Posts
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Legal Writing from Law School to the Bar Exam
As discussions about writing final exams and drafting sample bar essays swirl around the library, it is time to emphasize the basics that you all know. Repeat after me: IRAC! IRAC! IRAC! It is impossible to emphasize this acronym enough. Every law school exam answer should state the issue, explain the rule governing the issue, analyze the facts pertinent to the issue and provide a conclusion. Organizing by using IRAC on an exam will help to ensure you cover all of the issues. Organizing by using IRAC on the Bar will help you get more points on each essay. (Remember, the bar essays are graded by tired attorneys. Don't make them work harder to see if you included the right information, because they are unlikely to take that extra time to try to understand your unique method of answering an essay.) A simple but very thorough explanation of IRAC can be found at this website. LawNerds will walk you through spotting the issue, outlining the rule, the analysis and the conclusion. What you will find on the internet is no substitute for the hard work of learning to think and write like a lawyer, but this site will help to clarify the basic framework required to answer law school exam questions and bar exam questions.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Child Online Protection Act and Free Speech
Last month the US Supreme Court refused to hear Mukasey v. ACLU, effectively ending the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). Had it ever been enforced, COPA would have required commercial distributors of material harmful to minors to prevent access to their web sites by said minors. “Material harmful to minors” was defined so loosely by the law that materials which would not even qualify as obscene under current obscenity law would had to have been screened from minors lest their impressionable little minds be warped by seeing Venus at the Mirror or The Three Graces. “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about this sort of encroachment on the first amendment now that a Democrat is in the White House” you might say. In the words of an unfortunately still alive and certainly not that great sports commentator, “Not so fast, my friend”.
First, COPA was signed into law in 1998 by Bill Clinton, so party affiliation is not necessarily a good predictor of free speech support. And second, there is a strong argument to be made that the most serious threats to free speech currently come from the left, not the right. The Fairness Doctrine would never be brought back by a Republican White House, but might (depending on who you ask) by a Democratic one. The college campus is not known as a hotbed of conservatism these days, but speech codes which restrict what students and faculty can say and where they can say it are commonplace at both private and public universities. And blasphemy laws are making a comeback in places such as the UK , Canada , and the UN. Sure, they call it a ban on the “defamation of religion” or Combating Defamation of Religions Resolution (UN), but these laws are essentially a return to the old time blasphemy laws. Don’t think so? Just as Dutch MP Geert Wilders who was recently barred from entrance into the UK based on a movie he helped produce or ask writer Mark Steyn who had to defend himself in front of the Canadian Human Rights Commission against charges of blasphemy human rights violations for excerpts from his book that were published in Maclean’s magazine.
And if the individual attacks on free speech from the left and the right weren’t bad enough, when the two sides team up they can be downright distressing. The McCain–Feingold Act was a bipartisan effort which severely restricts the central purpose of the first amendment, political speech. And who can forget those blasts from the past, the Parents Music Resource Group (which brought us those explicit language warning stickers on albums and was headed by known right-wing nut Tipper Gore) and the Meese Commission (making it more difficult to buy Playboy at gas stations and convenience stores since 1986).
Now, you may argue that some of these examples I have given are justifiable restrictions on free speech for a variety of reasons (you won’t convince me, but you can try). The point is, they are restrictions on free speech. And they aren’t coming from storm troopers in black uniforms, but from smiling faces on both the left and the right claiming these restrictions are for your own good. Or even worse, they are “for the children”.
By David Novak, JD
First, COPA was signed into law in 1998 by Bill Clinton, so party affiliation is not necessarily a good predictor of free speech support. And second, there is a strong argument to be made that the most serious threats to free speech currently come from the left, not the right. The Fairness Doctrine would never be brought back by a Republican White House, but might (depending on who you ask) by a Democratic one. The college campus is not known as a hotbed of conservatism these days, but speech codes which restrict what students and faculty can say and where they can say it are commonplace at both private and public universities. And blasphemy laws are making a comeback in places such as the UK , Canada , and the UN. Sure, they call it a ban on the “defamation of religion” or Combating Defamation of Religions Resolution (UN), but these laws are essentially a return to the old time blasphemy laws. Don’t think so? Just as Dutch MP Geert Wilders who was recently barred from entrance into the UK based on a movie he helped produce or ask writer Mark Steyn who had to defend himself in front of the Canadian Human Rights Commission against charges of blasphemy human rights violations for excerpts from his book that were published in Maclean’s magazine.
