Moritz Legal Information Blog

The Ohio Employer's Law Blog, written by attorney Jon Hyman  has made the ABA Journal Blawg 100 for the fifth consecutive year. If you're looking for a way to stay current on legal trends without adding to your reading load in an unbearable way, law blogs are the way to go. And the ABA's Blawg Hall of Fame is a great place to start to find the most well-written, on-point, erudite posts. Our recommendation from the 100: Supreme Court Haiku Reporter , which brings us this gem: The “first sale” doctrine Allows student to resell Books bought in Thailand

I love my Fitbit. With the click of a button I can see how well I slept (95% efficiently last night!) or if I've been particularly active (my meager 14,209 steps pales in comparison to the  60,000+ steps records of David Sedaris ). The beauty of the device is that I can upload my data and track it in the long term. When did I get that cold? Oh yeah---early May. I can tell by the sharp reduction in my steps for the week and my surge in hours slept. So Fitbit knows a ton of information about me and thousands of other users. I'm not sure how I'd feel about that data being shared. Fitbit's Privacy Policy, the terms of which you accept presumably just by using the device, say your data is shared only with you and not sold...unless that data has been "de-identified." In other words, Fitbit could aggregate all data related to women aged 30-35 living in Ohio and sell it or do who knows what with it. I suppose I'm okay with that, but I'm not quite convinced

Professor Ric Simmons has launched a new blog called Search and Seizure . Professor Simmons is an expert in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, and his numerous articles are regularly cited by colleagues in their scholarship. For the latest analysis on search and seizure law as it unfolds in the courts, check back to Professor Simmons's blog.

Law-types and non-law-types alike are gushing over the This American Life spin-off, Serial , a podcast that "reopens the investigation into the 1999 strangling death of a Baltimore high-school student and her former 17-year-old boyfriend now serving a life sentence for the crime." Each week, a new episode is posted in which a journalist unravels the story in an attempt to get to the truth: did the convicted boyfriend commit the murder or was he wrongfully jailed? The podcast gives a fascinating look into the criminal justice system, police interrogation techniques, the veracity of witnesses, and the beliefs and perceptions of jurors. For extra fun, Slate.com has a companion podcast, Slate's Spoiler Specials for Serial . And now you can learn the history behind Leakin Park , the Baltimore park where the Serial deceased was (and dozens of other Baltimore-region homicide victims have been) found.

Moritz Junior Faculty Scholarship Roundup, 2013-14 By Ryan Edmiston, Class of 2015 Over the last few years, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law has continued to build its distinguished faculty by attracting some of the nation’s most promising entry-level law professors.  These half-dozen pre-tenure professors have advanced Moritz’s long-standing tradition of excellence with their passion in the classroom, service to the community, and numerous contributions to the academic literature.  Over the past year, each of these professors has placed or published one or more articles in a top-20 journal.  Here is a snapshot of some of their published and forthcoming work: Amna Akbar :  Professor Akbar’s interdisciplinary research focuses on the intersection of national security and criminal law.  In addition, she co-directs the Moritz Civil Law Clinic and serves on the Board of Editors of the Clinical Law Review .  Professor Akbar’s article, National Security’s Broken Win

Bob Odenkirk was recently on the Nerdist podcast to promote his new book and talk about Better Call Saul , a spin-off of Breaking Bad . Bob shared loads of career and life advice, probably unconsciously, but it seems worth repeating here. If you are good at something, surround yourself with people doing something different. You'll shine more. Bob started doing improv with Chris Farley and David Cross at Second City. On stage with these comedy giants one day, he realized he was funny but would play funnier in drama. And as dark as Breaking Bad was (and it sounds like Better Call Saul is), Bob is the levity. You don't have to be the best law student or lawyer. And "best" is relative, right? It depends on the others around you. If you're not the top of the class here, it doesn't mean you won't be an exceptional lawyer. And if you find yourself as a middle-quality attorney in a firm of 500 attorneys, consider a switch. Think about what you're truly g

Take time to vote today. The issues may not be the most scintillating to you, but boy should you care about and/or focus on the oodles of judicial candidates if you are a law student interested in a clerkship or working for the prosecutor or a defense firm. Now is the time to learn as much as possible about the candidates so you are prepared in an interview. If you need help researching potential employers, feel free to inquire about the books and databases in the law library. And if you'd like to see democracy in action, stop by the Stained Glass Lounge at the Ohio Union, where several Moritz professors will field questions and evaluate results. The Watch Night Party begins at 7 p.m.