Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Our Faculty Have Been Busy

Great news for Leslie Rose. The peer-reviewed Journal of the Legal Writing Institute has offered to publish her article, "Legal Writing and the Curve: Moving from Norm-Referenced Grading to Criteria-referenced Grading." It will be in the same issue on the Carnegie Report (summer 2011) as Mark Yates' article. Good showing by GGU! Congrats Leslie. And we won't be the only ones congratulating her (and Mark) since the journal is sent to all 2000+ members of the Legal Writing Institute!

Laura Cisneros has had her article, "The Constitutional Interpretation/Construction Distinction: A Useful Fiction," selected for publication this fall in the University of Minnesota’s Constitutional Commentary. The piece discusses the interpretation-construction distinction in constitutional theory as a fiction that surmounts the interpretive entrenchment of originalism vs. non-originalism and advances more substantive discussions about constitutional adjudication. Um... wow. In September, she spoke at the 2010 National People of Color Conference about paths to academia for under-represented groups. And most recently, she served on the Junior Faculty Development Workshop Committee for the 15th Annual LatCrit Conference, which took place at the University of Denver in early October. At LatCrit she spoke on two panels, one directed at diversifying the legal academy and the other directed at status issues affecting critical, progressive, and social justice oriented scholars and law teachers along multiple axes. In recognition of her great work, she was invited (and accepted) to co-chair the FDW Committee for LatCrit XVI in 2011, which will be held in San Diego. Great!

Marc Greenberg was a panelist at the San Francisco IP Law Association's noon program on October 28 entitled "The Future of Copyright (or lack thereof)", presented at DLA Piper's San Francisco office. SFIPLA must really like Marc because they also invited him (for a third time) to present "The Year in Copyright Law" at their Spring Seminar, being held in May at the Healdsburg Hotel. And even closer to home, Marc moderated a noon panel of four GGU alumni, all civil practice attorneys, speaking on "Inside Small Firm Practice" for GGU law students and alums. Great work, Marc.

And further congratulations to Marc Greenberg, Bill Gallagher, and Chester Chuang for their work on the IP Law Center's 9th Annual Conference on Recent Developments in IP Law and Policy. This is a great annual event that we are so pleased to have here at GGU.

A piece written by our own Leeor Neta, originally written for the LCS blog about his participation at the PSLawNet and Equal Justice Works conferences, was picked up and posted on the PSLawNet blog (and the U of Mississippi Law Blog too)! Wanna read it? http://pslawnet.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/ pursuing-a-public-interest-career-key-insights-from-nalppslawnet-public-service-mini-conference-and-ejw-conference-and-career-fair/

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Even More Faculty Scholarship News!

Mark Yates accepted an offer to publish his article, "The Carnegie Effect" in the peer-reviewed Journal of Legal Writing, which will come out during the summer of 2011. The article appears in a volume (vol. 17) specifically focusing on The Carnegie Report, its critics and its effect on legal education. Perfect placement for your article; congratulations Mark!

Benedetta Faedi Duramy published a chapter, "Domestic Violence as Human Rights Violation - The Challenges of a Regional Human Rights Approach in Africa," in the book Domestic Violence and the Law in Colonial and Postcolonial Africa (Ohio University Press). (She has a copy in her office for those interested in reading it.) Also, on October 18, Benedetta presented her empirical findings from her study conducted in Haiti between 2006 and 2008 aimed at investigating why rape victims seldom seek justice recourse at a lunchtime presentation titled " Domestic Violence Awareness in Haiti" for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. And even more news: Benedetta recently returned from the symposium "Untold Stories: Hidden Histories of War Crimes Trials" held at Melbourne Law School in Australia, where she presented her paper "Making Peace with the Past: Federal Republic of Germany’s Accountability for World War II Massacres before the Italian Supreme Court." Here is the link of the symposium: http://www.law.unimelb.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=4B1D1CB1-B0D0-AB80-28E8C05438EC230&DiaryID=4847.

