New Journal Comes to DU

A new journal is coming to the Sturm College of Law! The Journal of Energy & Natural Resources Law is published quarterly by the International Bar Association’s Section on Energy, Environment, Natural Resources and Infrastructure Law. The journal will be edited at DU under the supervision of Professor Don Smith, Director, Environmental & Natural Resources Law & Policy Graduate Program. For more information about the move from the Denver Business Journal, click here.

Written by Patty Wellinger, Reference Services Coordinator

Library Closed for Holidays

The Westminster Law Library will be closed from 4pm on December 23, 2011 - January 2, 2012 as part of the University's holiday closure. The Law Library will reopen on January 3 at 8am for reduced hours until classes begin for Spring semester. Click here for the full schedule.

Legal Administration Program at DU

Are you interested in managing and operating a law firm, court, or legal organization? Know someone who is? Check out the Master of Science in Legal Administration at the University of Denver. Billed as the MBA for legal professionals, the is rather similar to a Master of Business Administration degree, but with particular focus on legal organizations.
Currently, the MSLA can be completed in a single year (two semesters and a summer externship)of full-time study or between two and four years of part-time study. To help accommodate the needs of a variety of students, all MSLA courses are available either in-person or online.

Students pursuing the MSLA degree choose a focus from amongst three different concentrations:

1) Law Firm Administration Concentration
Concentration Information
Concentration Course Plan
Concentration Video Link

2) Court Administration Concentration
Concentration Information
Concentration Course Plan
Concentration Video Link

3) International Court Administration Concentration
Concentration Information
Concentration Course Plan
Video Link

The MSLA Program also benefits from an active group of alumni, and the program has made efforts to make keeping in touch after graduation even easier in a variety of ways. It has established a presence on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and professional sites like LinkedIn, as well as hosting events for alumni like a dinner for those attending the National Association for Court Management conference and distributing a free quarterly newsletter.

Those interested in earning both a J.D. and MSLA degree may also be interested in the joint degree program at DU.

For more information on the MSLA Program at DU, contact Hope Kentnor at 303-871-6308 or via e-mail at hkentnor@du.edu or use the contact web page. Also, see the
MSLA Information Brochure .

Written by Hope Kentnor, Director, MSLA Program

DU Alum Sworn in as CO Supreme Court Justice

Brian Boatright is the newest Justice on the Colorado Supreme Court. The new Justice was sworn in privately Nov. 21, 2011 and his public swearing in ceremony is on December 13th.

Boatright, 49, was selected by Governor John Hickenlooper in part because of his 10+ years as a trial court judge in the 1st Judicial District. See Denver Post article about the announcement. Boatright was a popular judge who received the highest marks in his 2008 retention survey report. His official court biography details his earlier work as a Deputy D.A. Justice Boatright graduated from the University of Denver law school in 1988. Already hard at work, the new Justice sided with the majority in five recent opinions.

Written by Patty Wellinger, Reference Services Coordinator

UPDATE
Justice Boatright will be the commencement speaker for the SCOL graduation ceremony on Saturday, May 19, 2012, at 10 am. It will be held in Magness Arena at the Ritchie Center.

Reduced Reference Hours: Dec. 16th

The Chancellor has announced an shortened day on Friday, December 16th for University staff. In accordance, the Reference Desk will only be open from 9am-noon that day. The Library itself will remain open.

New Library Director / Assistant Director

Dr. Sylvia Hall-Ellis was named Interim Director of the Westminster Law Library at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law effective October 3, 2011. Dr. Hall-Ellis is an Associate Professor at the Morgridge College of Education and brings over 35 years of experience working in libraries as an administrator, development officer and project manager. She has unique expertise in the areas of database building and maintenance, bibliographic cataloging, research and grant writing. Dr. Hall-Ellis is a member of a variety of professional organizations and is listed in several editions of regional and national bibliographic volumes. Dr. Hall-Ellis has published numerous technical reports, articles, and three monographs and has conducted major field research studies.

Dr. Stacey L. Bowers, the Outreach & Instructional Services Coordinator at the Westminster Law Library was name Interim Assistant Director effective October 3, 2011. She practiced law for 14 years prior to joining the law library in 2006. Dr. Bowers is an adjunct professor at the Sturm College of Law where she teaches legal research courses and corporate drafting. She is a member of both state and national professional organizations and has published articles and co-authored a book.

