Further to Simon’s post, a study of the Legal Writing professorate in the US, and some speculation on how gender discrimination influences its status.

Liemer, Susan and Temple, Hollee, “Did Your Legal Writing Professor Go to Harvard?: The Credentials of Legal Writing Faculty at Hiring Time” . Brandeis Law Journal, Forthcoming Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1033477

Interestingly, though the survey discusses the fact that teachers of legal writing have, in aggregate, much more professional experience than their ‘doctrinal’ tenure-track colleagues, the study does not pick up on the professional-academic schism. The article contains many useful references to the literature on . . . [more]

The announcement that Louis Mirando has been appointed as Osgoode’s new Chief Law Librarian was made today by Dean Patrick Monahan:

I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Louis Mirando as
Osgoode’s Chief Law Librarian, effective March 1.

Mr. Mirando, who has a Master of Library Science degree from the University
of Toronto and has also done post-graduate studies at the University of
Cologne in Germany and at U of T, has provided outstanding leadership as
Director, Library Services at Torys LLP in Toronto for the past 15 years.
Prior to that, he held a variety of

The Canadian Bar Association Young Professionals International Internship Program is now taking applications for the 2008-2009 placements. The CBA administrates this program, which is funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) as part of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES).

Through this program, young lawyers are placed in eight-month internships (they are overseas for between six and seven of the eight months) to work with human rights legal organizations on issues such as women’s rights, labour rights, constitutional rights, children’s rights and indigenous people’s rights, in Latin America and the Caribbean, Southern and Central Africa and

I seem to be moving in the unlit corners of the law lately. See my interest in the Champerty Act and legislation that’s still in force but not included in the normal indices of acts: 1275 and the Business of Law. This time I’m rooting around in 1763, modernizing rapidly it would seem, but stumped again at finding what I need online. Hence this request for help.

I want a digital copy of the official version of the Royal Proclamation of 7 October 1763, a fundamental document in Canada’s constitutional law concerning the rights of Aboriginal peoples. I . . . [more]

Perhaps the only consolation for going to the dentist is the chance to read a magazine of the sort you wouldn’t normally see. Buried behind sadly outdated copies of Flare and Chatelaine, Sports Illustrated and People, I found MIT’s Technology Review. It’s great. If you’re interested generally in technology, and not just in the information technology that powers much of your legal work, this is the mag for you. But don’t take my word for it — I’m not selling subscriptions. Check it out online.

Three or four fresh stories get posted each day [feed]; there are . . . [more]

Every once in a while I feel the need to rep-re-sent the East Coast on Slaw and the following case which was heard at the SCC on Wednesday of this week (Jan 23) does that; but it also raises an interesting question that has broader implications. Simply put, can a commercial fishing license be defined as property under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act? Here is a story about the case from the local paper. And the summary from the SCCRoyal Bank of Canada v. Saulnier.

A simplified synopsis is if the court rules in favour of the Royal . . . [more]

What effects has the internet had on the information seeking behaviors of younger people? Ever heard of ‘Horizontal Information Seeking’ and ‘Squirreling behaviour’? Here is the first longitudinal study of the question, by the British Library and University College London. Also, there is reaction from Eric Lease Morgan and 3 Quarks Daily. . . . [more]

Last week Agnese Caruso reported that the Library of Congress is running a pilot project with Flickr to make its photographic collections available over the web. According to the Library of Congress Blog, the response has been tremendous:

The response to the Library’s pilot project with Flickr has been nothing short of astounding. You always hope for a positive reaction to something like this, but it has been utterly off the charts—from the Flickr community, from the blogosphere, from the news media—it is nothing short of amazing.

Let’s start out with a few statistics, as of last night (thanks,

India has a National Knowledge Commission. From its main page:

The National Knowledge Commission is a high-level advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, with the objective of transforming India into a knowledge society. It covers sectors ranging from education to e-governance in the five focus areas of the knowledge paradigm: ‘Access’ easy access to knowledge / ‘Concepts’ all levels and forms of education / ‘Creation’ effective creation of knowledge / ‘Applications’ of knowledge systems / ‘Services’ like e-governance

The Commission recently submitted a report [PDF] to the government on education, critical of the current situation in many . . . [more]

There’s a discussion about the form that legal education should take (in the U.S.) going on over on Concurring Opinions. Daniel J. Solove, of the George Washington University Law School, and lead author on the site, considers a complaint by Brian Tamanaha that the A.B.A. is imposing a one-size-fits-all model of legal education. Wouldn’t it make more sense, goes the argument, to give up the research idea and concentrate simply — and better — on training good practitioners.

Interesting reading. And I have to say that the staying power — nay, the pathological perserverance — of the “plumber vs. . . . [more]

New on LLRX.com is an article by Debbie Ginsberg and Meg Kribble called Social Networks for Law Librarians and Law Libraries, or How We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Friending. Great title, and a great article to go with it!

I enjoyed their discussion of how law librarians are using social networks to connect with communities and each other. My personal interest is how law firms are using social networks, so I found this little tidbit interesting: . . . [more]

If you read the comments here, you know that I love my iPod Touch (how did I ever live without it??). When browsing the web apps for it, I noticed this one that Slaw readers might find very neat: Lawyer websites for iPhone and iPod Touch is a service that creates law firm websites specifically designed for viewing on iPhone and iPod Touch. Created by Esqs.mobi, information included in the lawyer’s iPhone/iPod Touch website includes practice area, bio, contact details (address, phone, email) and more. . . . [more]