Karen Gebbia was off to the annual joint meeting of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and the ABA Business Law Section's Business Bankruptcy Committee earlier this month and the Chair of the Committee has appointed her Special Project Liaison to the Section, where she will be spearheading a Section marketing initiative aimed at bankruptcy specialists and she was also appointed Vice-Chair of the E-Commerce and Technology Bankruptcies Subcommittee. This is great visibility with the practicing bar and great for the school. Good work, Karen!

In other practice-related scholarly news, the 10,000 members of the Business Law Section of the California State Bar will benefit from Jan Kosel's recent article entitled The Curious History of Full Payment Checks in California, which was published in Issue 3, 2010 of The Business Law News.

Finally, much has been said abut this year's amazing Ron George event (and written:
http://legalpad.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/10/female-chiefs-have-words-of-advice-your-honor.html), but I want to particularly thank Dean Dru Ramey for pulling together an amazing community event that she alone could have orchestrated. You are a wonder, Dru! In other Dru news, she has been appointed by the ABA President to the ABA Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession. Perfect pick!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Faculty Scholarship Updates

Karen Gebbia and Roger Bernhardt spoke at the Real Property Alumni CLE event on the topic of Purchase Money Security Interests in Real Property and Personal Property, including definition, creation, perfection, and priority battles and the problem of fixtures. Karen covered the personal property, Roger covered real property mortgages, and they both discussed fixtures. Also, Karen wrote a case comment/editor's take on the recent 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the consolidated cases of Gebhart v. Gaughan (In re Gebhart) and Chappell v. Klein (In re Chappell), both dealing with the rights of creditors / the trustee in bankruptcy to administer and sell property (the debtors' homes) after the debtor has been discharged from his debts but when the value of the home has increased in value.

The Natural Resources Journal (published by the University of New Mexico School of Law) will be publishing Paul Kibel's article titled "The Public Trust Navigates California's Bay Delta" in early 2011. Also, Paul has been invited to deliver a paper at the February 2011 Conference at Willamette University College of Law (in Oregon) on The Human Right to Water in the West. His presentation, which draws on his forthcoming article in the Natural Resources Journal, is titled "Public Trust Rights to Instream Flow: Statutory Innovation in California's 2009 Delta Reform Act."

Rod Fong was recently appointed by the President of the American Bar Association to the Center for Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The Center serves as the administrative and programmatic oversight body for the three major ABA entities that focus on racial and ethnic diversity issues. Rod also wrote an article on "Getting a Jump on the Bar Exam" that was published in the CLEO Edge Magazine, Winter/Spring 2011.

Peter Keane served as facilitator moderating an all day retreat session by the San Francisco Police Commission and Chief of Police George Gascon at the Conference Center at Four Embarcadero. And on October 15 Peter participated in a debate that the Constitutional Law Society put together between him and Second Appellate District Court of Appeals Justice J. Anthony Kline on the local judicial race between Michael Nava and Richard Ulmer.

Bob Calhoun, Laura Cisneros, Eric Christiansen, Bill Gallagher and Karen Gebbia spoke at the "First Tuesday in October" Event which previewed the October 2010 term of the U.S. Supreme Court. Each chose one or two interesting and/or important cases to present to a group of about 40 students, faculty and staff.

Friday, October 22, 2010

Hein Online's Intellectual Property Law Collection

We are very excited about the new library on Hein Online - the Intellectual Property Law Collection. This library contains primary materials, periodicals, treatises, agency decisions, and legislative histories. This collection is brand new and more material will be added in the months to come.

To access, go to: http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary/virtual/online_resources, scroll down and click on Hein Online. You will get the login screen; enter your last name and GGU Law ID#. Then, at the Hein Online main screen, scroll down and click on "Intellectual Property Law Collection." Once in that library, you can search by book titles, periodicals, legislative histories, federal agency decisions, scholarly articles, CFR T. 37, 17 & 35 USC, and all editions of the MPEP.

