Here is a nice, printable, breakdown of fallacies commonly deployed in argument. Helpfully, the authors have also provided an example of analysis, applying the typology to a published opinion on same-sex marriage penned by Cardinal O’Brien, Britain’s foremost catholic cleric. . . . [more]

A Committee of UK Members of Parliament has recommended that search engines should have to remove material from search results that infringe privacy. Here is a news report on the committee’s recommendations. Here is The Committee’s document.

It looks as if they are talking about material that has been found by a court to be an invasion of privacy, rather than having to make that initial decision. But once a court has found a story or a picture to offend privacy interests, the search engines should have to develop a method of hunting down that story or picture and . . . [more]

Dan Pinnington / Excerpted from LAWPRO Magazine, Student Issue #1, 2012

With over 120 million users in more than 200 countries (including at least a million lawyers) and web traffic that ranks it as the 13 th most visited site on the planet, LinkedIn is the social networking tool of choice for professionals.

LinkedIn can also be useful to law students in a number of ways. First, it can help with your job search. A LinkedIn network can be helpful for finding people you (or your contacts) know at law firms you are interested in. Second, it gives you some . . . [more]

The other day I chanced again on one of the great comedy sketches of all time: Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly Walks. (If you haven’t seen it, may I recommend you have a look. Sorry about the laugh track: that’s the way things were back then.) Part of John Cleese’s stride — how does he do that?! — put me in mind of a soldier’s exaggerated parade step, so I thought I’d see what “silly walks” I could find among the armies of the world. As ever, the internet provided. What follow are videos about which I have little . . . [more]

by Marie Maron* 

[This article was first published in the Canadian Lawyer and is reprinted here with their permission and the permission of the author.]

There are three types of lawyers at a firm: the finders, the minders, and the grinders. The finders bring in the clients, the minders manage them, and the grinders, well, they carry out the time-consuming, sometimes tedious, and often thankless, tasks for the rest of the group.

Who ends up as those poor worker bees? The junior staffers, naturally; students and junior associates. But, hey, they don’t cost as much as senior lawyers. And they . . . [more]

It’s been a bit of a up-and-down month in the world of legal publishing and I could choose to write yet another piece on the expected demise of LexisNexis or those lawyers taking Westlaw to court but we all know that those records are getting a bit worn.

But…… thinking about this issue and the amount of articles that have appeared on both these subjects since the new year has made me realize that in the past decade of publishing my pdf newsletter “Law Librarians News” and then subsequently my House of Butter blog ,we’ve all made huge leaps when . . . [more]

This is a post in a series appearing each Friday, setting out some articles, videos, podcasts and the like that contributors at Slaw are enjoying and that you might find interesting. The articles tend to be longer than blog posts and shorter than books, just right for that stolen half hour on the weekend. It’s also likely that most of them won’t be about law — just right for etc.

Please let us have your recommendations for what we and our readers might like.

. . . [more]

by Kaitlin Bradley

[footnotes omitted; available on request]

Solicitor-client privilege must yield to prevention of economic harm. Law society rules should provide the option to breach solicitor-client privilege in cases of impending fraud. It appears that there are three main arguments supporting a position against allowing an economic harm exception: that it is not the lawyer’s responsibility; that interference with solicitor-client privilege would irreparably harm solicitor-client relationships; and finally that economic harm is “a risk you take” when investing. This paper will begin with a brief overview of the movement in the legal profession to recognize an economic harm exception, . . . [more]

Last night was Day .5 of the ABA Tech Show, and I have to give it up to Matt Homann, et al. for putting on a great show at the newly branded Lexthink.1. The billing for this event is twenty slides, six minutes, one topic, all on the future of law practice. Sure, the set up is no Battledecks, but it isn’t a cakewalk either. Even with all the preparation the format isn’t as easy as you might think, particularly when that slide changes and you aren’t ready to move on just yet. It’s designed to push . . . [more]

I thought Slaw readers might be interested in the actual text of the Florida legislation that, in theory at least, governs the Trayvon Martin case. Title XLVI, Chapter 776.012 governs “Use of force in defense of person”:

A person is justified in using force, except deadly force, against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against the other’s imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if:

. . . [more]

After almost two years, the National Assembly’s Select Committee on Dying with Dignity tabled its 180-page report in legislature, on March 22, 2012. Titled Dying With Dignity, the report proposes “medical aid to die” and 23 other recommendations.

May El-Abdallah / Excerpted from LAWPRO Magazine, Student Issue #1, 2012

Law school can be a steep learning curve, and stepping into the world of practice can seem even more daunting. One of the most common complaints I hear from recent graduates is that they feel under-prepared to deal with the day-to-day realities of practice that they are confronting as articling students or recent calls.

While there may never be a substitute for hands-on learning, here are a few lessons my colleagues and I wish we had learned in law school to make the transition into the world of ‘lawyering’ . . . [more]