clinicians with not enough to do

AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education fall 2009 newsletter: deadline 11/16

It is time to send information for the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education fall 2009 newsletter.   The deadline for submissions is Monday, November 16.  Please send submissions by e-mail to [email protected]. 

Send:

1)information about the 2010 Annual Meeting and any events during that meeting

2)Section committee reports

3) information about your programs - cases, students, etc.

4)promotions, transfers, new hires, etc.

5)publications by clinicians

6)information from CLEA or other kindred organizations

7)information about conferences or meetings of interest to clinicians

8)announcements

9)Anything else of interest to clinicians

When possible, include a digital photo so we can attach faces to your names.

The newsletter is sent to everyone who is up-to-date in their dues in 2008 or 2009 so make sure your dues are paid (check the clinic database located at http://cgi2.www.law.umich.edu/_GCLE/Index.asp 

Please do NOT send items over three pages in length without checking with me; I reserve the right to cut anything that is too lengthy.  Please do not send long press releases - if you can, distill information so we can read about everyone's programs.

 

Seeking New Newsletter Editor

I have been newsletter editor for over nine years and feel a need to step down.  The Section is developing an electronic communication platform and it would be great if someone with an interest in electronic communication might take over as newsletter editor.  If you are interested or willing to serve this need, please contact me (Kim O'Leary) or the Section chair, Carol Suzuki ([email protected]) to express your willingness to serve. 
Kim O'Leary

[email protected]

Kimberly E. O'Leary
Thomas Cooley Law School
300 S. Capitol Ave.
Lansing, MI 48933
517-371-5140, x2626

Feminist Disability Theories and the Law Call for Papers

The Feminist Disability Theories and the Law Call for Papers is attached.  The conference will be held on December 11-12, 2009 at Emory University School of Law.

 

Download Call for Papers

 

Corina Domozick

FLT Project

School of Law

Emory University

1301 Clifton Rd.

Atlanta, GA  30322

phone: 404-712-2420

fax: 404-727-1973

mailstop #2030-001-1AA

CALL FOR PAPERS AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS: Feminist Legal Theory Conference

The University of Baltimore School of Law's Center on Applied Feminism seeks submissions for its Third Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.  This year's theme is: Applied Feminism and Marginalized Communities.  For more information about the conference, please visit law.ubalt.edu/caf.

 

 

 This conference seeks to explore the following questions:  What do we mean by "marginalized communities" and what purposes does that designation serve?  How has feminist legal theory created or contributed to the understanding of who is or is not marginalized?  How has feminist legal  How has feminist legal theory contributed to the erasing, shifting and/or merging of boundaries and how does that affect how we think about marginalized communities?  How does feminist legal theory intersect with other critical theories regarding marginalization?  How can feminist legal theory work towards alleviating poverty and other barriers faced by marginalized communities?  How has feminist legal theory addressed marginalization relating to such issues as housing, welfare, domestic violence, family composition, human rights, immigration, and religious freedom?  And finally, how has feminist legal theory made (or not made) a difference for those who are portrayed as marginalized or see themselves as marginalized?

 

This conference will attempt to address these questions from the perspectives of activists, practitioners and academics.  The conference will provide an opportunity for participants and audience members to exchange ideas about the current state of feminist legal theories and how those theories are being actualized to help women in marginalized communities. From the conference, we hope that a new discourse about applied feminist legal theory and marginalized communities will begin and that this discourse will shape policy and practice.  In addition, the conference is designed to provide presenters with the opportunity to gain extensive feedback on their papers.

 

The conference will begin the evening of Thursday, March 4, 2010, with a workshop for conference participants.   Building from last year's workshop, which addressed making space for feminist writing, this workshop will continue the tradition of involving all attendees to be participants in the interactive discussion and reflection.  The workshop will be approximately one to two hours in length.

On Friday, March 5, 2010, the conference will continue with a day of presentations by legal academics, practitioners and activists regarding current scholarship and/or legal work that explores the application of feminist legal theory and marginalized communities.  The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker Friday evening.  Past keynote speakers have included Dr. Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinem. 

 

The requirements for paper and workshop proposals are detailed below. 

Call for Articles -- Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal

On the heels of a well-received collection of professional articles for its inaugural volume, the editors of the Estate Planning and Community Property Law Journal are currently seeking a law review style article (at least 30 double-spaced pages, including footnotes) to comprise Book 2, Volume II of what will prove to be a successful and compelling publication. The Journal just completed a Continuing Legal Education seminar held in Lubbock, Texas that has attracted many subscribers and generated great interest in its articles and student comments. It is permissible that the prospective author has previously published the article on SSRN or pursuant to a state bar seminar. Although the journal operates out of Texas Tech University School of Law, the article need not be confined to Texas law if it has a broad national appeal.

The article can be either academic or practical in nature, the subject matter of which can include: intestate succession, wills, trusts, testamentary substitutes, powers of attorney, inter vivos gifts, powers of appointment, joint tenancies, multi-party accounts, retirement accounts, annuities, life insurance, probate courts, probate proceedings and alternatives to formal proceedings, personal representatives, administrators, executors, trustees, trust and estate creditors, trust and estate beneficiaries, heirship proceedings, fiduciary litigation, income taxation of trusts and estates, federal and state transfer taxes (gift tax, estate tax, and generation-skipping transfer tax), alternative reproductive technologies, guardianships, medical powers of attorney, directives to physicians, anatomical gifts, long-term care insurance, disability income insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, elder abuse, marital property in community property jurisdictions, homestead and similar statutory asset protections, and historical, social, economic, international, ethical, professional responsibility and professional malpractice analyses related issues.

Do not miss the opportunity to be published with the only student-led estate planning journal in the nation. The deadline for Book 2, Volume II is November 30, 2009. Please send all submissions or questions to [email protected].

Some Advice about Ignoring Advice about Collaborations

Michael Perlin from CRIMPROF BLOG

Many years ago, when I began teaching (I had litigated for 13 years prior to changing careers, and had written a good number of law review articles during those years), I received all sorts of well-meaning advice from colleagues (both at my own school and elsewhere) about what to do and what not to do as part of my pre-tenure years (being me, I proceeded to ignore almost all that advice, and I have never regretted it for a moment, but that’s another story). Much of the advice was predictable, and made sort of sense, given how tenure decisions are mostly made. But one piece of it flabbergasted me, and has remained stuck in my mind for years as an example of one of the many things wrong with the legal scholarship enterprise.

“Never write anything with a colleague,” I was warned, “because the tenure committee won’t be able to figure out what was yours and what was your colleague’s and, therefore, it won’t count.” The whole notion of what “counts” also struck me as bizarre (I was at the time engaged in writing a three-volume treatise in mental disability law, an area of the law in which there had never been a treatise, and was told blithely that it wouldn’t “count” because it was a book (well, three books), and “books don’t count.” I was also told that it was time for me to abandon writing in behavioral journals and cross-over “law and ...” journals, since they weren’t really law reviews and this they told me, you guessed it, “wouldn’t count.”

Continue reading "Guest Blogger Michael Perlin: Some Advice about Ignoring Advice about Collaborations "

Call for Presenters and Papers - The Future of the Family: Modern Challenges in Adoption Law

Sixth Annual Wells Conference on Adoption Law

 

March 11, 2010

Capital University Law School

Columbus, Ohio

 

The conference is seeking proposals for presentations and papers emphasizing the following themes:

 

v      The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Families

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: available funding for subsidies, decisions to delay adoption, role of the extended family, and impact on the number of children placed for adoption.

 

v      The Impact of Artificial Reproduction on Families

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: the state’s role in regulating artificial reproduction, the right not to procreate, legal issues involving unused embryos, and resolution of rights and responsibilities in embryo donation and adoption.

 

v      Overcoming Barriers to the Creation of Families for Members of the GLBT Community

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: laws and public policies limiting adoption by GLBT parents, the impact of these laws from the perspective of the child's right to permanence, empirical studies on outcomes for children, and alternatives available when second parent adoptions are not permitted.

 

Participants are asked to a lead a panel discussion on one of the topics above.  Each topic will have 3-4 panel members who will present 30-45 minutes each, with discussion to follow.  In addition, participants are requested to prepare an article associated with their presentation for publication in the Capital University Law Review next year.  The article would be due on September 1, 2010.

Please send your proposals to the Wells Conference Committee Chair, Alisa Hardy ([email protected]) by October 16, 2009. 

Call for submissions: GAJE Newsletter

from  Melanie Reddy on behalf of Street Law(South Africa)

I write to call for submission of the next GAJE newsletter by 2 October 2009.  The editor relies on materials from members on their activities, publications, events and any other information of interest to the general membership.

The newsletter appears every two months, and the next newsletter is scheduled to appear on 15 October 2009.