Library Hours for Finals, Intersession

The Law Library and the SCOL building will have special hours during finals and intersession. Please see this handout for a detailed list of hours. Please also see our earlier post about special access policies during finals. Remember to carry your DU id card with you for entrance to the library in the evenings and weekends through December 15th.

GOOD LUCK on your exams!

Turkey Trivia

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, thoughts of Turkey may be of more interest than studying for finals (at least for a few days!). Here is a research guide created by the University of Chicago Library with everything you ever wanted to know about turkeys:

1) History of the Turkey in the US
2) The Turkey trot - dances and more recently, 5K's
3) Cooking the Turkey to perfection (with help from Julia Childs)
4) Turkey hunts
5) Turkeys around the world

Enjoy your short break before finals!

Dogs Visit Law School, Nov 28th-29th

Lower your blood pressure! Reduce stress! Give your brain a study break!

We know that preparing for exams can be very stressful so the Westminster Law Library and the Office of Student Affairs are sponsoring a PAWS to RELAX program to bring several therapy dogs to the SCOL building for study breaks. The program is being offered on Monday, November 28 and Tuesday, November 29 from noon-6pm in room 145.

Therapy dog teams from the American Humane Association will rotate throughout the day, but each two-hour time block will include 2-4 dogs available for drop in visits. NO appointments necessary. These dog and handler teams have all undergone training and are used to interacting with adults and kids in hospitals, nursing homes, schools and libraries.

Big dogs, small dogs, we have them all. So stop by for a short study break and say hi!

UPDATE
Thanks to everyone who dropped by to visit a therapy dog on Monday or Tuesday. We hope that you enjoyed your study break and it helped ease the stress a little. We had about 110 people on Monday and 152 people on Tuesday participate in the event, so perhaps we can try it again during spring semester.

Good Luck on Finals!

Access Changes to Library During Finals

Beginning Tuesday, November 22^nd, and continuing every weekday through Thursday December 15^th, the law library entrance will lock at 5:30 every evening and only allow those with DU law school ID cards to enter the library. The library will still close at midnight. Circulation Associates may allow someone without a card entry if it is an alumnus or practicing attorney that needs access to our collection, but they will not allow others in who may want to use the study space. Every Friday during Reading Week and Finals the library entrance will lock at 5:30PM and not open without a law school ID card until Monday morning.

Also beginning Tuesday, November 22^nd, and continuing through Thursday, December 15^th, those with DU law school ID’s will be allowed to remain in the law building after the building is closed to others. Please remember, you must have your ID with you or you will be asked to leave when Campus Safety closes the building at midnight.

Additionally, the law library closes for both Thanksgiving and the Friday following it. The building will be open for those with law school ID cards. Signs, with the hours for both the library and the building will be posted beginning tomorrow.

Thank you for your attention and please remember your Pioneer ID cards.

JoAnna Patrick

Director of Facilities & Operations, SCOL

303-871-6153

Thanksgiving Hours

The Law Library will be on reduced hours for part of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011
7:30am-8pm

Thursday, November 24, 2011
Closed

Friday, November 25, 2011
Closed

Saturday, November 26, 2011

8am-8pm

Sunday, November 27, 2011
8am - midnight

The Reference Desk will be closing from 3pm on Wednesday - Sunday. A full listing of library & building hours during exams, holidays & intersession is posted here.

BNA Rep Visits DU - 11/14

Want to find out more about the specialized legal research topics available via the Library's BNA database?

The BNA Legal Solutions Consultant, Heidi Reese, will be staffing a table on Level 1 from 11am-2pm on Monday, November 14, 2011. She will have handouts & tips on searching the various BNA databases that the library has under subscription. Heidi can also give you some tips on using BNA resources to find research or paper topics in your upper level writing classes.

Corporate Drafting Class

Spring registration is upon us and you should consider taking the Corporate Drafting class taught by Stacey Bowers, one of our law librarians. Two sections of this class are being offered: (i) Mon/Wed from 9:00 – 10:15am, and (ii) Mon/Wed from 2:45-4:00pm. This class will cover transactional drafting skills and students will draft a variety of corporate and transactional provisions and documents. Registration is subject to professor approval so please contact Stacey Bowers at sbowers@law.du.edu if you are interested in this course. This class is part of the Corporate & Commercial Law Program and meets the upper level writing requirement.

App for HeinOnline Databases

HeinOnline now has an free app for your iphone or ipad. You must use your name & DU id to login.

