Moritz Legal Information Blog

Law blogs (blawgs) are a great way to get real-world insights into a practice area and stay current. If you're still trying to figure out an area in which you'd like to practice, read through Above the Law's collection of The 12 Awesome Law Blogs of 2014 . The cover energy law, privacy law, advertising, and---believe it or not---cruise ship law. See, there are a number of ways to succeed as an attorney. Find the valuable thing everyone prizes and be the absolute best at it or find your own specialty niche and be the best at it. And being "the best" is relative, so why not give yourself a better shot at excelling by being only one of a handful of supremely knowledgeable attorneys in a field? What's more, you'll have more success as an attorney if you're doing something you truly love . Love horses? Become an equine law expert. Love football ? Become an agent . Love the beach or skiing? Find your niche in tourism law . Your career options are only as

Paseo is an extraordinary restaurant in Seattle; they have the best Cuban sandwiches, two locations, and a line around the block at all times. Honestly, I've waited in line for 30 minutes just to place an order and wait another 30 for my food. It's that good. Tragedy struck when the place shut down overnight. Rumors swirled about bankruptcy, employee mistreatment, and the mysterious owner, Lorenzo Lorenzo. Yes---his first and last names are identical. No---he is not a bond villain. The place was cash-only and would shut down over the winter. The sudden permanent closure left Seattlites bereft. They actually lit candles at the restaurant in mourning. But a holiday miracle has occurred! Lawyers are saving the day. Well, kind of. As part of the bankruptcy proceedings, the restaurant (including its recipes) were put up for auction, and one man purchased the business. Paseo returns . Hurray for bankruptcy judges. Here's the more interesting twist: "Lorenzo filed an o

Got what it takes to work for Big Law? The answer may surprise you as it's not grades alone that ensure "success." Am Law 250 and NLJ 350  firms are becoming more cautious in hiring in part because their smaller budgets require their new hires stay. They want to hire for the long-term, not for a few years, so "fit" and firm culture are more significant than ever. Assessing Lawyer Traits & Finding a Fit for Success , a white paper from JD Match and The Right Profile, found High law firm turnover (caused in large part by hiring decisions based upon little more than the law school attended, grades in school, a short unstructured interview process and, in the case of lateral attorneys, an uncorroborated book of business) coupled with high recruiting and replacement costs create a staggering annual cost of more than $25 million for a 400 attorney firm. So being "the smartest" in law school might not be enough. Law firms are now asking themselve

On this day in 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights .  Secretary-General Ban-Ki moon proclaims : "Let us respond to the cries of the exploited, and uphold the right to human dignity for all." Human rights have been central to much response to yesterday's release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's detention and interrogation program.  Many have renewed calls for prosecution, including UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism Ben Emmerson .  Assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights, and labor, Tom Malinowski,  avers  “the test for any nation committed to this Convention and to the rule of law is not whether it ever makes mistakes, but whether and how it corrects them.”  If you'd like to think more deeply about this issue, consult recent titles like U.S. Human Rights Conduct and International Legitimacy and Criminal Law and Human Rights  or search for human rig

Fall exam season begins here at Moritz tomorrow.  Last week, we shared tips on studying like a pro . Already feel like you need a study break?  Here are a few ideas to combat stress during the next week. Pause for Paws :  the University Libraries will be hosting animal visits December 10-14. Art Appreciation :  Visit the exclusive Transfigurations exhibit at the Wexner Center now through December 31 -- free for students. Move Your Muscles :  This Wednesday, reading day for the main campus, enjoy activities like sunrise yoga and pilates (or a free movie, if you'd rather conserve energy). Best of luck!

An easy and fun way for you to improve your writing skills is to read good writing.  Below you'll find a list of  recommendations from Moritz professors and links to items included on the Green Bag annual lists of exemplary legal writing .  Stop by the display near the reference desk to select a book to check out or pick up a treat.  Many of the books are also available from libraries around the state.  Use the OhioLink catalog to search for items.  With your Ohio State credentials, you can borrow books from any OhioLink member library and have them delivered to any OhioLink library in the state (including, of course, the law library).  Books Carol Berkin, A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution (2002). Professor Anne Ralph calls this book "[a]n enjoyable, well-written account of the 1787 Constitutional Convention that gave birth to the U.S. Constitution and our American form of government."  James B. Stewart, Den of Thieves (recommended

A professor at Penn State University posed the question “How Many Scholarly Papers are Available on the Web?” and the related question “How many are freely available?” By "the Web," the Penn author means the "public Web" as assessed via Google Scholar and Microsoft Academic Search . By scholarly documents, they refer to journal and conference papers, dissertations and master’s degree theses, books, technical reports and working papers. Google Scholar is a freely accessible Web search engine that indexes the full text of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Microsoft Academic Search is a free public search engine for academic papers and literature, developed by Microsoft Research for the purpose of algorithms research in object-level vertical search, data mining , entity linking  and data visualization . So what's the answer? at least 114 million English-language scholarly documents are accessible on the Web,