Please submit to the attention of the Editor at [email protected]. (Please do not click on the reply button of this message but rather use the  address above).

We encourage people to submit material for publication in the newslette in a format similar to the following example - please keep your material within  about 10 lines:

Call for Papers: Metaphor and Narrative

Fall 2010 < J. ALWD (Vol. 7) < Metaphor & Narrative

 

The Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (J. ALWD) invites

submission of articles for its Fall 2010 Metaphor & Narrative issue. In this

issue, J. ALWD plans to publish articles examining the use of metaphor and

narrative in all aspects of legal persuasion and argumentation, with a

particular emphasis on the interpretation and composition of legal texts. In

other words, we are looking for (1) articles that discuss the effects on the

law-making process of metaphoric concepts (for example, frameworks, models,

images, symbols) and narrative elements (plot, character, conflict, setting,

and so on) and (2) articles that propose effective methods for lawyers and

judges to use these processes to persuade and to reach understanding.

Questions about potential articles are welcome and should be directed to

[email protected].

 

The deadline for submission of articles for the Fall 2010 issue is September

15, 2009. Article selection will be completed by November 15, 2009. The

Journal is published annually, thanks to the support of West, which prints

the Journal, and ALWD, which distributes the Journal by mail to some 3,500

practicing lawyers and judges; law school libraries, deans, and professors;

and others interested in the field of legal writing. The Journal is

currently available electronically on the ALWD website

(http://www.alwd.org/jalwd.html), Westlaw, SSRN, HeinOnLine, and H.W. Wilson

Company, and will be available soon through several additional electronic

sources.

 

There is a little give in the September 15 deadline; please contact one of

us for information if you think you will need a short extension.

Linda Berger & Ian Gallacher

Co-Editors

 

Linda L. Berger

Professor of Law

Mercer University School of Law

1021 Georgia Ave.

Macon, GA 31207

[email protected]

478-301-2191

 

Ian Gallacher

Associate Professor of Law

Director, Legal Communication and Research

Syracuse University College of Law

Syracuse, NY 13244

(315) 443-4105

[email protected]

Writing good cover letters for your article submissions

Legal Writing Prof Blog

This one comes to us via our very good friend Raymond Ward at the (new) legal writer blog.  The original post is from Concurring Opinions which does a great job compiling advice from various academics as well as providing sample cover letters.  Among the advice is this:

Basics. Obviously, submissions must indicate author’s name and contact information (mailing address, phone, email) and article title. Unless submitted in an electronic format that transmits this information, the cover letter is the place.

Word Count. Many journals request stating the piece’s word count, including footnotes. In addition, many journals since 2005 have express word count limits or preferences, and request cover letter explanations for approaching or exceeding the guidance.

Brevity. Keep it short, usually a single page of three paragraphs, never more than two, and then only if justified by background research and context otherwise not evident from the piece.

Main Point. State the piece’s thesis, explain its uniqueness and importance.

Prior Work. Reference your prior works, when relevant, not necessarily journal prestige, although not holding this back when relevant. (Those without prior publications may need to explain a bit more why they are pursuing scholarship, perhaps even referencing relevant credentials.)

You. Mention brief biographical data only if relevant to the piece, such as your role in the relevant discourse (or the foregoing caveat for new scholars).

Style. The cover letter should be thoughtful and sober.  You can try to entertain, but beware that attempted humor can backfire. Above all, avoid gimmicks, including strong sales pitches, exaggerated statements of importance or things unrelated to the piece.

Read the rest of the original advice column here.

Call for Papers: Future of Immigration Law and the New Administration

The Saint Louis University Public Law Review announces a call for papers for its spring 2010 issue. The topic of the spring issue is the Future of Immigration Law and the New Administration. This special issue will broadly allow any topic within immigration law, with an eye toward policy changes and recommendations for our new President and Congress.

The editors welcome articles and essays of any length from legal scholars, judges, practicing attorneys, and legislators. Up to five articles will be chosen for publication in the late spring of 2010. Abstracts are being accepted now, and full drafts will be due at the end of November 2009. If you have any questions, please contact the editors at [email protected].

The Public Law Review was established in 1981 as a specialty journal to address legal issues of public interest and public policy. For two years in a row, the Public Law Review has been ranked fourth in the nation for Constitutional Law. Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Vice President Joseph Biden, and Senators Pete Domenici, John Danforth, and John Ashcroft have authored articles in the Public Law Review.

Call for Papers: “Poverty and Economic Mobility” in DC Oct 26, 2009

poverty law blog

July 18, 2009 ·

Conference Poster

Paper proposals are invited around the conference theme “Poverty and Economic Mobility” for a scholarly gathering at American University Washington College of Law on Monday Oct. 26, 2009.  Papers fitting broadly with the theme will be considered.  If you are interested, please email paper title and abstract to Ezra Rosser at [email protected].  Papers in all stages of completion are invited, though the hope is that they will be at a stage where they could be improved through conference participation.  Food during the day will be provided but participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging.

At the University of Chicago Law School last year, Justice Scalia put forward his view on poverty law: “I took nothing but bread-and-butter classes, not ‘Law and Poverty,’ or other made-up stuff.  Take serious classes.  There’s too much to law to learn.  Don’t waste your time.”  Whatever one’s feelings about Justice Scalia’s remarks, they arguably do say something about the marginalized place of poverty law and poverty scholarship.  After enjoying some attention during the war on poverty, it has been a long time since poverty law was ‘sexy.’  Maybe it is time to think about economic mobility.  This might be way of ‘bootstrapping’ attention while also providing a missing perspective on poverty.

Call for Papers: “Economy in Transition: A Challenge to Re-Think the Meaning of Public Interest Law”

from Poverty Law by Ezra Rosser

The Roger Williams University Law Review

Journal Topic: Economy in Transition: A Challenge to Re-Think the Meaning of Public Interest Law

Topic Description: The Roger Williams University Law Review is now accepting scholarship that contributes to an understanding of the current economic crisis, the economic transition underway, and the impacts of the aforementioned on the field of public interest law.  Submissions need not touch upon all themes, although we anticipate and invite articles working at the thematic intersections. With respect to the public interest component of this issue, suggested topics include the ways in which the changing economy has challenged current public interest models, an analysis of the complex nexus between the economy and public interest law, the propriety and viability of law firm public interest deferral programs, the impact of widespread cuts to legal services, and the sustainability of current public interest models.  Overall, the most interesting work from our perspective, and what we aspire to cultivate through the dialogue of our issue, is a series of unexpected juxtapositions that reveal unanticipated legal challenges and opportunities.

Publication Date: Spring 2010

Submission Deadline: November 1, 2009

Writing Requirement: Twenty-Five (25) to Seventy-Five (75) Double-Spaced Pages

Contact Information: If interested in submitting an article, or for other general inquiries, please contact: Matthew Watson, Executive Article Editor, [email protected], (518) 469-3498.

 

The Roger Williams University Law Review

Journal Topic: Economy in Transition: A Challenge to Re-Think the Meaning of Public Interest Law

Topic Description: The Roger Williams University Law Review is now accepting scholarship that contributes to an understanding of the current economic crisis, the economic transition underway, and the impacts of the aforementioned on the field of public interest law.  Submissions need not touch upon all themes, although we anticipate and invite articles working at the thematic intersections. With respect to the public interest component of this issue, suggested topics include the ways in which the changing economy has challenged current public interest models, an analysis of the complex nexus between the economy and public interest law, the propriety and viability of law firm public interest deferral programs, the impact of widespread cuts to legal services, and the sustainability of current public interest models.  Overall, the most interesting work from our perspective, and what we aspire to cultivate through the dialogue of our issue, is a series of unexpected juxtapositions that reveal unanticipated legal challenges and opportunities.

Publication Date: Spring 2010

Submission Deadline: November 1, 2009

Writing Requirement: Twenty-Five (25) to Seventy-Five (75) Double-Spaced Pages

Contact Information: If interested in submitting an article, or for other general inquiries, please contact: Matthew Watson, Executive Article Editor, [email protected], (518) 469-3498.

 

CALL FOR PAPERS: University of Baltimore Feminist Legal Theory Conference - Applied Feminism and Marginalized Communities

CALL FOR PAPERS AND WORKSHOP PROPOSALS

 The University of Baltimore School of Law's Center on Applied Feminism seeks submissions for its Third Annual Feminist Legal Theory Conference.  This year's theme is: Applied Feminism and Marginalized Communities. 