Please contact a reference librarian if you have any questions. Thank you!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Student Writers Needed

The Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journals will publish our annual New Lawyer issue next month with essays from third-year law school students and recent law school graduates. We are looking for students interested in writing about their law school experience or their experience in the legal job market. These essays should run between 800 and 1,000 words, and will feature a photo of the student. This is an excellent way for students to start to get involved in the California legal community. The New Lawyer goes to all of our subscribers, including the general counsel of most public companies in California, and to California law school students.

Students wishing to write, should send me a one-paragraph synopsis by Friday, Oct. 29. If you are selected, the essay will be due Friday, Nov. 12. You should be available for a photo session during the first week of November and available by phone and/or email for edits to your essay between Nov. 12 and Nov. 17. The New Lawyer is published on Nov. 23, with the list of names of those who passed the July bar exam.

David Houston
Editor
Los Angeles and San Francisco Daily Journal
david_houston@dailyjournal.com

Friday, August 20, 2010

Digital Commons

The Law Library is pleased to announce the availability of our new institutional repository: "Digital Commons: The Legal Scholarship Repository @ Golden Gate University School of Law". Our new Digital Commons is hosted by BePress, the premier vendor for this type of academic project.

The purpose of the Digital Commons is to archive and make publicly available the intellectual work produced by GGU School of Law faculty, students, clinics and programs. It is not a substitute for a web page and although the interface makes it look like a web site, think of it more as a database - one that is searchable via Google.

So far we have loaded faculty publications for which we have received the publisher's permission, papers produced by the clinics and conferences, and some of the LLM and SJD student theses. We have loaded all issues of the GGU Environmental Law Journal and are in the process of loading the 40 volumes of the GGU Law Review. If you are aware of other publications, speeches or documents that you believe are appropriate for this archive, please let me know.

Going forward, we will populate all the areas of our Digital Commons as we are able to digitize the materials, as well as add new faculty publications as they become available. Please don't hesitate to ask a law librarian if you have any questions about this project. We are very excited about this project, and believe it will enhance the visibility and reputation of the GGU School of Law.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Faculty Scholarship Updates

Updates from a post by Prof. Eric Christiansen:

First of all, I want to congratulate the many faculty members who made (and are still making) significant progress on publishable scholarship this summer. Your work directly benefits the school and our students and some of you have even told me you are enjoying it! So thanks and congratulations to Mark Yates, Leslie Rose, Wes Porter, Chester Chuang and everyone else who spent the summer arguing with sources, questioning the sanity of the citation system and advancing our thinking about the law. I mention the names above only because those are folks I have talked to directly. But thanks and "great work" to all of you.

Reaching back a few months, congratulations to Susan Rutberg who was convinced to share her skill and knowledge in two presentations: "Best Practices in Supervising Law Students" on May 26th at the SF District Attorney's office, and "Cultural Competency and Low Income Clients" on May 27th for the BASF's Homeless Advocacy Project's Legal Intern Training.

Also several weeks ago (and as a follow up to their Spring presentation to GGU real property alums) articles were published by Jon Sylvester and Roger Bernhardt on the supreme court's recent decision on illusory contracts in CEB's Real Property Law Reporter.

Since many of us were teaching or writing (or both) this summer, I want to make sure to highlight that the inaugural publication of The IP Law Book Review, a new electronic publication from the GGU IP Law Center, was made available online this summer. The IP Law Book Review aims to become a premiere journal of reviews of current books focusing on IP law and policy--primarily scholarly and academic press books, but also high-quality, practice-oriented books. Reviews are authored by leading law professors and lawyers around the country. This is a tremendous resource for IP lawyers, practitioners and students -- and a huge boon to the reputation of the GGU IP Law Center and the Law School! Thanks so much to Bill Gallagher and Chester Chuang (the editors) and to everyone else who made it a reality. Very impressive!

