Site aiming to prevent ‘link rot’ for legal researchers wins 2015 Webby

A service that enables courts and researchers to make permanent links to research found on the Web has won a Webby Award for best legal site of 2015. Perma.cc, developed by the Harvard Law School Library and supported by a network of more than 60 law libraries, takes on the…

Apr 27, 2015 10:55 AM CDT

ABA committee seeks more detailed data on law school attrition

Law schools would be required to provide more detailed information about attrition rates for admitted students under a proposed change in the reporting requirements being requested by an ABA committee. Currently, law schools are required to disclose on their annual information reports the overall number and percentage of admitted students…

Feb 17, 2015 5:00 PM CST

Kaye Scholer says goodbye to old offices and 95 percent of its law books

Kaye Scholer has moved to a new headquarters in Manhattan with dramatically smaller library space. The law firm didn’t take about 95 percent of its library, made up of tens of thousands of books, when it moved to new offices this month at 250 West 55th Street, the New York…

Oct 23, 2014 7:46 AM CDT

Elon Law to cut total tuition by nearly $14K and offer law degree in 2.5 years for all

Elon University School of Law has announced the creation of a new curriculum that represents what the school is calling a groundbreaking new model for legal education. The new curriculum, announced in press release Thursday, will be the nation’s first standard JD program lasting less than three years, Luke Bierman,…

Oct 9, 2014 4:55 PM CDT

Smaller staffs are expected to hold bigger jobs as firms redefine their work

Oct 1, 2014 3:40 AM CDT

Longtime law library director who gave workers unauthorized county-paid perks gets jail time

Known for decades as a polite and helpful worker at a Pennsylvania courthouse, a former director of the Montgomery County Law Library is now headed to jail. Bruce Piscadlo, 62, will be allowed to serve his one- to 23-month sentence on weekends, the Mercury reports. Earlier this year, he pleaded…

Aug 27, 2014 10:30 PM CDT

2nd Circuit OKs searchable book database, calls copying entire volumes for this purpose fair use

Copying entire books in order to create a searchable database of millions of volumes is a “quintessentially transformative use,” a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. Siding with a group of universities sued by authors alleging infringement, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the full-text database…

Jun 10, 2014 10:25 PM CDT

Who owns the law? Technology reignites the war over just how public documents should be

These days the smallest and most exclusive piece of real estate in Washington, D.C., is the sliver of common ground that exists between congressional Democrats and Republicans. But during a January hearing before the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee on the scope of copyright protection laws, Democrats and Republicans…

Jun 1, 2014 10:40 AM CDT

Ex-law library chief, accused of offering workers stolen perks in lieu of raises, pleads guilty

A former director of the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, law library has taken a plea in a theft case over stolen perks he is accused of providing to workers, including himself, in lieu of raises. Bruce Piscadlo, 62, pleaded guilty to felony theft by taking and a misdemeanor count of misapplication…

May 28, 2014 9:20 PM CDT

SCOTUS decisions are works in progress; revisions are sometimes made years later, study finds

Recent flubs by Justices Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia resulted in quickly made changes to U.S. Supreme Court opinions. But not all changes to Supreme Court opinions are as fast or as well-publicized. A new study by Harvard law professor Richard Lazarus has found that the Supreme Court sometimes revises…

May 27, 2014 12:51 PM CDT

ABA committee reaffirms proposal to remove ban on academic credit for paid externships

An ABA committee has wrapped up its comprehensive review of the law school accreditation standards after deciding not to make any changes in the last of its pending proposals to amend the standards. The Section of Legal Education and Admission to the Bar’s standards review committee, which met Friday in…

Apr 28, 2014 10:08 PM CDT

Blog offers immigration help to Nigella Lawson | Celeb podcaster fights patent troll

It was reported by The Daily Mail and other news outlets this week that celebrity chef Nigella Lawson was turned away from boarding a Los Angeles-bound flight from London. A U.S. embassy spokeswoman would not tell CNN why Lawson had been stopped. At Lifted Lamp, the law firm Benach Ragland…

Apr 4, 2014 1:30 PM CDT

Legal Ed Section’s council deadlocks over tenure requirement in law school accreditation standards

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar approved a lot of changes in the law school accreditation standards at its meeting last weekend in San Diego. But the meeting may be remembered more for the one proposed change in the standards it…

Mar 17, 2014 10:20 PM CDT

ABA committee throws in the towel on new bar pass standard

After several years and as many false starts, an ABA committee has for the time being given up trying to improve upon the existing bar exam requirements in the law school accreditation standards. The Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar’s standards review committee, which met Friday in…

Feb 9, 2014 4:51 PM CST

ABA legal ed section gets an earful on tenure, other proposals

The governing council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar got an earful of feedback this week on its latest proposed changes to the law school accreditation standards. Much of the feedback came in response to the council’s tentative decision to eliminate the so-called tenure…

Feb 6, 2014 9:40 PM CST