 This conference seeks to explore the following questions:  What do we mean by "marginalized communities" and what purposes does that designation serve?  How has feminist legal theory created or contributed to the understanding of who is or is not marginalized?  How has feminist legal theory rendered women universal and marginal simultaneously?[1] <http://mail2.ubalt.edu/exchange/majohnson/Drafts/RE:%20[CDVLAW]%20Job%20Announcement:%20Pro%20Bono%20Program%20Coordinator.EML/1_text.htm#_ftn1>   How has feminist legal theory contributed to the erasing, shifting and/or merging of boundaries and how does that affect how we think about marginalized communities?  How does feminist legal theory intersect with other critical theories regarding marginalization?  How can feminist legal theory work towards alleviating poverty and other barriers faced by marginalized communities?  How has feminist legal theory addressed marginalization relating to such issues as housing, welfare, domestic violence, family composition, human rights, immigration, and religious freedom?  And finally, how has feminist legal theory made (or not made) a difference for those who are portrayed as marginalized or see themselves as marginalized?

 This conference will attempt to address these questions from the perspectives of activists, practitioners and academics.  The conference will provide an opportunity for participants and audience members to exchange ideas about the current state of feminist legal theories and how those theories are being actualized to help women in marginalized communities. From the conference, we hope that a new discourse about applied feminist legal theory and marginalized communities will begin and that this discourse will shape policy and practice.  In addition, the conference is designed to provide presenters with the opportunity to gain extensive feedback on their papers.

The conference will begin the evening of Thursday, March 4, 2010, with a workshop for conference participants.   Building from last year's workshop, which addressed making space for feminist writing, this workshop will continue the tradition of involving all attendees to be participants in the interactive discussion and reflection.  The workshop will be approximately one to two hours in length.

On Friday, March 5, 2010, the conference will continue with a day of presentations by legal academics, practitioners and activists regarding current scholarship and/or legal work that explores the application of feminist legal theory and marginalized communities.  The conference will be open to the public and will feature a keynote speaker Friday evening.  Past keynote speakers have included Dr. Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinem.

The requirements for paper and workshop proposals are detailed below.  To be considered for the workshop presentation, please submit a workshop proposal by 5 p.m. on October 16, 2009 to Professor Margaret E. Johnson ([email protected]). The proposed workshop need not focus exclusively on the theme of this year's feminist legal theory conference, but should focus on the general area of feminist legal theory and other critical theories.  A workshop proposal should detail the topic of the workshop, your approach for conducting the workshop, and the activities or other methods that you will employ to make the session interactive.  The proposal should also identify how long the workshop will last and any technology or other materials required.  Due to the limited time available during the conference, we will only be able to select one of the proposals for the Thursday, March 4, 2010, evening workshop.  We will notify the selectee by November 13, 2009.  Please make sure to include your contact information with your submission.

 

To submit a paper proposal, please submit an abstract by 5 p.m. on October 16, 2009 to Professor Margaret E. Johnson ([email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ).  Abstracts should be no longer than one page.  Practitioners' and activists' papers need not follow a strictly academic format but all paper proposals should address the conference theme.  We will notify presenters of selected papers by November 13, 2009.  Please make sure to include your contact information with your submission.  We anticipate being able to have twelve paper presenters during the conference on Friday, March 5, 2010.  Working drafts of papers, which can include works-in-progress, completed drafts, and papers already scheduled for publication elsewhere, are due no later than February 12, 2010.  All abstracts and working drafts will be posted on the Center on Applied Feminism's conference website to be shared with other participants and attendees.   Finally, please note that a limited amount of money may be available to presenters for travel expenses.

 

 

________________________________

 

[1] <http://mail2.ubalt.edu/exchange/majohnson/Drafts/RE:%20[CDVLAW]%20Job%20Announcement:%20Pro%20Bono%20Program%20Coordinator.EML/1_text.htm#_ftnref1>  This idea is loosely based on one presented by Professor Patricia J. Williams in The Alchemy of Race and Rights: Diary of a Law Professor 7 (1991).

 

 

AALS Call for Papers

Location - The 2010 AALS Annual Meeting will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana. Networking - The AALS Annual Meeting is the largest annual gathering of legal educators in the world. In addition to the networking opportunities at the AALS Gala Reception, the "Meeting Place" in the exhibit hall, and the various organization receptions and breakfasts, AALS will provide conference attendees the opportunity to organize an informal gathering with colleagues that share similar interests.  Hotels - AALS Registration, Exhibit Hall, Section programs, Presidential Programs, and the House of Representatives meeting will be held at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside.  Exhibit Hall - Visit the exhibit hall to view and discuss products that can enhance your teaching and career. The exhibit hall is also the location of the "Meeting Place" - a lounge area with coffee, tea, pastries, and refreshments served in the mornings and afternoons. View the program for the open hours of the hall.

The following sections have requested a Call for Papers for the 2010 Annual Meeting that will take place January 6-10 in New Orleans, Louisiana: Section on Contracts The New Law Professors' Section Section on Business Associations Section on National Security Law Section on International Human Rights Co-Sponsored Program of AALS Section on National Security Law, Section on International Human Rights and Section on International Law Section on Financial Institutions and Consumer Financial Services Section on Litigation Section on Trusts and Estates Section on Securities Regulation Click the link below to detailed descriptions and deadlines for the above Sections' Calls for Papers:   Click Here to View the Calls for Papers    ______________________________   New Orleans Volunteer Opportunities   We encourage you to volunteer some time while you are in New Orleans to play a part in the restoration effort. Please visit New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity at http://www.habitatnola.org/ to review opportunities to help. Volunteers are needed to work a full day. Please visit http://www.habitat-nola.org/volunteer/ for more information.   In addition, a list of volunteer opportunities can be found here: http://www.neworleanscvb.com/ and go to "Voluntourism."

Updated Info for Law Review Submission Season

Information for Submitting Articles to Law Reviews & Journals

HERE

Allen Rostron
University of Missouri at Kansas City - School of Law

Nancy Levit
University of Missouri at Kansas City (UMKC) - School of Law


June 9, 2009

Abstract:     
This document contains information about submitting articles to law reviews and journals, including the methods for submitting an article, any special formatting requirements, how to contact them to request an expedited review, and how to contact them to withdraw an article from consideration. It covers about 188 law reviews. The document was fully updated on June 9, 2009.

Call for (Short) Papers AALS Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues

On the Cutting Edge:  Charting the Future of
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Scholarship

AALS Annual Meeting
 January 6-10, 2010 in New Orleans, Louisiana

Thirty years ago, Rhonda Rivera published “Our Straight-Laced Judges:  The Legal Position of Homosexual Persons in the United States,” the first comprehensive law review article of its kind.  Since then, the sexual orientation and gender identity legal literature has exploded, with hundreds of articles considering all imaginable aspects of the law’s relationship to gender identity and sexual orientation.  At the same time, political demands of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender have both multiplied and moved to the center of cultural debates, and the body of case law addressing these issues has likewise grown exponentially.   What, then, are the next steps for legal scholarship?  

The program’s aim is to highlight new issues, new theories, possibilities for linking theory and practice, and visions of the field for the decade(s) to come.  

Because the program aims to spark new ideas, this Call for Papers is for short essays – from 1000 to 2000 words – rather than for full-length papers.  Submissions will be considered for two purposes:

Program participation – One submission will be selected for presentation at the SOGII program at the Annual Meeting, which will be held from 10:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. on Saturday, January 9, 2010, in New Orleans.  The selected author will have to rely on his or her own institution for funding to attend the conference.  

Publication – Up to twenty submissions will be selected for publication in a special volume of the Sexuality & Law Journal (published at Tulane Law School) dedicated to the panel topic.  

The SOGII Section executive committee will serve as the selection committee.  For both purposes, essays must be no longer than 2000 words, including footnotes.

The deadline to submit a draft essay is Tuesday, September 1, 2009.  Essays can be revised, subject to the approval of the Journal editors, through the fall semester, although 2000 words will remain the outer length limit.  Please submit the draft paper to Professor Suzanne B. Goldberg, Chair of the Section on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues, as an attachment to an e-mail at [email protected].  Submissions will be reviewed by members of the SOGII Section's Executive Committee.  Decisions will be communicated by late September 2009.

FEEDBACK TIME!

With the summer break upon us, this is a great time to get supportive, non-evaluative feedback on a scholarly work-in-progress from a clinical colleague with shared expertise in a substantive area.  The Scholarship Committee of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education offers this peer network.  If you have a work-in-progress and would like to be paired with a clinical colleague at another school, send a request to this address:  [email protected].  If you are willing to offer constructive feedback, join our extensive database of subject-matter experts at this link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pZsCVzJPWhtPxGN_ikLSZMQ&email=true.   This is not a commitment to serve as a peer reviewer.  You will simply be in our database, and when an author in your area of expertise asks for peer review, we will contact you to see if you are interested.  If you have questions, email Michele Gilman at [email protected].  Happy writing!