And if the individual attacks on free speech from the left and the right weren’t bad enough, when the two sides team up they can be downright distressing. The McCain–Feingold Act was a bipartisan effort which severely restricts the central purpose of the first amendment, political speech. And who can forget those blasts from the past, the Parents Music Resource Group (which brought us those explicit language warning stickers on albums and was headed by known right-wing nut Tipper Gore) and the Meese Commission (making it more difficult to buy Playboy at gas stations and convenience stores since 1986).
Now, you may argue that some of these examples I have given are justifiable restrictions on free speech for a variety of reasons (you won’t convince me, but you can try). The point is, they are restrictions on free speech. And they aren’t coming from storm troopers in black uniforms, but from smiling faces on both the left and the right claiming these restrictions are for your own good. Or even worse, they are “for the children”.
By David Novak, JD
Thursday, February 5, 2009
The Economy Bites
Now is not the best time to be on the job market, but it is a great time to be hiding in graduate school. The upside is that you can expand your skills and marketability instead of being lucky to be employed or finding yourself underemployed or unemployed. The downside is the increase in applicants makes each school that much harder to get into. Having successfully completed a JD or being in the process of doing so gives you an edge over the competition. What graduate degree you pair your JD with depends on what you want to do when you graduate. The choices are numerous, but a few readily spring to mind: MBA, MPP, and MPA. JFK has an MBA program and several other local universities have MPP and MPA programs (MPP and MPA degrees are very similar). For those of you who have not had your fill of law school, you can also get an LLM. Unlike, the other programs mentioned, an LLM is a one year program as opposed to a two year program.
An MBA does not carry the same cachet as it once did. In fact, many people blame our current economic crisis on the MBA crowd. Nonetheless, training in finance and business pairs well with training in the law. An MPP or an MPA also pairs well with a law degree. Making public policy can be challenging without a lawyer's understanding of how to interpret caselaw and knowledge of rule making procedures and much of the law is poorly understood without a grasp of the public policy reasons and implications of a judges' decisions. Both educational programs teach a little of the other. An MPA/MPP provides in depth training in policy analysis, administration and implementation which you will not get in law school. Dual JD/MPAs or MPPs typically go to work for government agencies, special interest organizations or politicians.
And for those of you who really enjoy spending time in the library, there is always library school. An MLS takes one year and an MLIS takes two years. Either way, it is an entree to a noble profession filled with very quiet people.
Acronyms
MBA = Master of Business Administration
MPP= Master of Public Policy
MPA= Master of Public Administration
LLM= Legum Magister or the feminine Legum Magistra
MLS= Master of Library Science
MLIS= Master of Library and Information Science
An MBA does not carry the same cachet as it once did. In fact, many people blame our current economic crisis on the MBA crowd. Nonetheless, training in finance and business pairs well with training in the law. An MPP or an MPA also pairs well with a law degree. Making public policy can be challenging without a lawyer's understanding of how to interpret caselaw and knowledge of rule making procedures and much of the law is poorly understood without a grasp of the public policy reasons and implications of a judges' decisions. Both educational programs teach a little of the other. An MPA/MPP provides in depth training in policy analysis, administration and implementation which you will not get in law school. Dual JD/MPAs or MPPs typically go to work for government agencies, special interest organizations or politicians.
And for those of you who really enjoy spending time in the library, there is always library school. An MLS takes one year and an MLIS takes two years. Either way, it is an entree to a noble profession filled with very quiet people.
Acronyms
MBA = Master of Business Administration
MPP= Master of Public Policy
MPA= Master of Public Administration
LLM= Legum Magister or the feminine Legum Magistra
MLS= Master of Library Science
MLIS= Master of Library and Information Science
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)