The recent articles listed below provide some valuable advice to law students searching for legal employment:

Colleen Gareau, Jobsearch: Graduating With No Job?, National Jurist, Mar. 2005, at 38. Author discusses strategies for law graduates looking for their first legal position.

Colleen Gareau, Who’s Hiring on Campus This Fall?, National Jurist, Sep. 2005, at 16. Article discusses on-campus interviews, how to get ready for them and “what counts with employers.”

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Older Students Have Special Considerations in Job Seeking, Student Lawyer, Oct. 2005, at 5. Article discusses factors that older law students should consider during law school to be successful in the legal job hunt.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Small Firms Seek Qualities Beyond Grades, Student Lawyer, Feb. 2005, at 5. Author points out that grades are a secondary focus to small firms searching for new associates; their primary emphasis tends to be finding associates exhibiting “real-life practice skills.” She states that showing relevant experience to the firm’s practice areas, even if it is non-legal experience, can be crucial. Information is also given to help prospective job candidates prepare for the small firm interview.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Why Not Just Delegate Your Job Search?, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2005, at 6. Article examines the merits of hiring a legal employment search company for finding your first legal position. The author discusses costs involved, quality of the work and success rate of these ventures.

Donna Gerson, Jobs: Wondering About Nonlegal Careers? Use the Resources Available to You, Student Lawyer, Apr. 2005, at 5. Author discusses steps to take if you are open to using your law degree in a non-traditional field.

Nicole Graham, Stand Out From the Crowd, National Jurist, Sep. 2005, at 18. Hiring partner’s advice for legal job interviewing.

Jonathan S. Greene, Coping: Graduating? No Job Yet? Your Options are Plentiful, Student Lawyer, Apr. 2005, at 16. General advice in finding your first job out of law school. David C. James, Jobs: Public Agencies Seek Lawyers Committed To Their Missions, Student Lawyer, Mar. 2005, at 5. Former hiring attorney discusses the broad range of job opportunities for law graduates within all levels of government and the advantages of government employment.

Amy Lawson, Jobsearch: Make the Most of Your Summer, National Jurist, Mar. 2005, at 34. Author discusses importance of summer legal experience in finding permanent employment after law school.

Rebecca Luczycki, They’re Doing What With Their J.D.?, National Jurist, Sep. 2005, at 22. Article discusses non-traditional career options that law graduates have taken, from the Secret Service to bull-raising.

Deborah Schneider, A Working Alternative, Student Lawyer, May 2005, at 31. Author discusses the advantages and disadvantages of working as a contract lawyer, the places to hunt for such work and the types of work generally performed in this position.

Lisa Stansky, Hot Practice: Retirement Plans Need Lawyers to Make Them Work, Student Lawyer, Oct. 2005, at 7. Article highlights the demand for attorneys who specialize in law governing pensions and retirement plans, particularly those who have a full understanding of ERISA. The author also discusses good starting jobs in this career path.

Patricia White, Explain Your Behavior, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2005, at 18. Article discusses the concept of “behavioral interviewing” and ways to prepare for it.

Samford offers free virus protection for PCs (McAfee) and Macs (Virex). If your subscription to virus protection has run out and you’d like the free software – please see Grace Simms, Computer Services Librarian, 251-A Beeson Law Library or glsimms@samford.edu.

Bibliography of Alabama Law Books

http://www.aallnet.org/chapter/llaa/biblio.html

As an aid to its members and others in the legal community, the Law Libraries Association of Alabama has compiled a bibliography of books on Alabama law. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather a good starting point for finding Alabama law books. The ongoing project is a work in progress, with additional items added as submitted. Cumberland Law Library collects many books on the list. Search the online library catalog for location and call number.

Harry A. Blackmun Papers at the Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/blackmun

Serving on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1970 to 1999, Justice Blackmun issued the landmark opinion in Roe v. Wade and participated in many high profile controversies like the Pentagon Papers and Watergate cases. Donated to the Library of Congress, his papers were opened to the public in 2004. One of the largest federal judicial collections, the Blackmun Papers exceed half a million items. Anticipating high research demand, the Library of Congress digitized selected material from the Blackmun collection. Some digitized material is available only at work stations in the Library of Congress, but other items are free on the Internet. Notably, the Web-based materials include 38 hours of oral history video interviews and associated transcript. The web site also includes a finding aid for the collection and a selected bibliography of biographical works about Justice Blackmun.

Federal Judges Biographical Database

http://air.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj

The Federal Judicial Center provides official biographies of all federal judges who have served on the U.S. District Courts, U.S. Circuit Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the Supreme Court since 1789. Entries cover the judges’ nomination, confirmation, service record, a brief summary of educational and professional background, and some limited personal data. Users may search by name or scan the list alphabetically. Alternatively, a specialized interface allows users to create customized lists of judges based on multiple categories, including nominating president, type of court, dates of service, and demographic groups. Other features include general information about federal judgeships and milestones of judicial service. For instance, the Eighth Circuit’s Joseph W. Woodrough was the oldest federal judge at 104. The youngest judge was Thomas Jefferson Boynton, who was 25 when appointed by Abraham Lincoln.