 

Seeking Articles on Issues of concern to disenfranchised groups

The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues is soliciting articles for upcoming volumes. Our publication is committed to raising the awareness of those individuals in our society who traditionally have been voiceless. The Scholar furthers legal discourse on issues that concern race, ethnicity, class, religion, gender, and sexual identity, as well as other countless groups in our society. Accordingly, we will consider any article that focuses on a legal issue of concern to disenfranchised groups.

We are currently looking for articles to begin editing on June 29, 2009.  Accordingly, we would need to have a version to review by June 17.  Any author extended an offer would be published by August 3, 2009.  Additional information regarding The Scholar may be found at The Scholar's website. 

Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to hearing from you.  Elizabeth Kaigh, Executive Articles Editor, The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Minority Issues, [email protected].

Call for Papers: Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law

The Journal of Affordable Housing & Community Development Law, the legal publication of the American Bar Association’s Forum on Affordable Housing and Community Development Law, is currently seeking submissions from students, professors, and practitioners.  The Journal publishes full-length articles, book reviews, and shorter commentaries on a wide range of affordable housing and community and economic development issues.  

 The Fall 2009 issue will focus on “Housing and Community Development in the Economic Crisis.”  Submissions of papers or proposals for papers should be e-mailed to   Paulette Williams at [email protected] no later than June 15, 2009.

SSRN Welcomes Three Cool New Subject Matter Journals

We are pleased to announce three new Legal Scholarship Network (LSN) Sponsored Subject Matter eJournals -- Animal Law, sponsored by the Syracuse University College of Law; Energy Law & Policy, sponsored by the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the Vermont Law School; and Natural Resources Law & Policy, sponsored by the Environmental Law Center at the Vermont Law School.

ANIMAL LAW
View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Animal-Law.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Animal-Law

Editors: Hannah R. Arterian, Dean and Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law, and Deborah S. Kenn, Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law

Sponsor: As part of a leading research university, Syracuse University College of Law combines a balanced academic commitment to scholarship, teaching, and research. Interdisciplinary programs at the College of Law partner our offerings with other schools and colleges to create initiatives that cross academic barriers - thus our students gain both a sound doctrinal legal education and practical hands-on experience in the real world. The College of Law includes nine academic interdisciplinary centers and institutes led by nationally recognized faculty.

Description: The Animal Law journal provides a forum for posting both completed works and works in progress on legal, policy, and jurisprudential issues relating to animals.

It includes within its scope wildlife, domestic animals, and farm animals. Subject matter includes, but is not limited to, torts, tax, public heath, family law, commercial transactions, contracts, agricultural law, law and rhetoric, international business transactions and international trade, constitutional law, criminal law, property, insurance, estates and trusts, comparative law, foreign law, or other areas of the law, as they relate to animals. Abstracts are welcomed which broadly approach the area, including discourses regarding the jurisprudence of animal rights and animals as sentient beings. We welcome abstracts on practice, theory, and empirical research as related to the topic.


ENERGY LAW & POLICY
View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Energy-Law-Policy.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Energy-Law-Policy

Editor: Donald M. Kreis, Associate Director and Assistant Professor of Law, Vermont Law School, Institute for Energy and the Environment

Sponsor: The journal is sponsored by the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the Vermont Law School, home to one of the nation's leading environmental law programs. The Institute for Energy and the Environment serves as a resource on energy law and policy. The Institute develops scholarly, technical, and practical publications, provides forums and conferences for professional education and issue development, and serves as a center for graduate research on energy issues, with an emphasis on the environmental implications of these issues.

The Institute is affiliated with Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center, which offers the most comprehensive environmental law and policy curriculum in the nation for law students, and also confers the Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and Master of Laws in Environmental Law (LLM) degrees, as well as a joint JD/MELP degree. The Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center is also home to the Environmental Tax Policy Institute, Climate Legacy Initiative, Land Use Institute, Partnership for Environmental Law in China, and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic.

Description: Energy Law & Policy will publish abstracts, working and policy papers, forthcoming articles, and recently published articles dealing with the production, transmission, distribution, conservation, and use of energy, as well as the environmental and social implications of these issues, both in the U.S. and internationally. The journal will discuss questions related to electricity, heating and cooling in both residential and commercial settings, the transportation sector, and energy policy as it relates to industry and economic activity generally. Although the primary focus of the journal is law, materials will also be published that focus on economics, engineering, finance, and the social sciences when they affect the development of energy-related law and policy.


NATURAL RESOURCES LAW & POLICY
View Papers: http://www.ssrn.com/link/Natural-Resources-Law.html
Subscribe: http://hq.ssrn.com/jourInvite.cfm?link=Natural-Resources-Law

Editors: Jason J. Czarnezki, Professor of Law, Vermont Law School - Environmental Law Center, and Marc Mihaly, Associate Dean for the Environmental Law Program, Director of the Environmental Law Center, and Associate Professor of Law, Vermont Law School - Environmental Law Center

Sponsor: The journal is sponsored by the Environmental Law Center at the Vermont Law School, home to one of the nation's leading environmental law programs. Since establishing the Environmental Law Center in 1978, Vermont Law School has been training people to be environmental leaders in government, nonprofits, corporations, and private practice - locally, nationally, and internationally. With the largest and deepest graduate environmental law program in the country, the Environmental Law Center offers the most comprehensive environmental law and policy curriculum in the nation for law students, and also confers the Master of Environmental Law and Policy (MELP) and Master of Laws in Environmental Law (LLM) degrees, as well as a joint JD/MELP degree. The Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center is also home to the Institute for Energy and the Environment, Environmental Tax Policy Institute, Climate Legacy Initiative, Land Use Institute, Partnership for Environmental Law in China, and Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic.

Description: Natural Resources Law & Policy will publish abstracts, working and policy papers, forthcoming articles, and recently published articles dealing with the regulation, management, and distribution of natural resources. The journal will discuss a diverse array of natural resource topics such as public and private land use, wildlife and biodiversity, forest protection, mineral rights, parks and wilderness, the public trust doctrine, water and wetlands, and tribal lands and resources.

Attention Law Professors - James Boskey ADR Writing Competition - Deadline June 15th

James Boskey ADR Writing Competition

Sponsored by The ABA Section of Dispute Resolution in association with the Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution of UNLV Boyd School of Law and Penn State Dickinson School of Law.

Purpose of the Boskey ADR Writing Competition
The purpose of the competition is to promote greater interest in and understanding of the field of dispute resolution and collaborative decision-making among students enrolled in ABA accredited law schools.

The essay may address any aspect of dispute resolution practice, theory or research that the contestant chooses. Essays are limited to 15-25 typewritten pages, including footnotes or endnotes. The text of the essay must be double-spaced, with twelve-point font and one-inch margins.

First Prize: $1000 to the Competition winner and an invitation to publish in Penn State Dickinson School of Law Yearbook On Arbitration and Mediation. The Competition winner and honorable mention essays will also be posted on the Boskey Competition website.

Entry Information

Entries for the competition must be submitted by Monday, June 15, 2009. One electronic copy of the submission and one entry form must be submitted in order to register for the competition. Electronic entries are to be sent to Josephine Waugh at [email protected], with the subject header “Attn: Boskey Dispute Resolution Essay Competition.”

Click here to download the Boskey Entry Form.

Register via mail send the completed Entry Form and essay to:

Boskey Dispute Resolution Essay Competition
c/o Jo Waugh
ABA Section of Dispute Resolution
740 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005

Entries must be postmarked by U.S. mail or recognized commercial express service.  Entries submitted by fax will be automatically rejected. Contestants will receive confirmation of the entry. The winner(s) will be notified by mail of their selection.  The James Boskey Dispute Resolution Essay Competition is sponsored by the American Bar Association Section of Dispute Resolution.

James B. Boskey was an intellectual, humanitarian, law professor, and mediator.  Jim Boskey became known and beloved world-over for his publication of The Alternative Newsletter, a resource guide on ADR published quarterly. It was in its tenth year when Jim died in 1999. The publication provided a comprehensive yet very accessible window into the diverse dimensions of the ADR field. In many respects, Jim Boskey-through the alternative newsletter-was the voice of the ADR community.

The James Boskey ADR Writing Competition is a project of the ADR in Law Schools Committee.  The Boskey Writing Competition is Chaired by Jean Sternlight, Saltman Professor, UNLV Boyd School of Law & Director Saltman Center for Conflict Resolution.

CALL FOR ARTICLES on negotiation, mediation and/or arbitration: VERMONT LAW REVIEW

          

Continuing with our long tradition of publishing articles

     on dispute resolution, the Vermont Law Review is soliciting 

     three professional articles and one student article for a 

     dedicated edition scheduled to run in early 2010. Articles 

     should address an emerging issue in the field of 

     negotiation, mediation and/or arbitration. The deadline for 

     professional papers is November 1, 2009 and student papers 

     are due on November 20, 2009.  

      PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

     Interested authors should submit a short (one-two page) 

     summary of the topic by June 5, 2009 to:

     Email:         MAILTO:[email protected] 

     The selection board will review and select proposals by the 

     end of June 2009.

     ABOUT THE VERMONT LAW REVIEW:

     The Vermont Law Review - http://lawreview.vermontlaw.edu/ -

     a legal journal edited and managed by students, enjoys an 

     international circulation. The Review publishes articles 

     contributed by prominent legal scholars, as well as 

     student-written notes and comments. Please direct any 

     inquiries to:

     CONTACT:       Sean F. Nolon

                    Director, Alternative Dispute 

                      Resolution Program

                    Associate Professor of Law

                    Vermont Law School

                    PO Box 96, Chelsea Street

                    South Royalton, VT 05068

     Tel:           (802) 831-1376

Emerging Immigration and Citizenship Law Scholars and Teachers Workshop

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

We write to invite you to participate in the 2009 Emerging Immigration and Citizenship Law Scholars and Teachers Workshop, which will take place this year on July 16-17, 2009, at Hofstra Law School in Hempstead, New York. We intend for this workshop to meet every other year beginning 2009 (i.e., the year that the Immigration Law Teachers Workshop is not meeting). Our goal is to create space for junior law professors to share drafts of their research and writing projects, discuss teaching techniques and get to know one another. The workshop is designed to be small (15 to 20 participants) to facilitate robust discussions of the papers.

The workshop will begin on Thursday afternoon, July 16 and conclude in the afternoon on July 17. Space is limited to twenty participants (selected purely on a first-come, first-served basis), so register as soon as possible to ensure a space.

Call for Papers Children and the Law Junior Faculty Workshop

The Frances Lewis Law Center at Washington & Lee University is sponsoring a workshop for junior scholars working on legal issues related to children.  The workshop will be held this summer on the campus of Washington & Lee in Lexington, Virginia.  It is expected that this will be the first in a series of junior faculty workshops on topics related to family law and children and the law.  Several institutions, including William and Mary Law School and the George Washington University School of Law, have expressed an interest in hosting workshops in the future.

The workshop will include both junior and senior scholars.  Each junior scholar will present his or her paper to the group, with comments from a senior scholar and from the audience to follow.  The senior scholars will also participate in two panel discussions during the conference, one on innovations in teaching and one on new directions for scholarship.  Senior scholars who are expected to attend include Vivian Hamilton of William and Mary Law School, Sacha Coupet of Loyola University, Chicago School of Law, and Robin Wilson and Joan Shaughnessy of Washington and Lee.

The workshop can accommodate eight junior scholars.  Applications are welcome from untenured faculty and recently tenured faculty and from those who will be joining a faculty in the upcoming academic year. Junior clinicians are very welcome. There is no registration fee for this conference and the Frances Lewis Law Center is pleased to furnish meals and lodging for the participants.  The workshop will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 16 and end at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, July 17.

Junior scholars wishing to participate in the workshop are asked to e-mail an abstract and a curriculum vitae by June 8, 2009 to Administrative Assistant Diane Hamilton-Figgers Cochran at Washington & Lee ([email protected]). Senior scholars participating in the workshop will select papers no later than June 15.

For information, please contact Professor Joan Shaughnessy ([email protected])  or Professor Robin Fretwell Wilson ([email protected]) at Washington & Lee University School of Law, 540-458-8400.

Revisiting the Nuts and Bolts of Scholarship

from Empirical Legal Studies by Jason Czarnezki

My Vermont Law School colleague Cheryl Hanna has, over the past many years, presented the talk on the nuts and bolts of scholarship for new law teachers at the AALS New Law Teacher's Conference. I thought it would be helpful to make available to the blogosphere and new law professors two pieces Cheryl has written for the Conference.    The original article can be found at http://www.aals.org/nlt2004/hanna.pdf and an this year's update that includes a section on SSRN is entitled Revisiting the Nuts and Bolts of Scholarship (download it by clicking on the title).

My Vermont Law School colleague Cheryl Hanna has, over the past many years, presented the talk on the nuts and bolts of scholarship for new law teachers at the AALS New Law Teacher's Conference. I thought it would be helpful to make available to the blogosphere and new law professors two pieces Cheryl has written for the Conference.    The original article can be found at http://www.aals.org/nlt2004/hanna.pdf and an this year's update that includes a section on SSRN is entitled Revisiting the Nuts and Bolts of Scholarship (download it by clicking on the title).

CLEA Newsletter Deadline

As you prepare to leave for the AALS Clinical Conference, please plan to submit information for the CLEA Newsletter.  The final issue of the CLEA Newsletter for this academic year will be published in late May. The deadline for receipt of items to be included in this issue is MAY 18.  All information of interest to CLEA members and the clinical community is welcome including, but not limited to:

 *     Conference or Workshop Announcements

*     Committee Reports, projects and activities (particularly updates from committees meeting during the Clinical Conference)

*     Reports of significant activities, news and accomplishments from individual clinical programs

*     Honors, Awards, Promotions or moves to new schools

*     Recent Publications

*     Any other news and information of interest to clinicians, including photographs*    

Position announcements [However, as previously announced, with the introduction of electronic postings ofposition announcements on the CLEA Website, http://www.cleaweb.org<http://www.cleaweb.org/> , position announcements will only be included in the electronic version of the CLEA Newsletter but will not be included in the hardcopy version that is mailed to those CLEA members who elect to receive their copy by mail to reduce mailing costs and to ensure the currency of job announcements with time-sensitive deadlines.

I encourage you to go to http://www.cleaweb.org/jobs/post.html if you wish to have them posted on the CLEA Website.  You may also continue to submit job listings to me if you wish them to be included in the electronic version of the CLEA Newsletter.

Information to be included in the Newsletter may be emailed, faxed or mailed to me at the contact information below. Thanks for your assistance.

   -Larry

Professor Larry R. Spain
Texas Tech University School of Law
1802 Hartford Avenue
Lubbock, Texas  79409-0004
(806) 742-3787 x227
(806) 742-4199 FAX
[email protected]

How to Write a Press Release

ON MESSAGE - Chronicle of Higher Education

Behold the Power of the Lowly Press Release

A look at the ins and outs of crafting the most basic communication tool in a public-relations office

By RUSSELL S. POWELL

Why write about press releases, the most basic of communication tools in the public-relations office? We can rattle them off in our sleep. And therein lies the problem: Too many of our releases read like they were written in our sleep.

We often take press releases for granted. Our approach to writing and distributing them is too casual in some cases and too self-serving in others. Because of their frequency and their low position on the communications chain, we often make the mistake of failing to keep the end user — the reporter or editor — foremost in mind.

It's not a fatal mistake. After all, the primary job of the press release is to quickly describe an event or news on the campus. In most instances, both the journalist's and the college's needs are met: Reporters get the raw materials for a story, even if it is only a calendar listing, and the college gets free publicity. The press release is ephemeral. So what if it's not as meticulously prepared as brochure copy? Where's the harm?

Yet something else is going on here. Consciously or not, reporters make inferences from a press release about the writer and the institution it represents. Over time, a string of releases that are sloppy or show poor news judgment reflect badly upon the college. A press release is a publication, a tangible representation of your institution, especially for the journalist sitting in an office miles away. Many of those reporters (and especially editors) have rarely, if ever, set foot on your campus. By default, the press release becomes a substitute for the real thing it describes, through its masthead, appearance, clarity, and grammar. In those few seconds in which you have their attention, you tell journalists much more about you and your college than the text of the release conveys.

Make it media-ready. Ideally, your press release should be of a high-enough quality to be reprinted or spoken verbatim, if necessary. (And from our perspective, isn't that the best-case scenario?) For that reason, we should approach every release not as a mundane obligation but as if we were a reporter on the receiving end. Why create unnecessary work? Why ask them to rewrite? It's in your best interest to write the story as clearly and accurately as you can. Reporters will appreciate not having to take time from their busy schedules to put your sprawling text into usable form.

Law Reviews Create Web Magazine Offering Condensed Articles

The Chronicle of Higher Education's Daily Report

April 22, 2009

Lawyers study for years to develop the patience to wade through dense legal tomes on such topics as the “takings clause,” but what about the rest of us?

A coalition of publications at a handful of prestigious law schools is looking out for curious laypersons who might be interested in the debate over intentionalist and textualist interpretations of the law, but don’t have the time to wrestle with a 78-page document brimming with footnotes and legalese. The new online magazine The Legal Workshop offers visitors the chance to browse brief summaries of articles appearing in the influential law reviews (composed by the authors of those articles), written in plain language.

