ZiefBrief

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Life and Legacy

For many women attorneys of my generation, the news of Justice Ginsburg's death has hit particularly hard. I entered law school in 1994 inspired by Justice Ginsburg's commitment to gender equality and social justice.  HeinOnline recently posted a wonderful summary of Justice Ginsburg's legacy that is worth taking some time to explore. The post closes with an oft-cited quote from this great jurist: "Fight for the things that you care about. But do it in a way that will lead others to join you."

ABA Partners with Paladin to Help Lawyers Find Pro Bono Disaster Relief Opportunities Online

The American Bar Association’s Disaster Legal Services Program and Paladin have created an online portal enabling lawyers to find pro bono opportunities to help people affected by the coronavirus pandemic and other natural disasters.

Resources to Stay Happy and Healthy While Practicing Law

A new website, Happy! Effective Lawyer, dedicated to helping attorneys take "affirmative steps to enhance your engagement, productivity, competency, and happiness," is launching on August 1 (but it's got plenty of great content now).  Lots of great material on exercise, mindfulness, and emotion management for lawyers.  

Prof. Magee Authors Mindfulness Article in ABA Journal

USF Law Professor Rhonda Magee has an article in the January 2016 issue of the ABA Journal titled Life Experience And Cognitive Science Deepen The Case For Mindfulness In The Law (Click here to open a copy of the full article in a new browser window).

Professor Magee has been writing and teaching about mindfulness, also referred to as mindfulness meditation, and how it intersects with the teaching of law for many years. This article expands on those themes to lay out how "[m]indfulness is heralding a new understanding of lawyering itself...". Students and scholars interested in her work on this topic should check out her selected publications online at:  http://ssrn.com/author=624519; at  http://works.bepress.com/rhonda_magee/; and at https://usfca.academia.edu/RhondaMagee .

Prof. Freiwald Blogs CalECPA

California recently enacted the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA) (Link to full bill text ), a sweeping improvement on federal protections of citizen's electronic information. Touted by one pundit as "the country's best-ever online privacy law," USF Law Professor Susan Freiwald acted as an issue expert for the bill's authors. Now she has posted an informative piece on the new law to the well-regarded law blog Concurring Opinions. Titled How CalECPA Improves on its Federal Namesake (Link to full post,) her article cogently and concisely outlines this landmark legislation.

Judge Disqualified Over Facebook Friend Request

The Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports that a Florida judge has been disqualified because she sent a "friend" request on Facebook to a party in a divorce case.  According to the story, the judge sent a friend request on Facebook to the wife before a final judgment was entered in the divorce proceeding. The wife did not respond to the judge's Facebook request, and the wife's attorney alleged that the judge subsequently retaliated against her in the final judgment.  An appellate court ruled that the judge was disqualified from the case, stating that the Facebook request “placed the litigant between the proverbial rock and a hard place: either engage in improper ex parte communications with the judge presiding over the case or risk offending the judge by not accepting the ‘friend’ request."  Attorneys, especially litigators and judicial officials, have to tread carefully on social media, which is why the ABA has published tips on navigating social media for attorneys -- worth checking out.

Ninth Circuit Begins Live Streaming Video of Oral Arguments

The Ninth Circuit announced that it will provide live video streaming of en banc cases scheduled for oral arguments December 9-11, 2013, in the James R. Browning U.S. Courthouse in San Francisco. You can access live videos on the Ninth Circuit website here. 

Oral Argument Now Available in SCOTUS Same-Sex Marriage Case

If you're interested in listening to today's SCOTUS oral argument in Hollingsworth v. Perry, it's now available on this page on the SCOTUS website. 

Civility and the Legal Profession

The Wall Street Journal has a thought-provoking article this week about efforts to increase polite interactions within the legal profession.  The New York Inn of Court recently organized a "Civility Seder," featuring judges belting out lyrics that call for more restrained attorney behavior.  Judge Richard Sullivan sang the following lyrics to the tune of "If I Were A Rich Man": 

If lawyers were more civil

Daidle deedle daidle daidle daidle deedle daidle dum

They'd treat their breth-er-en with more respect

Wouldn't always yell, 'object.'

Some of the attorneys interviewed for the story blamed the rise in rude behavior among lawyers to the lack of face-to-face interactions, which seems to definitely contribute to less civil behavior.  It's a lot harder to be impolite to opposing counsel when you've spent some time with them.  

Former USF Law Dean David Ratner on Las Vegas

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll has been writing about Oakland's crime woes, and our former dean, David Ratner, wrote an interesting response to one of Carroll's columns, discussing past alliances between organized crime and law enforcement in Las Vegas to control crime.  Here is an excerpt from Dean Ratner's response -- you can read the entire column here:

As a former Dean of USF Law School, I was intrigued by your 'modest proposal' for reform of Oakland law enforcement. Are you aware that a scheme very similar to the one you propose, in which law enforcement duties would be shared by the city and the leaders of organized crime, was developed and operated successfully for many years in the city of Las Vegas? This occurred during the period when most of the large casinos were run by the 'Jewish Mafia' and before they were taken over by large publicly-held corporations (our new form of 'organized crime').