Features Include:
• View HeinOnline's Imaged-based PDFs
• Use HeinOnline's Citation Navigator
• Browse by Volume
• View Electronic Table of Contents
• Search HeinOnline using Advanced Searching Techniques

For more information and to download, see the HeinOnline help center.

Reference Desk Closure

The Reference Desk is closing at 3:00PM today because of staff illnesses.

Emergency Notifications

Sign up for the University's emergency notification system to get the latest news about snow closures, campus safety alerts, etc. You can request that notifications be sent to your email, home or cell phone.

A full list of suggestions for various emergency scenarios is also listed on the DU Office of Emergency Preparedness website, along with a video of what to do in an active shooter situation.

Be prepared!

Advanced Legal Research Course

Advanced Legal Research Course Description

Students will select an area of practice in which to explore all major legal research resources, formats, and costs, and refine their ability to formulate cost-effective research strategies. They will identify an issue of interest and formulate a Legal Research Plan for an analysis on the issue; draft a Library Purchasing Plan for the practice area; write and revise a legal analysis on the issue; draft a client letter on the legal analysis; consider potential ethical issues for the practice area and write a short paper on these concerns; give an oral presentation; and write a final reflection.

Prerequisites: None
Credit Hours: 3
ULW: This course does satisfy the Upper Level Writing requirement (ULW)

The class will be taught by Professor Debra Austin.

Lexis Training: Special Topics

The Lexis rep, Katy Sparks, is offering some advanced training classes for 2L's & 3L's. Sign up now for a session on the Lexis law school page!

Search Tactics
Advanced use of Terms & Connectors searching - with search tips for specific databases included

10/20/2011 12:00 PM 25 min Room 259

International Law
Come let us show you the international law sources available through Lexis and how to easily locate them on the website.

10/24/2011 12:00 PM 25 min Room 259
10/24/2011 4:45 PM 25 min Room 180

Business Law
Come see the sources on Lexis that will help you in a business law practice or business law related field.

10/24/2011 6:00 PM 25 min Room 165
10/26/2011 12:00 PM 25 min Room 259

Shepard's training
Review of basic Shepard's feature and an exploration of the more advanced features

10/25/2011 11:00 AM 25 min Room 259
10/25/2011 2:30 PM 25 min Room 145
10/25/2011 5:00 PM 25 min Room 125

Criminal Law
Come get some research tips on using the Lexis sources for practice in criminal law.

10/26/2011 4:45 PM 25 min Room 180
10/27/2011 12:00 PM 25 min Room 259

Environmental Law
We'll show you the best and most frequently used databases for environmental law research - and give you some tips along the way!

10/31/2011 12:00 PM 25 min Room 259
10/31/2011 4:45 PM 25 min Room 180

Copyright Research Guide

The Law Library is pleased to announce the creation of a new research guide on Copyright Law. This research guide provides background information on copyright issues, discusses various treaties that affect U.S. copyright law and provides links to statutes, regulations and secondary materials. There is a section listing the various exceptions such as the fair use doctrine and also how to research copyright registrations. Take a look at this guide as well as over 40 other topical research guides that we have developed to help you with your legal research questions.

U.S. Supreme Court Hears Copyright Case With DU Tie

For an update on the case, see this article from The Clarion, DU's student paper.

Oral arguments will be heard on Wednesday, October 5th in a copyright case with DU connections. To see more details about DU music professor Lawrence Golan's challenge to current U.S, copyright law, read the DU news story and a recent update from Law Week Colorado.

Federal Rules EBooks

CALI and the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School have worked together to produce free ebooks on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Criminal Procedure and Evidence. These ebooks also work with iPads and they are hoping to release a Kindle compatible version in the future.

MAC Malware Warning

A warning for MAC users from our EdTech Department:

A new Trojan disguises itself as a flash player installer. Bottom line: make sure you install flash player from http://www.adobe.com and not from third party sites. Also, make sure that if you use Safari you have unchecked ‘Open safe files after downloading’ option under Preferences>General.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/27/apple_updates_mac_malware_protection/

Changes to Criminal Law Key Numbers

As criminal law grows, so does the West Key Number System

New Key Numbers for Criminal Law (topic 110)

Criminal law has seen many changes in the last few years, particularly in areas such as the application of Miranda, the exclusionary rule, and the admissibility of the defendant's prior misconduct.