The idea is to open up the content of law reviews to a wider audience and to make legal debates influential and relevant beyond academic cloisters. “As a profession,” Michael Montano, an editor of the Stanford Law Review, told the Web site Legal Blog Watch, “we owe it to the public to produce work that is relevant to society as a whole.” –Steve Kolowich

CALL for Proposals: Poverty Law Section

Association of American Law Schools    CALL FOR PROPOSALS

 The New Anti-Poverty Advocacy: Constructs, Strategies, and Tactics

AALS Section on Poverty Law

AALS Annual Meeting Program, January 2010,  New Orleans, Louisiana*

 *Statements of Interest Due May 1, 2009*

The recent pronounced shifts in American politics and economics intensify the need for sustained reflection, as we consider how to shape legal activism, scholarship, and policy-making against poverty. The re-emergence of the Democratic Party in national politics and the renewed support for government action simultaneously create openings for activists and advocates and invite caution. Similarly, the failures of the American banking system, massive government deficits, and the continued restructuring and globalization of the U.S. economy cause great misery for those at the bottom and present opportunities to press for fundamental and progressive reform. It remains unclear whether this period is one in which power will be redistributed downward and outward to poor and working people or whether the defining values and hierarchies of the political economy in the last thirty years - variously labeled neo-liberalism, neo-conservatism, or free market fundamentalism - will be reinforced.

The Section on Poverty Law seeks participants who might approach this complex and contradictory moment from differing vantage points and using diverse methods of analysis but with a shared sense of purpose and opportunity. Proposals may focus on new developments in the areas of access to justice, legal advocacy, and law reform and policy-making. Proposals may integrate intersecting legal frames, such as corporate law, criminal law, critical race theory, environmental law, family law, feminist theory, immigrants' rights, international human rights, and labor and employment law. The Section will give special attention to proposals that include consideration of the post-Katrina experience in New Orleans. Above all, we seek presenters excited to share useful and provocative ideas that can be integrated into our teaching, practice, and scholarship. 

The statements of interest should be no longer than 1 page. We will remove all references to the name and affiliation of those who submit proposals prior to review. Presenters will be selected on or before July 31, 2009. The Section will seek a venue for publication of papers stemming from the panel on the basis of the interest of selected participants.

 Please send statements of interest as an email attachment to Bernice Cohn at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. Questions should be directed to Sameer Ashar, Chair of the Poverty Law Section, at 718-340-4180 or [email protected]

50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice

From The Chronicle of Higher Education Monday, April 13

By GEOFFREY K. PULLUM

April 16 is the 50th anniversary of the publication of a little book that is loved and admired throughout American academe. Celebrations, readings, and toasts are being held, and a commemorative edition has been released.

I won't be celebrating.

The Elements of Style does not deserve the enormous esteem in which it is held by American college graduates. Its advice ranges from limp platitudes to inconsistent nonsense. Its enormous influence has not improved American students' grasp of English grammar; it has significantly degraded it. . . . .

Notice what I am objecting to is not the style advice in Elements, which might best be described the way The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy describes Earth: mostly harmless. Some of the recommendations are vapid, like "Be clear" (how could one disagree?). Some are tautologous, like "Do not explain too much." (Explaining too much means explaining more than you should, so of course you shouldn't.) Many are useless, like "Omit needless words." (The students who know which words are needless don't need the instruction.) Even so, it doesn't hurt to lay such well-meant maxims before novice writers.

Even the truly silly advice, like "Do not inject opinion," doesn't really do harm. (No force on earth can prevent undergraduates from injecting opinion. And anyway, sometimes that is just what we want from them.) But despite the "Style" in the title, much in the book relates to grammar, and the advice on that topic does real damage. It is atrocious. Since today it provides just about all of the grammar instruction most Americans ever get, that is something of a tragedy. Following the platitudinous style recommendations of Elements would make your writing better if you knew how to follow them, but that is not true of the grammar stipulations.

"Use the active voice" is a typical section head. And the section in question opens with an attempt to discredit passive clauses that is either grammatically misguided or disingenuous.

READ THE REST HERE

Call for Papers: Maine Law Review “Accessing Justice in Hard Times”

Difficult economic times are upon us. As a result, both the public and private sectors have been forced to make difficult budgetary decisions.

The effects of these decisions have reverberated throughout our nation.

In response to this crisis and in an effort to illuminate the effects of this economic downturn upon Maine’s legal system and legal systems nationally, the Maine Law Review will publish a Spring 2010 symposium issue entitled: "Accessing Justice in Hard Times: Lessons from the Field, Looking to the Future."

 The topic is construed broadly in order to provide an opportunity for a wide variety of viewpoints on a nearly limitless range of sub-topics.

This symposium will not be a "traditional" law review publication, as such. The issue will present an interdisciplinary perspective on the subject and include theoretical, empirical, and practical pieces by authors with a variety of backgrounds.

 The deadline for expressions of interest in writing for this symposium issue is June 1, 2009. The deadline for submissions to be considered for the Spring 2010 symposium is October 1, 2009.

 Submissions are welcome via Expresso or by email:

[email protected]

 Please contact Tina H. Nadeau, Editor-in-Chief, at [email protected] for more information about this symposium or to express interest in submitting an article.

 Maine Law Review is a student-edited journal of general interest that publishes biannually. It is the flagship journal of the University of Maine School of Law, located in Portland, Maine. For more information, please visit http://mainelaw.maine.edu/students/academic-program/maine-law-review/

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION: ROLE OF LAWYERS OF COLOR

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION

       THE ROLE OF LAWYERS OF COLOR: PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE

                   Texas Wesleyan Law Review
                       Fort Worth, Texas

                        October 2, 2009

In connection with the law school's 20th anniversary celebration, the Texas Wesleyan Law Review is pleased to host a symposium on Friday, October 2, 2009, on the topic of "The Role of Lawyers of Color: Past, Present, & Future."

Lawyers of color have traditionally played a special and important role in pursuing social issues and advancing notions of justice.  Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall are among the more prominent names, but lawyers of color of lesser fame have, for decades, been involved in a variety of ways with issues important to their communities and to the larger society. With the election of Barack Obama, himself a lawyer, community activist, and law professor, the role of lawyers of color is potentially changing, with as many questions now about the significance of race as there are about the importance of race-based policies. The purpose of the symposium is to explore and examine a range of historical, current, and future issues that surround lawyers of color.

TOPICS:

     We are now accepting proposals for papers and panel presentations on issues related to this symposium topic.
     Examples of the types of topics that we encourage authors and panelists to submit include but are not limited to:

     - The historical relevance and importance of lawyers of color
     - Lawyers of color and the NAACP
     - Lawyers of color and specific topics, including criminal law, immigration, and civil rights
     - Lawyers of color of specific racial groups, including Latinas/os, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans
     - The Obama phenomenon: Are we living in a post racial society? Does the race of lawyers matter?
     - The future of lawyers of color; including the pipeline to the legal profession; the position of lawyers of color in the legal profession and the role of affirmative action in legal education     

Writing effective clerkship recommendations

here's a good piece about writing those pesky clerkship letters

Download Article re rec letters

HT  Bill Araiza,  Brooklyn Law School

For a mere $325, you, too, can be the proud recipient of a panel presentation and a published article

Red-Flag Conferences

For a mere $325, you, too, can be the proud recipient of a panel presentation and a publish

By MARGARET BROOKS

In the past few years, a new type of "scholarly" conference has sprung up. Held at exciting resort destinations, such as Las Vegas, these conferences offer attendees the chance to both present and publish papers at one event. Some even allow you to present a paper in absentia, so long as you have paid the conference-registration fee.

At first glance these conferences may appear legitimate, yet an analysis of their materials and Web sites reveals numerous red flags.

I found one group that sends out a series of garish, unsolicited e-mail messages to publicize its Las Vegas conference and associated journals. Everyone who goes to the meeting must pay a presenter fee, even merely to attend. In 2008 that minimum fee was $325. The name of the journal in which presenters will publish their papers is already preprinted on the online conference registration form. Participants are instructed not to e-mail the organizers before the event for any reason, even if they have a scheduling conflict for presenting their papers.

read the rest here

Call for Papers - Loyola University New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law

The Loyola University New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law is soliciting papers to be presented at a multidisciplinary symposium on Friday, October 16, 2009 at the College of Law.

The symposium panelists will examine the education reform laws and practices in New Orleans post-Katrina and make suggestions for these reforms moving forward both within the city and in other states and school districts. Issues such as the treatment of special needs students in charter schools, fractured governance within one school district, the interaction of charter enabling legislation with civil rights laws and state takeover legislation, equitable school funding, free market competition between schools and school systems, teachers’ rights and protections, the impact on racial, ethnic and socioeconomic subgroups, and charter revocation and renewal are but a few of the of the important subjects arising in the “new” New Orleans education system.

