Moritz Legal Information Blog

Thanks to the many Moritz students who completed the Moritz Law Library and Technology survey. The Library and IT Department are reviewing responses as part of the planning process already underway. Your input is much-appreciated. Congratulations to 2L Allison Haugen who won the Barnes & Noble gift card! Look for a comment box coming soon to the circulation desk for passing on any additional input.

In the recent article Marijuana Is Changing the Workplace. Here’s How Employers Should Deal With It.,  Slate .com's headline is curious---how should employers respond to employees' use of legal medical marijuana?---as though there are a myriad of options. The source of the article, Inc.com, takes more of a proactive approach with its headline: Why You Need a Workplace Marijuana Policy . In any case, not knowing or understanding the law doesn't mean an employer can choose whether to follow it. Thank heavens for lawyers who get paid to explain to client the state of the law and recommend sound policies and courses of action. The article begins with "be familiar with the laws that have been passed in their states...." You could try to find your state's laws on the subject; that might be sufficient to create a policy for any of your clients that employ people. Why not do that and track trends for your clients? Consider figuring out how every state handles t

It might be tempting after you've finished your seminar paper or journal note to just file it away and move on to the next thing.  Why not enter it into a writing competition?  Moritz students have been successful in recent competitions, even winning a trip to the Grammys . There is no single list of all law student writing competitions.  So check out several of the links below to find the right competition for your paper. The American Bar Association has compiled all of its student writing competitions into a handy guide. Richmond School of Law's Legal Essay Contest Catalog is a robust collection of contests. Try out the filter feature to see just the competitions on a particular subject. George Washington Law School maintains an excel file with over 200 competitions over the world.

"Every airport has a unique three-letter IATA ( International Air Travel Association ) code. Some make sense if you know the city or the name of the airport and others, well, what the heck?" Check out the beautiful, engaging website, Airport Codes , that shows you why each airport has the code it has; each explainer is accompanied by an often striking photo of the airport. A $5 Panera gift card to the first person who emails me why on earth Columbus, Ohio, has the airport code CMH. And for more on aviation law, check out one of the dozens of books we have on the subject or this Aviation Law Research Guide .

Slate.com offers a Better Call Saul podcast that recaps and explores each week's episode. This week , a professional ethics attorney, Nicole Hyland , joins the podcast to discuss the ethics of the lead character's actions. Ms. Hyland joins the podcast around minute 14:40. One of the questions Ms. Hyland addresses include whether it's an ethical violation to rummage through someone's garbage can in the alley to find out more about them. Says Saul Goodman, "You can't say it's private if a hobo can use it as a wigwam." Here are another couple questions the attorney addresses: Can you spill coffee on a police officer to distract him or her from noticing your client is stealing? What's the scope of permissible advertising by attorneys? How do you advertise ethically on Twitter? Can you impersonate another attorney? (The answer may surprise you.) Ms. Hyland assesses violations according to New York law, so if you'd like to compare her analysis

The Lawyerist has a great list of 10 Lessons You Weren't Taught in Law School . Reading through the list, it's clear they lessons would be useful for practicing attorneys---or perhaps any new business person---but it's also clear there are some things a person has to teach themselves when the timing is right. Here's the list of ten with some resources you might find useful to cultivate these skills: 1. How to Handle Conflict The Professional Woman's Guide to Conflict Management Conflict Management: A Communication Skills Approach You Raised Us - Now Work With Us: Millennials, Career Success, and Building Strong Workplace Teams 2. How to Forgive (yourself included) Forgiveness is a Choice: A Step-by-step Process for Resolving Anger and Restoring Hope Resolving Personal and Organizational Conflict: Stories of Transformation and Forgiveness 3. How to Have Difficult and Uncomfortable Conversations Lawyers as Counselors: A Client-centered Approach

We don't know Google's exact algorithm , but boy they do everything they can to take thinking out of the equation for you. Like that's doing you a favor. " Our work on interpreting user intent is aimed at returning results people really want , not just what they said in their query. " The problem is, "the user" is a really nebulous identity. It's so generalized, you, the actual user, must learn how to override Google's algorithm a bit to get valuable search results . . . especially if you are using Google for legal research. After all, to be a "competent" attorney per the comments to  Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 , "a lawyer should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including the benefits and risks associated with relevant technology . . . ." What's a lawyer to do? Read all you can about how Google works . That's all. And it's fun . Reading up on Google searching gives you the skills