Legal Docs LibraryKnow Your Rights

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How do you keep up with constantly evolving trends in the paralegal field and stay ahead of the pack? The Paralegal Voice, co-host Lynne DeVenny joins very special guest Jeannie S. Johnston, Founder and CEO of ParalegalGateway.com, to discuss the latest trends in the industry, how to use social media, their favorite publications and blogs, why they use RSS feed readers, and how to make the most of paralegal association membership. Listen in as Jeannie starts off the show by taking a look at Paralegal Gateway and what it offers.

Tip of the OOTJ hat to Billie Jo Kauffman who sent along a link to an article from USA Today reporting on a study for American Library Association (ALA). The ERIAL (Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries) project was a series of studies conducted at Illinois Wesleyan, DePaul University, and Northeastern Illinois University, and the University of Illinois’s Chicago and Springfield campuses. Anthropologists looked at both the students and the librarians at these campuses, focusing, as far as I can tell, on undergraduates. The studies will be published this fall by the ALA under the title, “Libraries and Student Culture: What We Now Know,” and apparently, what we now know is pretty darned sobering. (see presentations, powerpoints, papers, and posters from many conferences including ALA 2010 link here) The research shows that although “digital natives” may have grown up online, they are not widely digitally literate.

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Podcasts have become increasingly available and cover topics of all flavors. On The Un-Billable Hour, host Attorney Rodney Dowell, Director of the Massachusetts Law Office Management Assistance Program and interim executive director at Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, welcomes St. Louis based legal technology writer and information technology lawyer and co-host of the Kennedy-Mighell Report, Dennis Kennedy, to talk about how attorneys can benefit from listening to podcasts, how to find the best podcast that suits you and how attorneys can improve their podcast listening experience. And dont forget, you can listen to many Legal Talk Network podcasts here and get CLE credit!

Archivists are doing wonderful things these days. For instance, they have made available to the whole world, for FREE Read the rest of this entry »

After serving eighteen years behind bars, three men, better known as the “West Memphis Three”, were released from prison, after maintaining their innocence for years. Back In 1993, teenagers, Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., were jailed after three eight year old boys were found brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. Attorney and co-host J. Craig Williams joins Laura H. Nirider, Staff Attorney and Adjunct Professor at the Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth (CWCY), Attorney Ken Swindle, organizer of Attorneys of Conscience and Lonnie Soury, a media expert with experience in high profile criminal and civil litigation and wrongful convictions, to discuss this highly controversial case, reaction from the community, the Alford plea and what the future holds for these men and the victims families.

Ken Strutin addresses how the scope of digital estates is growing by leaps and bounds. Parents are registering domain names for their unborn children and social media sites are creating cyber cemeteries where friends and family can visit the last online impression of the dearly departed. The majority of transactions in modern society are created and deposited in digital environments operated by third parties on remote sites. Yet, the rights of users and their inheritors to that content are not clearly spelled out in statutes or court decisions. Ken’s guide gathers current research about digital content ownership and disposition rights at the points where the life cycle has been interrupted or concluded.

Our Intellectual Property Podcast Series continues this week with Mark A. Fischer of Duane Morris LLP discussing Kim Kardashian’s lawsuit against The Gap for violating her right of publicity. Learn more about our IP Program at http://bit.ly/lYk87M.

The mandatory insurer reporting program instituted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has received quite a bit of attention among practitioners in the liability and workers compensation cases. On The Landy Law Letter, host John L. Torvi, from the Herbert H. Landy Insurance Agency of Needham, Massachusetts welcomes Attorney Michael E. Civittolo from Lawrence & Associates, to take a look at Medicare Secondary Compliance and how to avoid pitfalls in your legal cases. They discuss some of the issues to be concerned about with MSP compliance and the importance of to complying with MSP laws.

The Uni Project is a “portable reading room” designed for urban spaces by a design firm in Boston for musician, philanthropist and former NY Legal Aid Society attorney Sam Davol. The first Uni Project is scheduled for New York this fall. Davol’s idea is to improve on the venerable bookmobile by adding features like furniture that encourages community members to hangout and enjoy the books and each other. The module is made of boxes that hold books enclosed by pieces that come apart to re-configure into tables, benches,and chairs. Thus, you have all the portability and protection for the books that you have with a bookmobile, plus you have added a community-building aspect, if Davol’s idea is correct. It is aimed to improve literacy, but can also be used for open air meetings, arts and crafts, classes, and more. Boston Street Lab is the 502(c)(3) organization which the Davols have created to fund and staff the Uni Project, though it also ran a storefront library in Chinatown in Boston, for less than a year, and several other initiatives.

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