Abstract submissions must be received by May 30, 2009.  Submit a one or two paragraph abstract of the paper to be presented to Robert Garda at [email protected] or to:

Robert Garda
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law
7214 St. Charles Ave.
Campus Box 901
New Orleans, LA 70118

Authors will be notified of the selection results by July 1, 2009. Authors whose papers are selected will present their work at the symposium held at Loyola University New Orleans College of Law on October 16, 2009. Authors must submit their completed paper to the Journal of Public Interest Law by October 1, 2009. The selected papers will be published in the Spring 2010 edition of the Loyola University New Orleans Journal of Public Interest Law. Presenter’s travel and lodging expenses will be paid for by Loyola University New Orleans College of Law.

AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education Newsletter: items due 4/13

The deadline for submissions to the spring edition of the AALS Section on Clinical Legal Education is Monday, April 13.  Please e-mail items of reasonable length to me at [email protected]

Items can include:

--stories about your clinics or your students

--promotions, new hires, honors, awards

--publications by clinicians

--committee reports

--information of interest related to the clinical conference May 5-9 in Cleveland

--any other items of interest to clinical legal educators

Due to an increasing number of lengthy press releases, I ask that you edit your material about your schools to a reasonable length; I reserve the right to cut back any article.  We love hearing about what you are all doing, but for example six pages about one program is too long!

I look forward to hearing from you.

Kim O'Leary

Your newsletter editor

 

Call for Papers: Feminism, Law and Masculinity

 

from hunter of justice by Nan Hunter

The Feminism and Legal Theory Project of Emory University School of Law has issued a call for papers for a workshop, "Feminism, Law, and Masculinity," to take place Sept 11-12 2009:

This workshop will explore the relevance of masculinities studies to feminist legal theory and activism. We have long struggled, both within and without the academy, to understand how law defines the feminine by articulating, constructing, and regulating women and the female body. Similarly, and more broadly, feminisms have focused on the place of gender in the construction of social relations that too often fail to protect the interests of women. This work notwithstanding, the place of masculinity has received relatively little attention. We hope to facilitate social and cultural resistance to assertions of hyper-masculinity, particularly those that arise in response to feminism itself.

We will interrogate the privileged positioning of the male body that results from its being cast as normative. We also invite papers which engage feminist ethics or approaches to address the relevance of masculinity to feminist legal theory. We particularly welcome submissions locating masculinity within those areas of study feminism has identified as key: violence, reproduction, state responsibility, poverty, and rights....

Please email a paper proposal of several paragraphs length by March 30, 2009 to:
[email protected] and [email protected]

The Feminism and Legal Theory Project of Emory University School of Law has issued a call for papers for a workshop, "Feminism, Law, and Masculinity," to take place Sept 11-12 2009:

This workshop will explore the relevance of masculinities studies to feminist legal theory and activism. We have long struggled, both within and without the academy, to understand how law defines the feminine by articulating, constructing, and regulating women and the female body. Similarly, and more broadly, feminisms have focused on the place of gender in the construction of social relations that too often fail to protect the interests of women. This work notwithstanding, the place of masculinity has received relatively little attention. We hope to facilitate social and cultural resistance to assertions of hyper-masculinity, particularly those that arise in response to feminism itself.

We will interrogate the privileged positioning of the male body that results from its being cast as normative. We also invite papers which engage feminist ethics or approaches to address the relevance of masculinity to feminist legal theory. We particularly welcome submissions locating masculinity within those areas of study feminism has identified as key: violence, reproduction, state responsibility, poverty, and rights....

Please email a paper proposal of several paragraphs length by March 30, 2009 to:
[email protected] and [email protected]

CALL FOR SCHOLARLY WORKS IN PROGRESS: AALS Clinical Conference

Please note that the submission deadline is next Friday, March 20th.

The Clinical Scholarship Committee of the AALS Clinical Section will again host a "works in progress" session at the upcoming Conference on Clinical Legal Education, which will be held in Cleveland on May 5-May 9, 2009. A special time has been set aside on Friday afternoon for participants to present articles or other curricular works in progress to get feedback from an audience of clinical colleagues from around the country. Articles DO NOT need to be "clinical scholarship." In the past, people have presented work on a variety of different topics, in various stages of development, and we have organized the works in progress panels as much as possible to provide thematic continuity. In addition, we welcome Curricular Works in Progress presentations by people who are expanding their clinic structure or taking their clinical teaching in new directions.

If you want to be considered for a scholarly or curricular works in progress session, please send a description, outline or draft of your article or curricular work in progress by email to Kate Kruse (UNLV) and Michael Pinard (Maryland). The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 20, 2009. Kate's e-mail address is [email protected].  Michael's e-mail address is [email protected].

CLINICAL SCHOLARSHIP PEER NETWORK

Also, we would like to remind you of the Clinical Scholarship Peer Network. Through this network, the Scholarship Committee offers every clinician an opportunity for supportive, non-evaluative feedback on a scholarly work-in-progress from a clinical colleague with shared substantive expertise. We have already matched many writers and reviewers.  If you have a work-in-progress and would like to be paired with a clinical colleague at another school, send a request to this address:  [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .  We have an extensive database of clinicians willing to provide feedback in your subject-matter area.  If you are willing to offer constructive feedback, join our extensive database of subject-matter experts at this link: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pZsCVzJPWhtPxGN_ikLSZMQ&email=true <https://newmail.law.umaryland.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pZsCVzJPWhtPxGN_ikLSZMQ%26email=true> .   This is not a commitment to serve as a peer reviewer.  You will simply be in our database, and when an author in your area of expertise asks for peer review, we will contact you to see if you are interested. If you have questions, email Michele Gilman at [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .  Happy writing!"

Call for Papers and Panels: LatCrit XIV, Oct 1-4, 2009, American University (DC)

from Poverty Law Prof Blog by Poverty Law

LatCrit XIV is being hosted by American University Washington College of Law on Oct. 1-4, 2009. The theme of this year's conference is: OUTSIDERS INSIDE: CRITICAL OUTSIDER THEORY AND PRAXIS IN THE POLICYMAKING OF THE NEW AMERICAN REGIME.

The conference also includes the LatCrit/SALT Junior Faculty Development Workshop.  The complete call for papers/panels is here.

Please submit your panel and paper proposals through the online process at the LatCrit website (www.law.du.edu/latcrit/index.htm) no later than MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2009. 

LatCrit XIV is being hosted by American University Washington College of Law on Oct. 1-4, 2009. The theme of this year's conference is: OUTSIDERS INSIDE: CRITICAL OUTSIDER THEORY AND PRAXIS IN THE POLICYMAKING OF THE NEW AMERICAN REGIME.

The conference also includes the LatCrit/SALT Junior Faculty Development Workshop.  The complete call for papers/panels is here.

Please submit your panel and paper proposals through the online process at the LatCrit website (www.law.du.edu/latcrit/index.htm) no later than MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2009. 

CALL FOR PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS: FIRST ANNUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING

FIRST ANNUAL INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE ON 

HUMAN TRAFFICKING
WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE NEED TO KNOW

October 29-31, 2009
University of Nebraska - Lincoln

The purpose of this conference is to bring together researchers from many disciplines, as well as government and non-governmental agencies who have responsibility for anti-trafficking efforts, to develop a research agenda.

IF YOU HAVE RESEARCH RESULTS OR IDEAS, or an interest in studying human trafficking, this conference will put you in touch with other researchers in the field.  It will put you in touch with people who are “on the ground” in combating human trafficking, who see the effects of trafficking in their work.  It will also put you in touch with government agencies and others who fund anti-trafficking efforts, and who will fund knowledge-creation, evaluation, and methodology-creation work.  You are welcome to come to hear papers and presentations, and especially to present your own work or ideas.

IF YOU NEED OR FUND RESEARCH IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING, this conference will put you in touch with others, nationally and internationally, engaged in anti-trafficking efforts, as well as scholars with an interest in providing knowledge and methodologies to study the problems surrounding human trafficking.  You are welcome to come and describe the problems you face, particularly those for which researchers might offer expertise and solid research-based knowledge, and to help set a research agenda for the future.

FORMAT: There will be three periods, each with a plenary session, followed or preceded by multiple break-out sessions for papers and presentations.  Audiovisual equipment will be available.

Submission Guidelines/Deadlines for Gender Law Journals

from Feminist Law Profs blog

Here is a list I’ve compiled of the 24 journals identified by ExpressO as having “women” as a subject matter speciality.  I set out to determine whether each journal has announced that it has begun reviewing articles yet, and any stated preferences the journal has for methods of submissions, page limitations, etc.   Only one journal (Yale J.L. & Feminism) had specific information on its website about when it was reviewing articles (now).

My big take-aways are that most of these journals accept articles on a rolling basis and, all things being equal, they’d prefer to get e-mail submissions directly to the listed address.  

