law Practice Management Advisor with Mass. LOMAP, welcomes two of “The 3 Sisters,” trial lawyers and psychodramatists, Joane Garcia-Colson and Mary Peckham, to discuss the art of psychodrama and its application to the practice of law. Joane and Mary talk about the importance of telling a story in trial practice and how to use psychodrama to better connect with your clients.

Whats hot in e-discovery right now? On Digital Detectives, co-hosts Sharon D. Nelson, Esq., President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc. and John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises welcome California attorney and e-discovery expert, Josh Gilliland, author of the Bow Tie Blog, to discuss the five hottest topics in e-discovery today. Josh takes a look at issues with the form of production, litigation holds after the Pension Committee case, how small firms are surviving their entry into e-discovery, preservation of ESI and how to prove that an e-discovery request will cause an “undue burden.”

Struggling to control the mounting costs of document review? On this April edition of The ESI Report, host Kelly Kubacki, Staff Attorney in the Legal Technologies division at Kroll Ontrack welcomes Gary Feldon and Maureen Japha, Associates with Covington & Burling LLP and Beth Koehler, Legal Consultant with Kroll Ontrack, to discuss how automated review technology can significantly improve the speed, consistency and defensibility of the entire review process while cutting costs. In the Bits & Bytes Legal Analysis segment, Laura Tushaus, Kroll Ontrack Legal Correspondent, discusses the recent case of Green v. Blitz U.S.A., Inc.

Professor Jeff Sovern declares in his article, “Law Student Laptop Use During Class for Non-Class Purposes: Temptation v. Incentives,” that when students witness their classmates using laptops for amusement during class, “it may be comparable to placing beer in front of alcoholics as they watch other alcoholics imbibing.” To counter the temptations that laptops present in the classroom situation, he favors banning laptops. Note that the article is still a draft, and some sections still need to be fleshed out. Professor Sovern’s article grew out of sixty class visits at St. John’s University School of Law made by observers in fall 2010. The purpose of the visits was to observe the behavior of laptop users during class. Over half (58%) of upper-class students used their laptops for other than class-related purposes, but for less than half of the class period. In contrast, only 4% of first-semester Civil Procedure students used their laptops for non-class-related purposes for more than half of the class. How does Professor Sovern account for the stark contrast between the laptop use of 1Ls and upper-level law students? “First-year grades have far more significance for most students than upper-year grades.” That is probably the biggest incentive for 1Ls to stay focused on classroom discussion. Other factors that he points to include increased temptation to use laptops as time goes on and boredom as law school ceases to be “exciting.” Not exactly the word I would have used to describe my first year in law school! Based on the results of his study, Professor Sovern advocates banning laptops in upper-level classes, but not in first-year classes.

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The archives collection of the New York Public Library is a treasure trove containing the papers of President Thomas Jefferson and authors such as Herman Melville and Truman Capote. It has a reputation for adhering to the highest standards of archival practice. Now, however, a ugly dispute between the library and author Paul Brodeur, who used to write for The New Yorker, has become public knowledge thanks, in part, to this article in today’s New York Times. Brodeur, “known for his zealous pursuit of asbestos manufacturers and corporate polluters as a journalist,” donated approximately 320 boxes of his papers to NYPL in 1992. He was led to believe that the library finished processing the collection in 1997, but later learned that the processing was not in fact finished until 2010. In addition, Brodeur was
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Nicholas Pengelley and Sue Milne present a completely updated guide to researching law in Australia. The Commonwealth of Australia is a common law jurisdiction; a federation within the British Commonwealth, with Queen Elizabeth II as its head of state. The Queen is represented in Australia by a Governor-General at the national level, and in each of the six states by a Governor. The Australian Constitution, embodying the doctrine of separation of powers, prescribes the authority of the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government. It was enacted British Act of Parliament in 1901 and the then separate colonies were united as states of one country. As well as the six states there are three self-governing territories (one of them, the Australian Capital Territory, is the site of the federal seat of government, Canberra) and a number of external territories - islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the Australian Antarctic Territory.

Volunteering can be an uplifting experience for all involved. On this edition of The Paralegal Voice, co-hosts Lynne DeVenny and Vicki Voisin spotlight two paralegals who are ‘giving back’ to the community and volunteering their time to help others in need. Vicki and Lynne welcome Cindy J. Geib, ACP, PaCP, a Certified Coordinator for Wills for Heroes and Lee A. Paige, CLA, Senior Paralegal at Parker, Milliken, Clark, OHara & Samuelian, who volunteers at the Los Angeles Food Bank, to discuss their individual experiences, time management and the impact volunteering has had on their lives.

We learned yesterday that two of Pace Law School’s environmental law blogs, PEN-e, maintained by Jack McNeill, the Associate Law Library Director and current chair of the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the American Association of Law Libraries, and GreenLaw, which is maintained by our environmental law faculty, have been recognized as among The Top 50 Blogs for LexisNexis’s Environmental Law & Climate Change Community. According to the press release,
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