West's response: As of August 1, more than 400,000 headnotes have been reclassified in the West Key Number System, particularly within Criminal Law (topic 110) and Arrest (topic 35). Changes are especially significant in the following areas:

Evidence of other crimes or misconduct: The "other crimes, wrongs, or acts" rule, in its entirety, has been the subject of more appeals than any other evidence rule. David P. Leonard, Character and Motive in Evidence Law, 34 LOY. L.A. L. REV. 439, 44 (2001). Accordingly, there are now more Key Numbers covering the purposes for which evidence of other crimes or misconduct is admissible (e.g., the single Key Number for the admissibility of other crimes or prior bad acts evidence to prove motive has been expanded to 26, organized by the offense being prosecuted), more Key Numbers covering the use of such evidence to prove knowledge and identity, and newly created Key Numbers for the frequently-litigated issues of gang membership and juvenile misconduct evidence.

Confessions, statements, and admissions: Three former sections for confessions, statements, and admissions have been consolidated into a single section, so that similar concepts governing all three types of evidence are in the same place. For example, headnotes pertaining to whether a defendant is "in custody" for the purpose of Miranda warnings are now classified under a single Key Number.

Wrongfully obtained evidence: There are more Key Numbers to cover frequently litigated issues, such as the inevitable discovery and good faith exceptions to the exclusionary rule. Key numbers have also been added for exclusionary rule issues not involving searches and arrests, such as violations of privileges and attorney disciplinary rules.

For all three areas, West attorney-editors have created new Key Numbers covering specific procedural issues in the admission of such evidence, such as motions, hearings, notice, and burden of proof.

In addition, there have been many smaller changes in other topics, such as those under Schools and States relating to notice, demand, and presentation of claims.

Reprinted from the July / August issue of Westlaw Edge Newsletter.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar can be an important resource for finding free legal information, especially cases and law review articles. Check out our research guide for search tips and a tutorial on how to get the most out of Google Scholar for your research needs.

Judicial Humor

Although the law is generally a serious matter, there is a lighter side to the law that is all-too-often overlooked. Thanks to the team at Judicial Humor, however, you can easily keep informed on the entertaining, funny, and sometimes absurd side of the law. Divided into topics such as Humorous Plaintiffs, Parody & Verse, and Veiled References, Judicial Humor offers case names and citations, usually along with quotes from the decisions or brief recaps on why the case was included on the site.

Besides Judicial Humor, there are a few other websites dedicated to the lighter side of the judiciary as well. McClurg's Legal Humor Headquarters, for example, has a section devoted to Strange Judicial Opinions. Likewise, Say What?! hasn't been updated since March of 2010, but the archives are full of courtroom humor originally collected by U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer and published in a column for the Texas Bar Journal.

Of course, not everyone finds the idea of judicial humor amusing. According to Justice George Rose Smith, …Judicial humor is neither judicial nor humorous. A lawsuit is a serious matter to those concerned in it. For a judge to take advantage of his criticism-insulated, retaliation-proof position to display his wit is contemptible, like hitting a man when he's down. (21 Ark. L. Rev. 197, 210).

Likewise, in the note Judicial Humor: A Laughing Matter? (41 Hastings L.J. 175), Marshall Rudolph suggests that there are certain circumstances where judicial humor is out of place.

What's your take? Do you think a certain level of humor within the judiciary is acceptable? Is there some point where that acceptable humor becomes, in the words of George Rose Smith, contemptible?

Written by Marty Witt

CALI Tutorials

Want to learn about a new area of law or review for an upcoming exam? Need to work on your legal writing or research skills? Try a CALI exercise!

The Center for Computer Assisted Legal Research (CALI) creates and distributes CALI Lessons, a library of over 850 interactive tutorials in a variety of legal subjects written by law school professors and librarians. Exercises range from about 10 minutes to several hours depending on the complexity of the topic. Students, faculty & staff at the Sturm College of Law have unlimited access to CALI tutorials and podcasts. And CALI lessons work on mobile devices like iPads and iPhones.

Register for a free CALI password at www.cali.org so that you can access additional features and the new material that is released throughout the year. Just use our school code to register (see the Databases / Indexes section of the Law Library's website for more information), you will need your DU ID to access. Colorado specific CALI tutorials cover both primary and secondary resources.

Or if you prefer CD-Rom access, stop by the Reference Desk or the Educational Technology office to pick up your own copy of the current CALI exercises on disk.