No doubt there are some holes in this list.  I welcome corrections, additions and updates.

-Bridget Crawford

Clinical Law Review: apply to be on the Board of Editors

The Clinical Law Review seeks applications for four vacancies on the Board of Editors.  The Selection Committee and the Board of Editors urge you to think about whether you would be interested, and to think about others whom you would encourage to apply.

 Members of the Board of Editors serve for a term of 6 years.  Board meetings customarily have been held twice a year: once at the AALS annual meeting and once at the AALS Spring clinical workshop or conference.  Board members are expected to attend meetings regularly.  Policy matters for the Review and status of upcoming issues are discussed at these meetings.  Between meetings Board members are asked to work with authors to edit articles.  Board members may be asked to review manuscripts and to make a recommendation on whether to accept the submission for publication.  Board members customarily serve as small group leaders in the bi-annual Clinical Law Review Workshop.

Applicants should explain their interest in the position and should highlight the aspects of their experience that they believe are most relevant.  The Selection Committee seeks applications from people committed to the work of the Review and strives to select a Board with diverse backgrounds and varying experiences in and approaches to clinical education.  Applications and supporting resumes must be received no later than April 1, 2009.  Please email them to Binny Miller at [email protected].

 The committee to select new Board members is always chaired by a current Board member whose term is expiring.  I will be serving this year as the chair of the selection committee.  The other members of the committee are designated by the three organizations that sponsor the Clinical Law Review -- AALS, CLEA, and NYU -- each of which designates two committee members.  The representatives designated by these organizations for this round of Board selection are, respectively: Jeff Selbin, Gemma Solimene, Kate Kruse, Michael Pinard, Marty Guggenheim and Randy Hertz.

 The selection committee will review the applications and meet at the May AALS conference in Cleveland.  Selections will be made so that the new Board members will join the Board at the beginning of the 2009-10 academic year.

 I encourage you to contact me or other current or former Board members with any questions or for information about service on the Board.  My fellow Board members and I have found it a very rewarding and informative way to continue the advancement of clinical education.

 The other members of the Board are: Margaret Martin Barry, Ben Barton, Juliet Brodie, Angela Burton, Marty Guggenheim, Peter Joy, Bridget McCormack, Kim O’Leary, and Ascanio Piomelli) and the Editors-in-Chief are Randy Hertz, Kate Kruse, and Michael Pinard.  Those who previously served on the Board are: Jane Aiken, Tony Alfieri, Bev Balos, Richard Boswell, Stacy Caplow, Bob Dinerstein, Jon Dubin, Steve Ellmann, Cecelia Espenoza, Gay Gellhorn, Isabelle Gunning, Peter Toll Hoffman, Jonathan Hyman, Minna Kotkin, Deborah Maranville, Paul Reingold, Jim Stark, Paul Tremblay, Nina Tarr, Rod Uphoff, and Leah Wortham.

I look forward to hearing from you. - Binny

Future of Family Law Education Conference Call for Papers and Presenters

You are invited to “The Future of Family Law Education”  (A family law education conference with topics and demonstrations to enliven your teaching!).  Here's the Call for Proposals:  Download Call for Presenters Future of Family Law Education

Do you have family law teaching ideas that you are willing to share? Would you like to talk with other professors about successes and frustrations related to teaching family law courses? This conference is for you!!

The conference will be held on Friday, June 26 at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Please send workshop proposals to Nancy Ver Steegh at [email protected] (651-290-6342) before March 1, 2009. (Workshop proposals should include a 200 word abstract, a one-page outline, three learning objectives, and presenter contact information.) Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the Family Court Review. Please watch for more information at the conference website http://www.wmitchell.edu/family-law/conference/.  

Please also visit the Family Law Education Reform Project website to download shared family law teaching materials http://www.flerproject.org/ .

The conference is sponsored by The Midwest Family Law Consortium: Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis; University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law; and William Mitchell College of Law; with the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Minnesota Chapter; the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts; and Hofstra University School of Law, Center for Children, Families, and the Law.

Call for Papers: Poverty Law

 Journal of Law & Public Policy at the University of Florida

The Journal of Law & Public Policy at the University of Florida Levin College of Law is currently accepting submissions for its poverty law issue. This issue will be published in August 2009 and will focus on cutting-edge poverty law topics. If you would like to submit either an article or essay, then we prefer to have your finished piece no later than March 23, 2009. For additional information or to submit an article please contact Assistant Editor-in-Chief Tiffany L. Anderson at [email protected].

CALL FOR PAPERS: DISABILITY LAW

THE LONG ROAD HOME: PERSPECTIVES ON OLMSTEAD TEN YEARS LATER

The Georgia State University College of Law will hold a one-day symposium on Friday, October 23, 2009,
to mark the tenth anniversary of the United States Supreme Court's integration mandate in Olmstead v. L.C., 527 U.S. 581 (1999), a landmark decision considered by some to be the disability law parallel to Brown v. Board of Education. Attorneys and the surviving plaintiff from the Olmstead litigation, which originated in metropolitan Atlanta, will participate in the Symposium.

The Symposium is co-sponsored by the College of Law, the Center for Leadership in Disability, the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and the Georgia Advocacy Office. Attorneys from Atlanta Legal Aid and Sutherland participated in the original Olmstead litigation.

The Symposium will examine the current status of the right of individuals with disabilities to receive services in community-based settings and explore the next steps in implementing and expanding the Olmstead decision. The College of Law welcomes papers, essays, and symposium-length articles on these topics and related subjects. The format is flexible in order to encourage academics, advocates, attorneys, practitioners, and providers alike to participate. Selected conference papers will be published in a future issue of the Georgia State University Law Review.

Those interested in participating should e-mail a one-page abstract to [email protected] by March 20, 2009. Participants will be notified by late April if their papers have been accepted for publication. For more information, please contact Laurice Rutledge, Law Review Symposium Editor, at [email protected] or Talley Wells at [email protected].

 

 

Law School Recruits Students through Second Life

ABA Journal Tech Report


Students interested in Santa Clara University Law School can pose admissions questions to a virtual character this evening in the online world of Second Life. Jeanette Leach, dean of admissions at the law school, will answer questions as her online avatar "Penny Canucci," according to The Tech Chronicles blog of...

read the rest
here

CALI establishes site for sharing teaching materials

I am forwarding an announcement from the Center for Computer Assisted Legal Research Instruction which is sponsoring a common location for law professors to share their teaching materials online.  CALI is trying to encourage law professors to share teaching materials along the lines of the MIT School of Management Open Course Ware initiative of eight years ago.  Note: The MIT site was just upgraded to the MIT Sloan Teaching Innovation Resources (MIT’s Sloan School of Management has unveiled a set of case studies, videos, interactive teaching tools, and teacher’s notes on a new Web site called MIT Sloan Teaching Innovation Resources).

Call for Papers: Employment Law

Call for Papers: Employment Law Call for Papers: “Emerging Trends in Employment Law” The Rutgers Law Record seeks scholarly articles on Emerging Trends in Employment Law to be included in its first issue in its new on-line symposium format. See submissions page for article requirements. Please submit all articles and questions to lawrecordarticles [at] gmail.com prior to January 5, 2009. Update (Jan. 6): The editors are extending the deadline to Jan. 30, 2009.

Open Society Institute Democracy Fellowships -- Great Timing!

Open Society Institute (OSI) fellowship supports scholars, journalists, activists, policy experts and others to work on projects that inspire public debate and shape policy. OSI is looking for innovative thinkers working on human rights, government transparency and accountability, citizen empowerment and participation, access to justice and other areas of interest to OSI. Fellows' projects may include books, articles, online media, and efforts to seed new campaigns and organizations. The Open Society Fellowship is open to individuals from around the world.

Proposals are reviewed on a rolling basis and there are no application deadlines. The fellowship does not fund programs of study or dissertation research. More details are available at http://www.soros.org/initiatives/fellowship.

 

If you have any questions about the fellowship, feel free to email Bipasha Ray at [email protected].

William Mitchell Law Review seeking articles for a Poverty Law Issue

The William Mitchell Law Review is currently seeking completed papers that examine current issues and recent developments in Poverty Law. The William Mitchell Law Review is highly regarded both regionally and nationally.  Our Law Review recently ranked twenty-second in citations by judges and ranked fifty-seventh in citations by other law journals, culminating in an overall ranking of seventieth.  Over the years, the William Mitchell Law Review has featured the works of various scholars and practitioners such as Congressman Tim Penny, and former Vice President Walter Mondale. The William Mitchell Law Review has also published nationally known legal experts ranging from Philip Bruner, to Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Byron White, and Harry Blackmun. Please send submissions to Executive Editor Shira Shapiro at [email protected].