In related news, the IP Law Center's website at http://gguiplc.com/home is fantastic and I encourage everyone to take a look at it. Among the highlights, links to the very professional and insightful substantive law blog by our own Marc Greenberg (see it also at http://ipbuzz.blogspot.com/ ). The IP Law Center is strong evidence of the strength of the IP program here at GGU and we should all be proud of it. In other news, Marc also presented "Recapturing Copyright for Gold and Silver Age Comic Book Creators" at last month's Comics Arts Conference, a part of the humongous San Diego ComicCon event. (Fun gig, Marc!)

Later this week the Water Law Symposium (for which Paul Kibel has been a faculty advisor since its inception in 2004) will receive the "Student Program of the Year" award from the American Bar Association's Section on Environment, Energy and Resources. Just one of the many ways GGU will get to "shine" (That's for you, Dan!) at the ABA conference this week.

And Dru Ramey will be featured or present at innumerable events at this week's ABA conference. I'd particularly like to highlight 1) her participation in the Perceptions of Justice Program (here at GGU at 2:00pm this Thursday), 2) her delivery of the keynote speech at the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations day long event, Transforming Law, Transforming Lives, and 3) her participation on the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession Program: From Generation to Generation: Remarkable Women Leaders. (Something that describes her perfectly!) Please remember there will also be a GGU reception at 5pm Friday at the Marriott (Sierra Suite, Fifth Floor) on Fourth Street.

Last week, Rachel Van Cleave was a star on the Chicago Public Radio discussion of laws related to sexual violence prosecution. It is a fascinating discussion and a wonderful performance by Rachel: http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Program_WV.aspx?episode=43453 Thanks, Rachel--very professional and insightful.

Susan Rutberg published a very erudite opinion piece regarding the upcoming judicial election in last Friday's Daily Journal and it also appeared in Monday's Recorder. An excellent counterpoint to the argument that sitting judges should not be challenged electorally.

Finally, good news from Leslie Rose, who received the printed copies of her excellent Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy article, "The Supreme Court and Gender-Neutral Language," and to Eric Christiansen, who received copies of his Journal of Gender, Race & Justice article, "Transformative Constitutionalism in South Africa." I know either one of us would be happy to provide you with a copy! Let us know.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Health Care Reform Legislation

The Health Care Reform legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives is available on GPO's Federal Digital System (FDsys). To view the electronic versions of the legislation, debate and vote click here for the press release: http://www.gpo.gov/pdfs/news-media/press/10news12.pdf.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

New database available

We have added "National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws" to our list of Hein Online databases. Go here: http://www.ggu.edu/lawlibrary/virtual/online_resources , scroll down and click on Hein Online.

Monday, February 22, 2010

USB Drives Up & Working

Our techies have confirmed that the USB drives on the computer lab pcs are now functional.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Pay For Print - Really!

After some delays due to set-up issues, pay-for-print will go live today or tomorrow.

Instructions:

Green Print Information -
• Cost is $0.12 per page.
• All public printers in the law library operate by using a copy card. Cards may be purchased from the Card Dispensers which are located in the Plaza and Basement computer labs and the first floor by the public copier.
• You will need to use a one dollar bill for the first copy card purchase. After you receive your card, you may add additional money into your card if you wish. Please do not insert more than one dollar bill for initial card.
• If you already have a card, insert the card in the card dispenser and add whatever amount you wish to add into bill acceptor.
• For problems with printers and refunds, see the computer lab supervisor in the Plaza Computer Lab. If the Lab supervisor is not available, contact the Circulation Desk for help.
Step-By-Step Instructions

• At the Computer:
1. When you are ready to print a document, click File and select Print.
2. Select print options and click OK.
3. At the Name prompt field, please type your full name and Click NEXT.
4. Go to the printing Station by the printers.

• At the Print Station:
5. Insert Copy Card into the card reader for print job list.
6. Type in the name you entered above for your print job.
7. Notice the number of pages and cost for your print job.
8. Click Print or Delete.
9. Remove your Cash Card completely from the reader after you are done.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Current Law Journals

Current law journals have been moved from the basement to the Plaza level across from the California Archive. Easier to get to, easier to grab a current issue, take a comfy seat and read.