Index to Federal Judge Biographies Found in the West Reporters

www.lb5.uscourts.gov/judgebio

As a tribute or memoriam, West Publishing Company includes biographical information on many federal judges in selected print volumes of the Federal Reporter, Federal Supplement, Federal Rules Decisions, and Supreme Court Reporter. For quick citations to these biographies, visit the web page of the Library System for the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. Compiled by Barbara Fritschel, Beaumont Satellite Librarian, the index cites the print reporter, indicates how many pages the biography covers, and whether it includes photographs. Additionally, each entry links to the judge’s official biography provided by the Federal Judicial Center in the database described on the previous page.

Government reports about topics from terrorism to Social Security are now available to the public thanks to a project operated by the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington, D.C. The site www.opencrs.com links existing collections of nearly 8,000 reports from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and centrally indexes them so visitors can find reports containing specific terms or phrases.

The Congressional Research Service is a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. A project of the Center for Democracy & Technology now provides citizens access to CRS Reports that are already in the public domain.

CRS Reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report. A number of libraries and non-profit organizations have sought to collect as many of the released reports as possible and now, as a result of this project, CRS is a centralized utility that brings together these collections.

[For illustrations in this article, see http://lawlib.samford.edu/cio/ciojan06.pdf.]

Backing up documents, pictures, songs, etc. is very important. If and when a laptop “dies” it can often be a terrible surprise and it is best to be as prepared as possible. There are many different types of media for backing up data: floppies, CD-ROMs, USB drives, Zip drives, as well as printed copies.

For users of Windows XP Professional, there is a utility called Windows Backup. This is also available in the Home version of XP, but the Ntbackup.msi file must first be installed from the Windows XP Home CD that came with the computer.

The following instructions were created using Windows XP Professional.

To start the Windows Backup utility, click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and choose Backup. A Backup or Restore Wizard will appear. Then click Next. A choice of Back up files and settings or Restore files and settings is available. Choose to back up files and settings and click the next button.

A dialog box will appear. This box allows you to choose what to back up.

Click the Next button after you have decided what to back up.

You will also need to create a name for the backup.

You will then need to decide where to backup the items. You could choose to send the items to a USB drive, a zip drive, or to a partition of the hard drive. Windows Backup cannot burn files to a CD-ROM.

At this point, you could select Finish to end the setup or choose Advanced for more options. After each choice is made, click the Next button.

If Advanced is selected, the type of backup may be chosen: normal, daily, etc.

It is necessary to choose the location where the backup will be stored.

A USB or other external hard drive would be acceptable.

Data verification may also be selected within the Advanced options.

A helpful option is the schedule. The backup can be set to run monthly, daily, weekly, or at different intervals such as at Startup.

Select what is most convenient, choose OK, and then Finish.

For help with this or other computer issues, see Grace Simms, Computer Services Librarian, glsimms@samford.edu, or ext. 2687.

Law students looking for work close to their studies should consider the Law Library. The Law Library has positions available at the Circulation Desk. Contact Ed Craig at 726-2714 or elcraig@samford.edu for further information.

Law students .. listen up ... if you have not read our Law Library Policies regarding food and drink would you consider reading Dear Abby instead? The title of her column on page 4E of the Birmingham News, April 28, 2005 was: Librarian Writes the Book on Etiquette for Patrons. A librarian from Kansas outlined a plea for library etiquette and the fourth item listed was: “Do not bring food or drink to the library. A spilled drink can ruin books in an instant. Even if the book dries out, it will develop mold, which spreads to other books.”

Jeanne Phillips, author of Dear Abby, saw merit in the librarian’s comments and so do the librarians of Beeson Law Library.

Source: Librarian Writes the Book on Etiquette for Patrons, Birmingham News (April 28, 2005).

Legal Times’ writer Tony Mauro, in that publication’s May 25, 2005 issue (see www.law.com) discusses a comment by author and scholar Laurence Tribe that has shocked legal academia and the publishing world. Mr. Tribe announced, in a letter to Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, that he does not intend to pursue writing volume two of his famous work American Constitutional Law, 3rd edition. Tribe’s treatise, first published in 1978, has been acclaimed as one of the leading authorities on constitutional doctrine and is cited in more than 60 Supreme Court decisions. He revised it in 1988 and again in 1999 when the first volume of the third edition was published.

Tribe stated that it was not his health or his lack of interest that influenced his decision, but rather he made his decision because as he told Breyer: “conflict over basic constitutional premises is today at a fever pitch, moving rapidly in unpredictable directions.”

Tribe’s publisher is hopeful that Tribe will change his mind. “Foundation Press will wait,” said publisher Steve Errick. Two books that are considered competitors to Tribe’s Constitutional Law are Erwin Chemerinsky’s Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies and Treatise on Constitutional Law: Substance and Procedure by Ronald Rotunda and John Nowak.

The Law Library has all three editions of Tribe’s American Constitutional Law.

Tribe, American Constitutional Law, [1st ed.] - KF4550/.T785

Tribe, American Constitutional Law, 2nd ed. - KF4550/.T785/1988

Tribe, American Constitutional Law, 3rd ed., Volume 1 - KF4550/.T785/2000/v.1/Reference

Source: Laurence Tribe’s Big Surprise, Posted Online at www.law.com (June 2, 2005).

The CHECK IT OUT is published three times a semester. Your opinion is important to us! Send your ideas and/or comments to: Becky Hutto via e-mail at rmhutto@samford.edu. We welcome new ideas!